Impossible to project assuming DWill signs. Mahinmi is a UFA and if he returns it would have to be for cheap. I'd like him to return, however. He provides some decent bench minutes and he's one of the more emotional guys on the team.

I'm pretty confident Marion stays on. There's always the possibility he could be traded (he makes 8 million this year) but he's exactly what we need him to be despite his age.

So that's DWill, Marion, Dirk at the 1, 3, 4. Delonte will start at the 2 if we can afford him.

The 5 is the tossup. Impossible to predict because it really just depends on which of the scenarios pans out. I'd be absolutely thrilled if we got Leonard or Zeller in the draft... someone smarter than me would have to say if they're ready to come in and start, seems doubtful. Dirk's German pal Chris Kaman is a free agent, but putting a meh defender next to an old and slow defender seems like a bad idea to me, also cost issues. Asik's been discussed. Wright started some games last year at center, okay in the regular season but not ideal for the playoffs.

Dirk's minutes are also going down each year which helps decrease pts, rebounds, etc... I believe he was near 38 minutes in 2008 and was down to under 34 last season.

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That's not a plus for Beaubois. Sidebar: how do I know how to spell Beaubois?

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Not necessarily a minus either. Those guys fit the offense. I'm not saying he's super-desirable, just a maybe situation if some team wants to trade down. It would be a low-risk move to acquire player with potential and proven scoring ability.

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In the last 4 years, Dirk has gone from 25.9 to 25 to 23 to 21.6 ppg. His rebounds have dropped each year for 7 straight seasons. Assists have dropped 3 of the last 4 years. Statistically he has been trending down for years, you can't blame that on one offseason. He's still a great scorer who can put up points and he'll always be able to shoot, but opponents aren't going to be gameplanning around him forever.

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His mpg has also dropped over those 4 years, every year. Look at his playoff points per game over that same time span:26.8 (10 games), 26.7 (6 games), 27.7 (21 games), 26.8 (4 games). Not much drop off. Rebounds declining isn't that surprising. His athleticism (and there wasn't gobs of it to begin with) is declining and he's looking to ration his effort. He's an offensive player. Marion's role is more defensive and rebounding, paired with whoever is playing the other front-court position. Assist numbers for a PF mean very little to me, partly because his 1.whatever assists per game aren't game-changing anyway and because most of the time (in Carlisle's offense) the extra pass after Dirk passes out of a double team is the one that results in the open shot.

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Awwww, I must have hit a nerve...you mavs fans make me laugh.

Yeah, so let's talk mavs...You guys need much more help than just d-williams...PERIOD. if you really think he will get you back to the finals, good luck. He killed the career of Jerry Sloan and was shipped to New Jersey because of it, but now somehow you think he'll come to dallas and win a championship...you'll forever be stuck in the Spurs shadow w/ or w/out d-williams, and I'm not even a spurs fan lmao...

...you just got swept out of the playoffs by a team in OKC thats more talented, younger, and just plain better (and isn't going anywhere), you're built around an aging star whose best days are behind him, your center just won defensive player of the year...for another team (knicks), and your 6th man of the year will be in another uniform next season...its clear your glory years, or year, is over...But what do I know, I'm an idiot lmao..just keep ignoring the facts, it's noble work you mavs fans are doing

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Preppyag,

IF you dont mind me asking and if you arent scared to tell us all.....what team do you root for and why are you on this thread?

I have a feeling I know what your team is....but Im not going to make any assumptions.

The MBT had a plan that started about a year ago....and in the next few weeks we are going to see if Mark Cuban and Donnie Nelson are the smartest executives in the NBA, or if they are morons for breaking up a championship caliber team.

Your post I quoted reads like something that I would expect from a total simpleton that just finished junior high school.

First off, you need to understand the difference between a fact and an opinion. Your post is filled with opinions....and most of them are not correct.

If you listened to anything that Mark Cuban has said over the past 8 months...... he and the MBT didnt give a crap about the 2011-12 season.

So...you talking sh*t about the Mavs 2011-12 season in which they where clearly rebuilding doesn't make you look like a really bright person.

Everything about this past season was about rebuilding, getting under the salary cap for the first time in the Cuban Era, and trying to make this Mavs franchise elite for another 10-12 years.

Outside of the Spurs and Lakers no other NBA franchise has won more games then the Dallas Mavericks over the past decade.

The Spurs, and Lakers are all getting pretty old and with the new CBA there is no guarantee that OKC will be able to afford all of its young players.

Furthermore OKC reminds me of the Mavs between 2000-2004. All offense and no defense.
The difference between them and the 2011 NBA champions is that they couldnt stop the Miami Heat at all.


Preppyag,
I dont know whats going to happen, but I can assure you that the Mavs Brain Trust is a lot smarter then you.



[This message has been edited by Kellso (edited 6/26/2012 8:07p).]

preppyag is a Heat bandwagoner... or at least he was in the playoffs last year

Prepy is just trolling. He has an occasional serious post but he seems to troll Mavs threads quite often.

Last year he was a "fan of basketball" during the playoffs when he was trolling Mavs threads. When the Finals started he was suddenly a Heat fan.

Just ignore the stupid trolling stuff and respond to the semi-serious questions and comments.

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I thought basketball max contracts aren't negotiated, unless they're negotiated down like Bosh and James did to go to Miami...how would pretending the Nets are still in the fold give raise any money williams will get? you must be a mavs fan...

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You say that like it's some kind of insult.

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Kris Humphries was one of the best rebounders in the NBA last year and one of the few people in the NBA to average a double double

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lol. Humphries is garbage. Empty stats on a terrible team.

I was under the impression that this was a message board and multiple views and opinions were allowed? I didn't see the section on the main page where you have to be a mavs fan to post on a mavs board.

Judge is right. I enjoy watching basketball as a whole. I don't sport championship t-shorts, nor do I refer to a team as "we" like you mavs fans do like you're part of the team or they care about you and what you think. Please let me know when Cuban sends ya'll your championship rings from 2011. I'd love to see them.

And I don't troll, I just have an opposing viewpoint than ya'll and you can't stand that so you call me a troll. I just can't stand all the mavs BS that gets spewed on this board. Until last year it was "oh we got robbed in 2006, the refs hate Cuban and took our championship, Dwayne Wade sucks, etc..." All that was was bitter fans that lost and wanted to blame anything and everything but the fact that your team blew a 2-0 game lead in the NBA finals.

Fast forward to last year and during the championship run you've got Mavs fans saying that Dirk was a better player than Kevin Garnett, Karl Malone, Larry Bird, and LeBron James among others...I'm sorry, but that type of stupidity can't go unchecked. Dirk better than Bird? Really? Dirk has one fantastic run in the playoffs and now he's a top 5 player of all time? Please show me how many times Dirk has been slapped out of the playoffs in the first round (NOTE: the majority of those were as the higher seed...Golden State anyone?)

Then there's this year..."all we need is D-Will and we're back, this year didn't count anyway, we were building for 2013"...Please show me a season where a top 15 player of all time had to take a week during the season to get back in game shape because he sucked it up during the offseason...don't worry, I'll wait

And I became a "heat fan" because I didn't want the mavs to win. I'd have been any fan of a team opposing the Mavs. It makes me laugh that 90% of "mavs fans' can't name a player on the team outside of Dirk. The mavs have perhaps the worst basketball fans in the country, winning or losing. When they win the fans spew best team in the history of sports, Dirk's better than Jordan, blah blah...when they lose it's "the refs hate us, we got robbed," or some other BS excuse. Just be gracious winning or losing, stop with the BS, and accept that not everyone will be a mavs fan or agree that Dirk walks on water...we'll get along much better that way.

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lol. Humphries is garbage. Empty stats on a terrible team.

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See, this is the kind of Mavs stupidity that I was just referring to...He was one of maybe 10 players in the entire NBA to average a double double and he's garbage? You must be a Mavs fan...only mavs fans can somehow justify that kind of logic. I guess you think that Kevin Love is Garbage too since his team is bad...

That post is amazing.

nice hypocrisy there

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And I became a "heat fan" because I didn't want the mavs to win. I'd have been any fan of a team opposing the Mavs.

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so you admit you're a bandwagon fan

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It makes me laugh that 90% of "mavs fans' can't name a player on the team outside of Dirk.

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but you rag on bandwagoners. Sad state for 30+ year old people to not be able to make an argument

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you've got Mavs fans saying that Dirk was a better player than Kevin Garnett, Karl Malone, Larry Bird, and LeBron James among others . . .Dirk better than Bird? Really?

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Do you have a link to anybody seriously making this claim? Especially w/r/t Bird. Show me anywhere on texags where a Mavs fans seriously says that Dirk > Bird.

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Then there's this year..."all we need is D-Will and we're back, this year didn't count anyway, we were building for 2013"

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Show me where anybody said this. There are Mavs fans saying that adding D-Will will make the Mavs better, but there seems to be a general agreement that D-Will alone isn't getting the Mavs anywhere; It will take him and a few other pieces [like a serviceable big man] for the Mavs to compete in the West.

Mavs fans don't want you on this thread because you make up these statements, attribute them to Mavs fans, and then call Mavs fans idiots for stating/thinking the statements that you just falsely attributed to them.

From your post on the second page of this thread:

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You guys need much more help than just d-williams...PERIOD. if you really think he will get you back to the finals, good luck.

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Same thing as the quote above. Your post was the FIRST time on this thread that anybody mentioned the Mavs getting back to the finals. Nobody was claiming that adding D-Will is going to get the Mavs back to the finals. You fabricated this belief, attributed it to Mavs fans, and then called Mavs fans idiots for believing it.

If you want to have an actual basketball debate, then nobody has a problem with that. If you're going to just make stuff up, do it somewhere else.

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I was under the impression that this was a message board and multiple views and opinions were allowed?

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Nobody is claiming otherwise. Nobody minds a counterargument or differing viewpoint, but you're making counterarguments to things that nobody actually said. Obviously we can't stop you from continuing to do this, but it's just really ****ing annoying.

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prepyag

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For your sake and the ag tag next to your name, I'm going to just continue to assume you're trolling. Which is fine, this board has a disproportionate share of them. And if that's your opinion that's cool too, just seems a little excessive on the hate side.

Texags is the only place I've ever seen people make a stink about people saying "we" when talking about their team. I was born in Dallas, live in Dallas, and been a Mavs fan since it was embarrassing to be one. With regards to internet discussions it's such a minor point anyway, it baffles me why people harp on it so much.

[This message has been edited by Judge (edited 6/27/2012 9:54a).]

Now, back to the real discussion. Hearing rumors of Odom possibly being traded to the Clips. Please please please.

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so you admit you're a bandwagon fan

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No, I admit that I root for any team that plays the mavs. Go back and read the my post again for clarification.

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but you rag on bandwagoners. Sad state for 30+ year old people to not be able to make an argument

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You take 2 sentences out of an entire post I made and I'm the one that can't make an argument? Again your hypocrisy is showing

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Especially w/r/t Bird. Show me anywhere on texags where a Mavs fans seriously says that Dirk > Bird.

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I remember some saying he was on the same level as Bird during the run and win last year.

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Hearing rumors of Odom possibly being traded to the Clips.

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i thought he was cut or released or something? how did that mess end up shaking out?

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I remember some saying he was on the same level as Bird during the run and win last year.

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Fair enough. I must have missed that.

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i thought he was cut or released or something? how did that mess end up shaking out?

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Still under contract with the Mavs, he was just so worthless/apathetic that the Mavs decided it would be better to pay him to sit at home than for him to actually show up to practices/games.

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i thought he was cut or released or something? how did that mess end up shaking out?

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Not cut, basically just midseason we told him to gtfo. Even though he was still on the team technically. If we delay the deadline on his decision (I don't remember the set date) we either have to pick up his option for next year (8 million, 0% chance of happening) or cut him and take a ~2 million salary cap hit. If we trade him before that, it saves us the 2 million.

I think that article linked in other Mavs/DWill thread has a pretty good outline of Odom's contract and the Mavs' possible courses of action with him.

Dirk Nowitzki and Larry Bird - similarities?
From January 2012. The real argument turned out to be more along the lines of where Nowitski fell on the list of all-time great players, mostly a bunch of boring flaming between Guitarsoup and Mavs posters over whether Nowitski is 25th or 35th all time. Nobody really wanted to touch Bird, but Lebron/Durant came up a number of times as players worse than Nowitski.

Some notable quotes:

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The very fact that you list Lebron up there higher than Dirk shows that you either don't have a clue or are just a toll trying to bait us.

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Lebron lights up the scoreboard when he's playing the Kings and Raptors. If only he could do that when it matters.

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Numerous implications that Nowitski is better than Durant, or that people should take Nowitski's career over Durant's career.

All-time Lebron is now ahead of Dirk. Durant is still behind (at 23 or however old he is, he will likely end up ahead of Dirk).

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Numerous implications that Nowitski is better than Durant, or that people should take Nowitski's career over Durant's career.

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Right now, you wouldn't take Dirk's career over Durant's? MVP, NBA Champion, Finals MVP over a few scoring titles?

[This message has been edited by Judge (edited 6/27/2012 10:48a).]

Deron Williams pokes his head in during Billy King's press conference. Has been at the Nets training facility nearly every day, working with Avery Johnson. Avery was one of only a handful of people invited to his small birthday celebration last night.

Not sure if this means anything at all. Broussard seems to think he's headed back to the Nets; he's always been pretty connected with Williams. Strap in, this is gonna be a crazy ride.
[This message has been edited by tamucorpsguy05 (edited 6/27/2012 10:49a).]

[This message has been edited by tamucorpsguy05 (edited 6/27/2012 10:49a).]

Would Williams be the biggest free agent to sign with Dallas in the Cuban era/all time? I'm not remembering another one quite at his level. Obviously Chandler turned out to be a huge free agent, but he was not thought of as a large peice at the time of his signing.

Of course, this is IF he signs with Dallas.

[This message has been edited by keithd03 (edited 6/27/2012 10:51a).]

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Deron Williams pokes his head in during Billy King's press conference. Has been at the Nets training facility nearly every day, working with Avery Johnson. Avery was one of only a handful of people invited to his small birthday celebration last night.

Not sure if this means anything at all. Broussard seems to think he's headed back to the Nets; he's always been pretty connected with Williams. Strap in, this is gonna be a crazy ride.

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Oh, so Avery will go to Deron's birthday party but not Josh Howard's?

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Right now, you wouldn't take Dirk's career over Durant's? MVP, NBA Champion, Finals MVP over a few scoring titles?

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The implication was that Durant's entire career will not be as good as Nowitski's entire career.

Durant may not ever get a finals MVP because that takes a lot of things going right, but at 23 Durant is already better than Nowitski's best season.

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All-time Lebron is now ahead of Dirk.

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Lebron was ahead of Nowitski at the time of the post I quoted and had probably been there for a year. Certainly it was absurd to say that Lebron's career wasn't even worth comparing to Nowitski's.

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All-time Lebron is now ahead of Dirk. Durant is still behind (at 23 or however old he is, he will likely end up ahead of Dirk).

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James was always ahead of Dirk. The Championships for both were irrelevant in that regard. There's nothing Dirk is better than james at sans FT's. No I'm not trolling whatsoever...that's my opinion and it's based on a crap ton of fact.

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The implication was that Durant's entire career will not be as good as Nowitski's entire career

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I didn't see anybody make that implication.

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Lebron was ahead of Nowitski at the time of the post I quoted and had probably been there for a year. Certainly it was absurd to say that Lebron's career wasn't even worth comparing to Nowitski's.

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I disagree. Without the ring Lebron was not ahead of Dirk. He was always the better all-around player but in terms of career accomplishments, at that time I wouldn't have considered Lebron's career better than Dirk's, especially considering Dirk beat Lebron and the superfriends head to head in the Finals.

Lebron has the hardware now.

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Obviously Chandler turned out to be a huge free agent

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was he acquired via trade or sign-and-trade?

How many individual accomplishments do you need for a single Finals MVP?

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was he acquired via trade or sign-and-trade?

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Traded for Dampier's unguaranteed contract, Najera, Matt Carroll and $3mm.

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How many individual accomplishments do you need for a single Finals MVP?

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Based on everything I've read, watched, and heard over the past week, Lebron James himself would tell you no amount could replace it and the trophy that comes with it.

[This message has been edited by Judge (edited 6/27/2012 11:17a).]