MAVS NEWS: Luka Is Hurt, But is Trudging On | DLive's Mom Passes Away| Maxi OUT

[DanSchwartzgan]

I have to say that the past month might be my most depressing time as a Mavs fan, and I've been on board since the summer of '95. Just seeing the abject fail in losing Brunson for nothing, with no proximate pathways of improvement,  I'm just not seeing much reason to hope.  

Hard to believe it's come to this point just a couple of months after the high of making the WCFs. 

Of course, the probable second-most depressing and bleak-seeming time was probably the few days between Nellie Sr. nuking what was left of the three J's and his miraculously convincing Finley to extend rather than walking. Unfortunately, Nellie is on a beach in Maui and not here.

I would have said Nash leaving for nothing over the three-J's.  Ironically, the Nash episode feels a lot like the Brunson departure in many ways.  Interestingly, the team recovered from that fairly nicely and did so without adding any superstar talent in the years immediately following.  The last year of Nash was also the Walker/Jamison year.   The players outside of Dirk who played 1,000 minutes that season were A. Walker, Finley, Nash, Jamison, Josh Howard and Marquis Daniels.

A bit simplified, but the 1,000 minute club lost Nash, Walker and Jamison and added Terry, Stack, Dampier, Alan Henderson and rookie Devin Harris.  So, Nash for air.  Black hole no-defense Walker for a player with the same reputation at the time who was six inches shorter.  Jamison became Stackhouse (who just turned 30 and only played 27 games the season before being traded) and a rookie named Harris.  We added Dampier through a S&T giving up a future first.  Of course, we won 58 games the next season losing in the second round and made it to the NBA finals winning 60 games the next season.  The only real additions in 05/06 were Diop and Adrian Griffin.  Guys like that are available in free agency every year.

There was nothing herculean about the moves going into 04/05 or 05/06 that can't be replicated by this team.  They turned a 52 win team that lost its second best player for nothing into a finalist in two years.  I have no idea if Christian Wood is Jamison or Terry in this scenario.  Time will tell, but while some expect his game to decline on a better team, I expect improvement.  He'll have more space and the incredible gravity Luka provides.  I think the O will come much easier.  I think Dinwiddie this year will be better than Dinwiddie last year if for no other reasons than familiarity with the system and being further removed from his surgery.  Remember all those easy scores inside and the missed rebounds when Powell was in the game.  Those won't look at all the same in McGee's limited minutes.  The last time we saw Tim Hardaway in a playoff series he averaged 17 points in 37 minutes on 40% shooting from the arc.  So, I reject the concept that we don't have a path to improvement.  We are less than a year away from being able to deal 24, 26, 28 and pick swaps and we have all sorts of contracts with which to match salary.