3 Mavs Positives; How Many Are Sustainable Through The End Of The Season? | K&C Masterpiece

3 Mavs Positives; How Many Are Sustainable Through The End Of The Season? | K&C Masterpiece

I was reading an article that said three positives for the new look Mavericks and that’s all fine and well but I what I really wanted to talk about was how many of these things do you think are really sustainable in the back half of the regular season for

Example number one is not sustainable to me and I don’t think it’s debatable but I want to see how well you guys think that they could do with this all right in the six-game win streak the Mavericks are second in the league in net rating

So in terms of how much better is your offensive rating than your defensive rating their offensive rating is sixth in the league their defensive rating is first in the league I’m not saying since the trade in the last six games cap Le three games before the trade but

Actually yes since the trade as well and I’m I’m not saying they can’t beat a good defensive team but I do feel like it is unreasonable to expect them to finish out the second half of the season with having legitimately the best defensive team in the NBA I think it is

As long as we can play San Antonio Washington New York with four of their five starters out Brooklyn who was sitting out their players to trade them possibly and Philadelphia who did not have Joel embiid so if we can get that schedule for most of the rest of the

Season we can be the best what hell yeah hey they took advantage of the situation uh I will well let’s ask this then let’s kind of turn this corner what uh what ranking do you think is a good area that you think they can finish at top eight and they need to be

To be uh I don’t I don’t I’m still I’m still keeping myself away from the contender word like if they get in the playoffs they are in contention real contenders are different things but but if they want to be really good in the playoffs where does their defensive

Rating need to be I think it needs to be top eight and we’re going to get to another point in a minute that has to happen for that to be the case but I think top eight is possible I think it’s I was going to say top 10 so I’m right

There with you okay and you said possible I think that’s possible to continue they have they have better defensive players for one yeah and they are right now very willing to give that effort on that end and to your point the West is wide open but yet you’re not

Going to have an easy first round match up for sure so you may well play you’ll probably be the underdog in the first round but not a if it’s Denver you’ll be a major underdog if it’s anybody else you’ll be a slight Underdog and I will say I think offensive rating is very

Achievable sixth I absolutely if you tell me this is one of the six best offensive teams in the NBA cosign I can see that all right can the new guys keep up their pace and I wanted to focus in specifically on PJ Washington something of note about PJ

Washington in his first three games as a Maverick he’s had up and down offensive production I feel like we would agree on that however the Mavericks are a plus 17 in his first three games and that’s in large part because of his defense obviously a lot of people talked about

The defensive work on wemi and we can get into gaffer in just a second do you think let’s say the defense of Washington and the rebounding of Gafford are sustainable yes uh although I do feel like gafford’s rebounding has been I’m not saying he’s got to get

17 he’s averaging 12 okay I think he can so I think that’s the the if you were going to put a number on it can he average 12 rebounds a game and I would say I think so but I would say closer to 10 yeah I think that would be good

That’s he averaged eight this year for Washington so can he up it to 10 that’s 10 less times Luka has to jump that’s a good point he doesn’t well he like 10 less times L has to wait for the ball his hands uh but yeah like I think that is sustainable PJ

Washington um we discussed that pretty a lot yesterday about like he’s physical he had you can’t just put your shoulder in his chest and and go by him or through him he has a little more of that to it I think he can only get better

From where he is right now defensively I think he can sustain what he’s doing he’s playing good defense he needs to be better offensively but I don’t know if that’s part of your question yet or not let ask you this though let’s say the deal has to be made

The way I’ve constructed it he will remain this Hit or Miss offensively but defensively he will stay topnotch would you not prefer that over a mediocre defensive player who’s clicking offensively for this you’re asking me I want neither so you’re I’m answering your question by saying we’re not the

Mavericks aren’t good enough unless he turns into a better offens it’s only three games so I’m going off of these threes averaging 8.7 points he has to average over 12 points a game for you okay on I’ll take a step back and say he needs to be shooting 45% from the field

Well he’s going to get enough shots and it will be if he’s averaging 45% from the field he will average over 12 points AB cuz that’s not a big number what I’m worried about is he’ll get to 12 points on consistently like 11 shots you know

What I’m saying but but I I get I I get where you’re coming we call that the anine walker in it yeah and scored 20 you took 20 shots yeah don’t be so proud of that and then the last one and this one is going to be the most important

One can the Dallas Mavericks sustain their health right now because I realized like you still had an issue with exom but we talked about it kleba missed the first half of the Season Derek Lively just came back Kyrie has been out partially I know one of those

Injuries was because of his own teammate but you’ve seen this team Miss players again and again and again and now this feels like the closest they’ve been to a healthy team so they have to or they’ll lose I think a lot of the playoff matchups in the Western Conference first

Round will be based off of Health I mean I’m not saying you hope for this cuz then Christian McCaffrey’s mom will throw a fit or whatever but I mean it would be beneficial if you match up with the Clippers and they’re dealing with Paul George being out and James

Harden having an issue right okay just like with they’re playing the Mavericks if that’s the matchup and they’re like guess what Kyrie’s a question mark and uh Derek Lively Jr is a question mark they or even Maxi kba in a way you can get by with maxi being out but you want

Your team completely healthy and so when I look at these matchups even Denver Denver deals with a lot of injuries Michael Porter Jr’s not usually a healthy guy uh Murray’s not usually a healthy guy so like you could face Denver and go this is awesome we’re not facing the championship Denver Nuggets

They have two injuries they’re dealing with in fact I know I go back to times where most people weren’t alive 1988 the Mavericks made the Western Conference finals for the first time ever in their history one of the major reasons they did that was because Denver was hurt

Denver didn’t have their they had a better record they were the two seed the M were the seed but they got to play a team that wasn’t healthy come playoff time and the Mavs took advantage of it and then pushed the Lakers to seven games health is going to mean so much

Not only to the Mavs but to all the teams in the Western Conference yeah I don’t know I I got lots of fears about the health of this thing and I I don’t know the health history of PJ or Gafford either so I don’t know how that mixes in

With it but uh I mean Kyrie missing from the team big scare that’s my biggest scare is that we can’t make a run because something happens to him and the other person is cuz I just want to take these two breakout uh scenarios is Luca and Kyrie have played together 28 of the

Team’s 55 games so almost exactly half when they do play together 18 and 10 Derek Lively has played in only 37 games when he does Play The Mavericks are 23 and 14 now I realize some of this is matchup dependent and everything like that but it’s not a hard conclusion to

Draw that this is a quality basketball team when Lively’s there or when Luca and Kyrie are together and if you get that down the stretch I really do think you can see your push to the five SE and right now recently a guy who gets hurt

All the time when he gets to play is Josh Green Josh Green in this month of February and it looks like seven gam is averaging 13.4 points on 48.8% shooting from the three-point line I’m not even talking about from the field crazy right and he’s averaging almost

Three assists and four and a half rebounds that’s who we have to have and he has to be healthy to do this cuz he’s only played in I think 40 or 42 games this year I had to click on game log over there but I think he’s in at 42

Games this year so Health from yes Kyrie number one well Luca number one Kyrie number two but all these role players need to be healthy too come playoff time and that they’ve jailed over these last 20 plus games is your is y’s goal then we could talk about this more next week

I’m sure is your goal number five seed that you think is achievable or do you look at the Gap and say hey it’s only four games it’s only five games we can make a run at three four right now you know the attainable goal is 65 in that

Range like that’s the attainable one I would rather not be a 78 seed have to play in the yeah but I I I would rather I would prefer to be in that range but then once I get there now let reset now let’s go hey can we do we can we make a

Push here at the end of the year to get this are other teams going to start resting players where we can make something really good happen and Peak you know we always say Peak at the right time and at the end of the season here get on a roll and have some confidence

And and something established 5 through 10’s jumbled up you can if you win uh next Thursday against the Phoenix Suns you’re the five seed possibly if you know cuz you beat them they’re a game up on you and the Pelicans are a game up on you the issue is the nuggets are the

Four seed right now they only have 19 losses you have 23 so in in 25 to 30 games for all these teams left you have to make up four to five games on the defending champs that gets very difficult to do so I look at five and

Six you want to be in the real playoffs and then you just hope that the matchup is favorable in that first round and when you say favorable I’m assuming okay C or Min or OKC are the Clippers but you would take Minnesota all ahead of Denver yes Denver is the one if they’re

Completely healthy I just don’t think you can beat sure but maybe I’m wrong about that I hope I’m wrong about that the other thing too is if Phoenix were to jump up there I don’t mind taking on Phoenix they’re a very good team they could beat us very easily but I’ve seen

Devin chicken head Booker play in the playoffs against us and he wilts away so I just look at this and go all right the Clippers you’ve taken them to seven games two different times with a a younger Luca and a worse team than what Luca has right now and then I’ve seen

Kawai beat us then go I can’t play anymore season’s over so like maybe you get the Clippers in the second round if you get a favorable match up in the first round then ka’s like dude I had to play six games in a row my body’s Done

Now that the Mavs had added to their roster and look like an improved team, can they sustain this success through the end of the regular season? K&C look at three recent trends to see if can stick and bring playoff success to Dallas.

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