04-04-2024, 02:49 AM
(04-03-2024, 10:43 PM)Scott41theMavs Wrote: I firmly believe that neither of those teams has a prayer of winning rings this year. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. They remind me of the 2011 Thunder in terms of their development. They will deserve more credit next year if they continue to progress. That's the very definition of "pretenders." To me, the true contenders this year are the Nuggets, the Celtics, and maybe the Clippers. If you want a fourth - your Dallas Mavericks. I may be a homer, but I believe that Dallas rings is a far greater probability than OKC rings or Minnesota rings.
I‘m with you on most of your points, but I would add the Bucks before the Clippers and the Mavs. They need to stay healthy of course, but they have the championship experience in their core and a hungry and clutch killer in Lillard. Wouldn’t surprise me if they are able to knock out the Celtics in a playoff series.
I also fear that we are overrating our Mavs a little bit - but hope to be wrong - because we‘re lacking good two way players. Our guys are either great on offense or great on defense and I hope that won‘t get exposed in a playoff series. PJ has the potential to be good on both sides, Green does as well and Lively maybe in a year or two, but nobody proved it consistently this year.