Mavs 127, Timberwolves 122

[Scott41theMavs]

I'm sorry to say that I think there's a lot to this. When the guys initially were diagnosed, I thought the situation was way under blown, as if they might be a little under the weather for a few days, but should be good to go in short order. Cuban said afterwards that this disease is not like a cold, where when it's over, it's over -- the effects linger, and they're still dealing with that. And WCS' feeling that the guys were rushed back, relative to how sick they had been, was disturbing, if it was accurately reported.  The Mavs have lost 41 player-games to the virus/protocol, more than any other team. Organizations, or people, for that matter, can only withstand so many things going wrong at the same time, and I would be surprised if the team hadn't buckled to an extent under the weight of all these adverse events. 


I also think the Mavs view a failure to make the playoffs this season as a disaster. Hence, their going to Defcon 1 in the middle of the season, which has its own risks. Cuban was called in to address the team before one of the last games and urge them not to "fracture," lending credence to your suspicion that this may be happening. 

I really hope that they can pull something out of this campaign, and that it won't be just a lost season. But if they do come through stronger, I don't think it will necessarily be as a result of the W-L record. I am still hoping for the best, but don't really maintain much in the way of expectations. I think they may just have run into a perfect storm this time.

I just wonder who our Gobert was. Was it JRich? Maxi? DFS? Brunson? Any of those guys are expendable, from a trade standpoint, although I'd hate to see any of them go. If it can help team chemistry, that could be a good thing.

[Halfnir]

A SARS-COV2 infection does not mean necessarily mean that you have breached some guideline. Esp. if you are constantly in public places like arenas, hotels, airports, limos, etc. like NBA-players have to do. So noone should be blamed unless they have massively breached the guidelines.

[michaeltex]

I'm sorry to say that I think there's a lot to this. When the guys initially were diagnosed, I thought the situation was way under blown, as if they might be a little under the weather for a few days, but should be good to go in short order. Cuban said afterwards that this disease is not like a cold, where when it's over, it's over -- the effects linger, and they're still dealing with that. And WCS' feeling that the guys were rushed back, relative to how sick they had been, was disturbing, if it was accurately reported.  The Mavs have lost 41 player-games to the virus/protocol, more than any other team. Organizations, or people, for that matter, can only withstand so many things going wrong at the same time, and I would be surprised if the team hadn't buckled to an extent under the weight of all these adverse events. 

Add to it the short off season, short training camp, playing more games than most and the associated massive travel schedule and the Mavs are where they are today. No doubt there are a few games they might have eked out, but at least they are only a few games out of the playoffs. The home stand will help everybody get centered and allow for extra practice to iron out the kinks, basically restarting their season.


I am still excited about the potential for this team. I do have concerns about the defensive focus. It is definitely important as it keeps them in games when the offense isn't running well, but too often it seems like nothing works on either end of the court. Now that all the rotation players are back, I'm hopeful we will see this group show it's true colors. KP is finding a groove, THJ is looking like a 6th man candidate, there are finally enough bodies for a decent frontcourt group, and Luka's gonna Luka.  It would be great to finish the season on a hot streak.

[KillerLeft]

A SARS-COV2 infection does not mean necessarily mean that you have breached some guideline. Esp. if you are constantly in public places like arenas, hotels, airports, limos, etc. like NBA-players have to do. So noone should be blamed unless they have massively breached the guidelines.

I mean, it's possible that someone did something stupid, but yeah, I agree, mostly. 

I'm just saying that it was clearly important for the team to avoid the situation we just lived through - THEY told us that a lot before the season started. So, blame or no blame, fault or no fault, the situation WAS a failure.

[HanspardShowerVoice]

WCS losing time i believe has to do with: 1) not being a reliable roll man 2) we had been playing like a dumb team and he wasn’t helping in that regard 

When KP is on the floor he really needs to the 5 and set the pick for the PnR and the PnP.   He's just a different guy when he's active in the play creation and not just camping out behind the 3 point line standing around waiting for a catch and shoot 3.    KP either needs to be the only center with 4 smalls or play with Maxi, who is the only other big on our roster who can shoot 3s and create floor spacing.    That's why I think KP and Collins could be a nice tandem, because Collins can catch and shoot 3s and has a nice back to the basket low post game which KP really hasn't developed. 

Powell and WCs, as 1 dimensional rim runners who can't shoot 3s, are poor fits with KP on the floor.  KP really didn't blossom last year until Powell's injury.   So with KP playing ~30 mp, that's going to leave 18 minutes to split between all other 5s.  So there isn't going to be much playing time for the 2nd best rim running 5 on the team.

[ItsGoTime]

I don’t think there’s any question “the corner” is far in front of them. There’s a ton of ground to cover before even reaching it, let alone turning it. I haven’t gotten the sense that anyone is arguing to the contrary, but maybe I missed some posts. 

This is a young team that was already faltering to start the season. For whatever reason (we all have our theories) they were less prepared than some teams to start the season after an unusually small amount of preparation time (though they weren’t the only team who struggled to start the season). There were issues with identity, conditioning, health, etc. 

Just as things were starting to look a little better, they lost more than half of their rotation players for almost a month. Frankly, there are unavoidable consequences to this - bigger consequences than simply playing games without those guys (although that sucked). They missed a month’s worth of conditioning, coaching, practice (what little there was), gelling on the floor, etc. 

It’s incredible to me that anyone believed the team would instantly play well after dropping those guys back into the mix, actually. The second the Covid news hit, my first thought was “well, there goes this season.”  I remember being really angry that the organization allowed such a collosal mistake to take place, and feeling surprised that others weren’t similarly upset. Maybe that was a slight overreaction, but I’d guess it’s going to take about a month to make up for all that the team missed out on while their guys were stuck in hotel rooms...for like a month. THAT is the problem. THOSE are the consequences. 

There’s really no way to cut corners at the top level of anything competitive. I believe the Mavs will figure this out over the course of the next month, but they’ll likely lose quite a few more games we don’t think they should in the meantime. Maybe there’s still a chance to make the playoffs when the smoke clears, or maybe not. Maybe it won’t even matter because the best teams are so far ahead of them by that point. Not sure. Regardless, this is the journey we’re on as fans now, so we’d all better get used to it because complaining about it isn’t going to change anything. 

Personally, I plan to enjoy every win I can get. This will almost certainly not be a banner season for our Mavericks, but it is what it is.

THIS reflects my thoughts perfectly! Very well done KL!

[ItsGoTime]

To add to the discussion. I am at the end of having COVID myself. I was diagnosed when going to the hospital for a different issue 2 weeks ago. 3 weeks ago on Monday I was running a fever, so I immediately scheduled a COVID test. Three days later I got the results back as negative. So the issue must have been my foot that had an infected wound (also after an MRI that showed a ruptured tendon in my foot...WTF!). Fast forward another week and I'm admitted to the hospital. When I got to the hospital I told them I tested negative for COVID. They ran a test anyway. It came back positive. 

So I was in the hospital with 3 issues, 2 foot things and COVID. At the worst part of it, I was extremely weak (like seriously, getting out of bed to go to the bathroom had me fully out of breath), running fevers constantly and had shortness of breath. The doctors said I had a very mild case of COVID cause most patients needed to be on oxygen just to continue getting the oxygen they needed to live. My oxygen levels were always in the 95-98% range. 

Long story short, to this day, I am still feeling the shortness of breath. The more I do deep breathing and hard coughing exercises, the better day I have, and each day gets better. I can't imagine having to be in tip top shape and compete at the highest of levels through this. Heck, I can't imagine going to play at the local hang out...

[KillerLeft]

Thanks for that perspective, @"ItsGoTime"!

[mtrot]

To add to the discussion. I am at the end of having COVID myself. I was diagnosed when going to the hospital for a different issue 2 weeks ago. 3 weeks ago on Monday I was running a fever, so I immediately scheduled a COVID test. Three days later I got the results back as negative. So the issue must have been my foot that had an infected wound (also after an MRI that showed a ruptured tendon in my foot...WTF!). Fast forward another week and I'm admitted to the hospital. When I got to the hospital I told them I tested negative for COVID. They ran a test anyway. It came back positive. 

So I was in the hospital with 3 issues, 2 foot things and COVID. At the worst part of it, I was extremely weak (like seriously, getting out of bed to go to the bathroom had me fully out of breath), running fevers constantly and had shortness of breath. The doctors said I had a very mild case of COVID cause most patients needed to be on oxygen just to continue getting the oxygen they needed to live. My oxygen levels were always in the 95-98% range. 

Long story short, to this day, I am still feeling the shortness of breath. The more I do deep breathing and hard coughing exercises, the better day I have, and each day gets better. I can't imagine having to be in tip top shape and compete at the highest of levels through this. Heck, I can't imagine going to play at the local hang out...

Glad you are doing better now!  Now, for that foot!

[Dahlsim]

I think the whole COVID experience has been underreported. 


On one of the pods (maybe MMB?), they were talking about an in-depth interview one of the media outlets had with WCS about it. He got into how nobody realizes how very sick the players were, and then how quickly they were returned to play, and how the games just kept coming relentlessly, so that there was never a chance for anyone to catch his breath. It was described as a thoroughly miserable experience for all concerned. 

It would also be instructive to know how they caught the disease, although we may never learn that. I'm not saying it was anyone's fault, but they have kept it very quiet, and tbh, a certain laxity about the rules has been known to occur in the NBA context. 

At any rate, different individuals suffer long-term effects of one sort or another, and we don't know to what extent that is going on. It seems that the Mavs and the league are eager to brush the virus off and just move on, but I agree that it was a much bigger impact event than they want to admit.

No doubt its not being talked about much by league and league Media in comparision to the effect its having on different teams in the league and therefore on the season. 

Mavs especially are having a different season than they would have if it were just based on the current roster talent.  Arguably it's been devastating to their season standing though far.   
If course its understandable that the league and Media doesn't want to talk it up after all they made their decision to play through it this way and there's not a lot they can do about it short of drastic season altering measures. 

The post Covid-19 effects, being different from person to person, is a story that only leaks out when reporters and ask some players or coaches that choose to talk about it are willing to really answer. 

Some players aren't talking about it but former Mav Seth Curry was really on fire having career best season before getting the virus. 
Now he explains the tough recovery process he's still in as a player. 

Curry doesn't look the same way he did before catching COVID. Perhaps, the strong aftereffects of the virus have something to do with that.

“It’s been tough,” Curry admitted on Tuesday following practice. “[I've had] little nagging injuries here and there, I’ve been banged up a little bit. Some of the big remnants are also just trying to get my energy all the way back. Some days I feel good; some days, I’m just sluggish, and it’s like I got to take a nap all day, so it’s weird, but I’m grateful to be able to get up and get on the court every day and play.”

[ItsGoTime]

Glad you are doing better now!  Now, for that foot!

Ya, I have a pic like to give myself IV's daily to clear up the infection that got into the bone. Once that is cleared up and the wound is healed we'll talk about the ruptured tendon. Preferred method is to leave it alone and get an ankle brace to support the ankle since I can still push back with the foot, worst case is surgery to attach it to another tendon.