Conclusions: Final Impressions of 2009/10 Mavs' Season

Conclusions:

For me, this Mavs’ team was a missed opportunity. While the roster was vastly overhauled, nothing changed. However, you can’t deny the affects of changing 2 key members of your rotation at the All Star break (or what should have been 40% of your starting 5). Give me a moment to explain:

For years now, we’ve seen the Mavs roster change piece by piece, and finally we had a change that impacted the core when Josh Howard was sent away, and Dampier should have been relegated to backup duties. Still, the style of play seems to have changed very little, particularly in the playoffs. In the end, this is still an offense heavily reliant on isolation play, mixed in with the two man game of Terry and Dirk.

Again, while the roster has been vastly upgraded, the game plan has not adapted to those players, rather those players are being asked to adapt or change to fill the same old roles those before them filled, the biggest example being Shawn Marion.

We’ve watched as Marion was forced into the Antoine Wright role, ignoring the vast difference in what they bring to the court. Butler was essentially forced into being Josh Howard. Haywood was asked to play exactly as Dampier has, ignoring his radically different areas of talent – such as hands and athletic ability. Roddy was treated like Ager, or any other untrustworthy rookie by a coach with an overreliance on what is known, even if what is known has been known to fail. Meanwhile, regardless of their effectiveness, Terry, Dampier, and other rotation players held strong to their previous roles.

While this formula may have gotten the Mavs to the Finals, it hasn’t worked in the playoffs since, and ignores those many roster changes that have taken place. When the pieces are not the same, you can’t continue to try to force them together in the precisely same manner.

Isolation offenses can work and work very well, but they can also cause a team to become stagnant, which is something we’ve all seen the Mavs do, regardless of personnel. How many times have we watched 4 guys stand still while Dirk is asked to shoulder the complete load on the offensive end. If Dirk doesn’t score, this likely means a contested jumpshot for another player for reasons I’ll elaborate on as I go, not good offense.

To go back to my original point:

Marion was often asked to stand motionless in the corner on offense, by design or action/reward (how many times do you make a cut when the pass continues to not come?), this would seem to sever most of his strongest assets from the game. Essentially, he’s Antoine Wright – not based on talent, but forced by design.

Haywood was ignored almost completely on the low block after an experience that would seem to alert most players that this was a bad idea, a 13 game win streak in which he continually delivered at the rim when given the chance. After that, whether it be by design or habit, players simply stopped looking for him. You can blame this on not starting, and thus not playing with Kidd (though Kidd wasn’t innocent of ignoring him either), but if you go back and watch, you can’t fairly blame him for this, at least not consistently (but what came first, inconsistency in chances or effort?). He continued to be open, or to successfully post up his man. The ball simply stopped coming.

Butler, a better passer and ball handler than Josh Howard, was rarely to never involved in any sort of pick-and-roll play, and often asked to stand in the opposite corner as Marion with little chance to contribute other than a corner 3 (not his biggest strength) or a desperate late shotclock attempt. More than he’s given credit for, Butler can create his own shot, and do so with a fairly strong level of success, but very few players can be asked to do nothing but isolation plays with great result, particularly in the playoffs. If you’re not one of those 10-15 best players in the league, it’s too easy to neutralize (ask Joe Johnson), especially when the you’re not a very strong 3 point shooting team, and the other four players are merely standing and watching.

On the other end of that, it felt like I noticed an unusually high number of stupid plays from a “high BBIQ”, veteran team. For example, Bonner switches on to Butler, the team starts to clear out and just as Butler starts to make a move someone will roll slowly down to the block, essentially cutting off Butler’s (or any other player’s) path to the rim. Combined with poor overall movement, unintelligent movement is a killer.

Jason Terry continues to be handed the ball in the playoffs and is often asked to lead the 4th quarter offense in the two man game with Dirk. Well, we’re going on four years of this failing as soon as the playoffs arrive (maybe it’s only two years, but it feels like four). Perhaps it’s time to go in another direction. Coach’s tend to stick with what has worked, but shouldn’t they also go away from what has not....especially when there are new capable alternatives available?

Given that Butler and Haywood didn’t join the team until the All-Star break, it’s not hard to understand why it may have been difficult to adjust to their styles in time for this year’s playoffs. It’s also not hard to understand why Carlisle may have had a hard time in trusting a rookie after making the mistake of not building that trust in the regular season (other than in game 6, where there is no defense of Roddy not playing until the final minutes of the fourth quarter).

That is a legitimate excuse for Carlisle, he may have not had time to truly implement the new talent as he would with a preseason of practices, just as you could say there wasn’t time for the rest of the players to properly adjust. Of course, that doesn’t explain trying to force Marion to be an Antoine Wright clone, which I wasn’t aware of being desirous for a “contender”.

On top of this, considering my own player grades, it’s hard to win in the playoffs when only 3 or 4 players (Dirk, Butler, Barea and I suppose you could count Najera – and two of those didn’t perform well, they just didn’t play any worse than they did in the regular season) perform at the level they did in the regular season…..and only 1 or 2 exceed their regular season performances (Dirk and Butler). Watch any other team that is currently having success, and you’ll find a plethora of examples showing different players stepping up and creating wins for their team. The stars tend to get the bulk of the credit and the blame, but without these other players stepping up when given the chance there is no success.

Is it Lebron’s fault Mo Williams is failing? Is it Dirk’s fault Terry, Kidd and Marion played so poorly? On the converse side, was it Nash’s skill that scored 26 points for Dragic in the final 14 minutes? Was it Duncan’s skill that hit those shots for Hill against the Mavs, and then his fault when Hill couldn’t duplicate that level of success in the second round?

All in all, I still think this can be a very good team next year, even with only minor roster moves and Carlisle returning, but it’s time to really look at the roster and build a plan of attack around that roster, rather than forcing a plan that was designed with different players in mind.

In the end, I feel that this was probably the most talented roster in the Dirk era, but that talent was bound and confined within an approach not designed to stress its strengths, rather constructed ignorant of them. While I place some of the blame on Carlisle and some on the players (for not throwing passes that were often there), you can’t ignore the constraints of time.

My hope remains high for next season, but things can’t stay the same.

Nothing is Lost - Part 1

This is a 3 part post that I originally posted on Dallasbasketball.com.  The first was created the day before game 5.  The second the day before game 6, and the third came the day after the Spurs ended the Mavs' season.

Part 1

Undying hope in the face of constant disappointment, such is the story of a Mavs fan. 

We sit on the eve of what could be the end of another Mavs season closing in an all too accustomed manner of frustration, much as all but one other team’s fans will endure.   Nothing is over, but like a man pressing into the last sheets he’ll ever rest upon, this is a time of forced intro-and-retrospection, a time to not shun the fading embers of hope, but to embrace them.

Fielding what is undeniably one of their best roster’s in their tortured history of what is neither horseshoes nor hand grenades, a history where close does not matter, the Mavs seemed primed for a playoff run and were paraded as a realistic threat to the “mighty” Lakers.  Our hope was fed, dark corners of our fandom once again found the light, and optimism was passed off as an acceptable perspective.

Now, as the lights flicker and hemorrhage and threaten to blink into the darkness of another season bound to the past, drowned in the pool of failure, that hope has been strangled, beaten, and shat upon…..but has yet to stop breathing.   Doubt and pessimism have siphoned the blood from it, but at this very moment, they’ve yet to quiet it’s faint pulse, to devour every last drop.

Doctor’s have read the statistics in the veins of the past, and given the Mavs a 4% chance of survival.  Still, they’ve failed to pronounce us, the fans, and our hope, as deceased. 

The night has fallen, and the sun been chained, but still that pulse paces on through the dark, at least for this one last night.  Where the shores and depths of tomorrow’s end lead cannot be promised with complete certainty, and in that moment of doubt breathes one last opportunity to grasp fate by the throat and embrace its undefined destination for this journey, and for the Mavs to impose their will with a ferocity that has remained hidden in the receding hopes of their fans.

Nothing is over, as long as that pulse of life pushes on, tomorrow could grant its greatest gift, another tomorrow.

Tomorrow, if this season finds its end, we’ll mourn its loss and begin the process of moving on…..of moving on with more tools for improvement than possessed in any of the recent summers, but until that moment when the heart stops and the veins go dry, nothing is over. 

Hope, no matter how faint, is not dead.  Nothing is over.

Go Mavs.

Did Journalism Die?

Journalism is dead. Stripped of integrity, love and relevance, it has passed behind the curtain of pertinence. Does the blood of its death stain the hands of blogs, the internet or other interactive and immediate media? Does it tattoo the teeth of videogames, cable television and strangled attention spans? No....or yes, but not directly. These are merely symptoms of a larger disease. Greed, and the final destination of all things capitalism.

I'll try to refrain from making this an economic theory debate, but will instead try to sum up that part of my argument in just a few of lines.

In sport, and in just about every facet of life, the correct path lies not at the fringes of the extreme (in either direction), but rather in the gray, compromise laden middle. In my opinion, this holds true in socioeconomics as well. A population can not donate itself entirely to either true communism or true capitalism, as both fail to register the failings of the human ego. While one, communism, fails to properly reward achievement (when all are equal those that exceed expectation become passed over and forgotten, a sin which pride will not allow) while Capitalism does so with vast overcompensation (when currency is both the measure of success and suddenly a prelude to respect, both the id and the ego are fed...whether it be direct, or indirect).

Ok, enough of that. It's not really my point, but I felt it needed to be briefly addressed in order to present what is my argument. Journalism is dead, and greed is who stands over its carcass.

Major newspapers are failing, not because they are not profitable, but because they aren't profitable enough. The largest paper in a significant market is shutting down (or becoming solely an internet venture - which isn't a problem in itself as newspapers must adapt to the modern medium) not because it is losing money, but because it is only making ten million dollars a year. Journalist are being sent home to cut cost, again not because keeping them is putting the business in the red, but because it isn't as profitable as it could be....respect, cultural significance be damned.

Skeleton crews are kept to produce stories only meant for mass consumption. Their time railed away from where their instincts may take them, and herded into short term dollars and/or hits. These assembly line stories haven't the need for deep research or fact checking, thus the true explanation of "downsizing" in this field.

Information is no longer essential, unless it directly contributes to the numbers that can be presented to potential advertisers.

As corporations have taken over the American vistas, the accountability of products (as services are no longer services provided to and for the community, they are simply products) have been dismissed in favor of the bottom line. Who cares about inspiring change or the plight of the righteous when a picture of Paris Hilton or Britney Spears forgetting to wear panties can sell at least twice as many copies, or gather infinite more hits.

Where there was once a divide between true journalism and sensationalism, there is now a bond. After all, when the same company owns both and makes far more money from one, isn't it only an amount of time before that corporation sheds the lesser earner, especially if there is no societal responsibility felt. When the company that owns your paper/station/site is based in New York or any other place, do you think they honestly concern themselves with their effect on your environment? They are only hungry for what's in your wallet/purse, not in the quality of your life, because they know they don't have to be. You don't make them, and they know you won't.

Radio was the first to stab a thorn into the heart of journalism. Television soon pried that wound much wider and dug deeper. Now, the internet has gripped it's heart with hands too young to be calloused and set in motion the apocalypse of the well researched and meticulously planned written word. Even as I sit here typing this, I am a culprit. Speed and entertainment have trumped importance and accuracy.

Given where our attentions are thrown, we the consumer are as much to blame as anyone. When everything is a business, and every business is alive merely to earn money, everything is for sale and all is measured in the currency collected. Corporations are ruled by men and women who sold their morality to be where they are (not every one, but there are too many examples to deny this statement in its entirety), by those who view corruption not as a weakness but as a line in the standard rules. So, how can we expect the deities they control to be any different.

Again, when only money matters, it goes without saying that nothing else does.

As you peruse sites designed for immediate attraction by minimal staffs without the time or support to do their jobs accurately (thoroughly) remember why that is...because of you (and me). We ignore their greed because we don't believe we feel its effect, though it has come to completely shape this world around us. You feel it as you search for that next loan. You find it in the sites you visit, designed not to inform but to gather the ads that litter its face like scarring acne. You find it in the void left where true journalist once tread, where through the tedium of misguided sources stories died and rarely, when research and time did prove fruitful, they crept up to change the world around them and changed the lens you see the world through.

When you curse the blatant corruption rampant in our own government, or the distorted hierarchy of modern American life (where money overrides importance), try to remember how many stories you glanced by or skipped over about these facts to get to that most recent nipple slip, or Hollywood rumor. Try to remember how many people showed up to protest Enron leaders minimal punishments or a complete lack of government accountability, and then try to remember how many were there to denounce one of that very same group who slept with an intern or slipped with any other sexual misstep.

Where people once followed the outrage carried to light on the back of journalism and those in danger of being outed found fear, there are no more flies on the wall and the fear of being sought out is forgotten. And, why wouldn't it be? If you get caught, just act out the scenes your PR staff scripts and then keep quiet and we'll forget soon enough. You're only in trouble for as long we're interested.

Ok, I guess that's enough of a rant. I know this is somewhat convoluted and goes in too many directions at once, but hey....I'm not getting paid to fill out the flesh of the story.

Addendum:

A quick comment from me....

I am aware that there are some, if not many newspapers that are realistically in the "red" and that their cutbacks in staffing, and thus quality journalism, are out of necessity for survival.

However, I am also aware that maintaining a profit margin, not just a profit, is as rampant as necessity.

And, as long as we the consumer give only financial reward for these cutbacks and reversions toward sensationalism and away from information derived through time consuming investigation, why would they choose any other path?

Making one of my larger points very bluntly is this, we the consumer choose what we are sold, thus we haven't the right to be upset when we find that we are deceived and uncared for by the deities we choose to support with the money we've sold to them.

Don't wonder why no one told us we were being deceived, when we all but turned our back on the people and/or protectors once appointed to do so.

You complain about the press, yet you shape who and what they are.

So, I guess we stand hand in hand with greed as the coffin of true journalism is lowered into the ground.

Sad, Desperate, Angry, Apathetic?

Like most nights, I went into last night's Mavs game with quiet optimism. You know, that subtle hope that this team is better than it's given credit for. That they were the reincarnation of the Rockets on their second title run (another team I watched faithfully, and seemed to endlessly lead me on fruitless chases into disappointment....well, until the playoffs that is). That this team could sneak into the playoffs at something better than the 8th seed to avoid playing the Lakers in the first round, where they could then uncoil the strike they've been storing up all season to "shock the world".

That, like the Rockets, they have developed the habit of playing up to or down to their opponent.

Then came the second highly contested game against a young team with talent, but without most of that talent playing, in the team stolen from Seattle (the team that serves as a not so subtle sirens call that when all teams are for sale, any can be bought).

As a Mavs fan, this season hasn't been easy, beginning with the silence of what promised (honest, the promises came to us from the lips of our own Generic Masochist - isn't that what GM stands for) to be an active and eventful draft day, to the echoed promises of what was sure to be a frantic and rewarding trading deadline, to the current whispers of what could and should be this off-season or the next....and more to the point, to what we're seeing on the court.

Going into the year, we all wondered if Kidd had enough to be a valid contributor and dreamed of what could come back when we finally broke up the true core of the team that choked away the Finals and a Golden State series, and traded Josh Howard (or mini-Damp, as he is often prone to be). The dreams paved the way to a destination where hope wasn't being strangled away from its decaying grip by reality. Hope was as vibrant and gleeful as I was when watching the full-screen version of The Breakup (haven't actually seen it, but supposedly the scene with Anniston walking naked through the apartment includes her visibly topless - don't quote me on that however, as I have not been able to verify it myself, sadly).

Sorry, even the thoughts sidetracked me, but we've found that yes, Kidd can still be a very good player...and as clutch as anyone the Mavs have ever had (which makes you wonder even louder why Avery benched him at the end of that Spurs game). Sadly, we've also found the ineptitude of our front office knows no bounds. How many times must this core (Dirk, Terry, Howard - and whether you admit it or not, that was and is the core. Harris was only beginning to be a part of it, but was still only peripheral) fail before it is tweaked. Apparently, at least once more.

Dirk IS the kind of player a team can be built around, regardless of what countless unappreciative Dallas fans will say. A trip to the Finals alone proves this. Terry is the heart and soul of this team, and honestly, it's going to hurt whenever he does leave. You couldn't ask for a better guy to be a part of "your" team. That leaves Howard. The supposed second best player on this team for years. Yet, also a player that has never done anything when it mattered. The front office's overvaluing of him alone is what is attempting to destroy what was once a golden opportunity.

They say he's a top 20 player in this league, regardless of the fact that I could name at least 50 I'd rather have, and have refused to move him when his value was high. Hopefully we'll find out where his value is this summer, but I wouldn't be surprised to hear the company line cast again - never mind that the lake is dry and the suffocating fish are growing more and more uninterested in what this company has to say (need to check the TV ratings again).

The fact that Dampier is still in the NBA is a direct insult on the league itself. David Stern should be begging to buy out his contract yesterday, personally.

Anyway, I've digressed (another symptom of frustration and anger - it's too easy to pull those chords and want to trace that rail of rant)....then came the storm of the Thunder, and hell came with them. The hell of realizing this team has a very real chance of missing the playoffs. The hell of watching a bunch of millionaires that supposedly love this team and city give about 30% effort for three quarters before realizing they were even playing in a game that counted. The hell of seeing Dirk, Terry and Kidd trying to carry a team that just doesn't seem to care.

Last year we thought this lack of effort was a team giving up on its coach. So, what's the problem this year?

If this team can sneak into (how long has it been put that way - "sneak") the playoffs and avoid the Lakers and Utah, I still think they can put up a good fight, but that sneaking is going to have to come behind a fist. We'll see, and then we'll ultimately see what they do this summer. We are approaching the last chance ride with Dirk, and we print the tickets this summer.