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

[KillerLeft]

I think it is fair.  Although , I am not a fan of the other guy Lowe had on.   

I think the Mavs are better than last year.   I am just not sure how much better.  Time will tell.  I am confident they are much better positioned moving forward though.  Again, time will tell if that is right as well.   

Regarding the National media on the Mavs, a few points:

1) I will not get upset anytime in the future if they say that getting in business with Kyrie is a bad bet.   He has earned that reputation.  I hope it proves false though.  I share the same fears.   I did enjoy watching him play as a Mavs though.  I just hope we can just worry about basketball though.   

2) When I hear that Luka and Kyrie didn't work, it bothers me.  Last year was DOA....for several reasons.   I think the Mavs have made the correct calculation this offseason of the type of players you need to surround Luka and Kyrie with.   Just because last year was a tire fire, doesn't mean the Mavs should have concluded they are a lost cause playing with each other.   Maybe it doesn't work out.   But I think they are looking to build the roster correctly around Luka and Kyrie.

3) The West is good and really deep.   But I think some are forgetting how good Luka is.   Just last offseason, the take was if you have Luka your team should win close to 50 games.   That didn't happen last year.   But again, I think the Mavs are trying to surround him with the right type of players that will allow Luka to be Luka.

I agree with all of the above. Great stuff. I think #3 is the most crucial.

It kind of flew under the radar because he was still putting up numbers, but for most of last year, especially the 2nd half, Luka just didn’t look like himself to me. There was something missing. I don’t know if he was going through something in his personal life, hated his teammates, just wasn’t having fun or what, but there was an uninspired quality to his season that wasn’t there the previous few years. If the Mavs can fix that, it’s going to make a difference, obviously.