That's nasty.

PatAg said:

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lol

kinda unnecessary

but nice

Everything that Luka is already, blows my mind. That move is insane and Austin Rivers wanted no part of it lol.

I wish there was a slow motion replay of that play....it goes so fast, its difficult to tell how unbelievably crafty it was

Jason Williams (white chocolate) used to pull off that move back in the day. I like to try that when I'm playing my 13 year old....but when I do it, it's about 5 times slower than him.

The ball control, to pull that off on the move, for a dude his size....is crazy.

I guess the tank crowd was excited about last night.

Grapesoda2525 said:

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I guess the tank crowd was excited about last night.

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Never against the Rockets or Spurs. Always want to win those.

There were many against tanking last year and looked how that worked out (you may have been one of them but I don't care to go look). "We don't need to put DSJ in a losing mentality," "we need to let this team grow the right way'" "we don't want to turn into the tanking 76ers'" etc. The anti tanking crowd is always against tanking, and then when it works out they accept the benefits but then go right back to their tired anti tanking arguments the next year.

No one is saying the Mavs should tell their players to try and lose games. But in a week or two when it's obvious we won't make the playoffs, there are certain things you can do to likely lose more games. If we surprisingly when our next 4-5 games, then no need to even think about it.

I don't have a huge opinion on it one way or another this year. But unless we make up ground in the next week, it certainly makes sense to try and up our odds of keeping the top 5 pick. I don't think there is much left to talk about on this issue. The "tanking crowd" isn't cheering for us to lose every game at this point and isn't cheering for players to play poorly.

Just so you know though, with this team's bad luck history in the lottery, they may successfully tank to end up with the 5th worst record, but if that happens, rest assured that another team will jump them in the lottery pushing them to 6th. If they get 4th, then it will be 2 teams that jump them.

I can picture Porzingis saying 'Muy Bueno, mi amigo' to Doncic.

I get that. When I'm saying "tank" I'm not saying that we try to end up with a bottom 5 record. That's impossible. Tanking would mean raising our odds from 8.5% to 26%, which is pretty significant in my opinion.

And if we have a shot at the playoffs, then I definitely say don't tank. Getting Luka playoff experience would be incredible. But people are greatly overestimating our chances of making the playoffs. They are currently at 4%. And if we don't get on a hot streak ASAP, they are all but over. At that point, the increase in playoff odds would be great.

But it's going to be hard to tank with Luka. So there may not be much we can do to tank this year.

I agree, that pic is awesome.

jeffdjohnson said:

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http://www.tankathon.com/

Look at the current records and odds. It just isn't possible to tank. NOLA is imploding. Memphis and Washington have thrown in the towel. The Mavs could literally lose out and they wouldn't catch NYK, CLE, ATL, PHX and CHI. At best the Mavs can move from the 11th spot (8.5% odds) to the 8th spot (26.3% odds). Near the very end of the season (last 5 or so games) they could try to jockey for position with ORL, MIA and MIN with some end of season rest. The range there is 7% to 20% depending on the final order. It is a long shot either way.

Anyways, a picture like this after a "meaningless" win against Portland last week is worth far more than improving their odds by 10%.

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Good lord Kristaps looks huge

Kings have a brutal 5-6 game stretch coming up. Hopefully they can lose most of them. And hopefully the clipps or the lakers don't get hot.

mavsfan4ever said:

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Kings have a brutal 5-6 game stretch coming up. Hopefully they can lose most of them. And hopefully the clipps or the lakers don't get hot.

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Yeah. The Kings, Clippers, and Lakers will continue to fight for the 8 seed. Pelicans, Grizz, and Suns will dwell at the bottom. Not sure about the T-Wolves. Mavs may just float right where they are, but I sure would love to see them in the playoffs, even if they bow out in the first round.

mavsfan4ever said:

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There were many against tanking last year and looked how that worked out (you may have been one of them but I don't care to go look). "We don't need to put DSJ in a losing mentality," "we need to let this team grow the right way'" "we don't want to turn into the tanking 76ers'" etc. The anti tanking crowd is always against tanking, and then when it works out they accept the benefits but then go right back to their tired anti tanking arguments the next year.

No one is saying the Mavs should tell their players to try and lose games. But in a week or two when it's obvious we won't make the playoffs, there are certain things you can do to likely lose more games. If we surprisingly when our next 4-5 games, then no need to even think about it.

I don't have a huge opinion on it one way or another this year. But unless we make up ground in the next week, it certainly makes sense to try and up our odds of keeping the top 5 pick. I don't think there is much left to talk about on this issue. The "tanking crowd" isn't cheering for us to lose every game at this point and isn't cheering for players to play poorly.

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I hated last years team because we weren't showing any signs of building something for the future and they weren't playing for anything. I wanted them to start tanking ASAP. If anything, they started tanking way too late and it cost them an extra draft pic to get doncic. Thank god atlanta really had a hard on for trae young or we would still be dog cussing this organization right now. They got lucky.

The point is, we have a young superstar and we haven't had one since dirk. We have to show him that we're dedicated to winning and being a successful team. Do I care if we tank? No, I wouldn't get too upset or mad about it. I think it's dumb tho, we already have our guy and the front office has made it clear that they prefer to build through free agency and trades. We've already given up 3 first rounders to get Porzingis and doncic. The draft isn't a priority for this organization and it probably never will be until Cuban is gone.

The people who are rooting for us to tank are pretty much pulling for Atlanta to get a better draft pick. At the end of the season, it might say we have a 20% chance of getting a top 5, but it's not going to happen because this team has the worst draft lottery luck ever.

It's very unusual, but this is pretty much the only year where finishing 9th or 10th in the West really isn't all that bad given the circumstances. I remember doncic had a different schedule in Europe and the mavs were actually sitting him out during training camp to get him some rest. A full offseason would do him some good. It's all about the summer and next year with this team. Just enjoy the games, root for some wins, and accept that we're probably not going to the playoffs or drafting anyone this year. That's the most likely outcome and I'm totally fine with it.

Agree with most of that other than the part about wanting to send Atlanta a pick this year. Unless something goes very wrong, we should not be in the lottery again for a long time. Hopefully, we won't even have a pick under 20 in those years. So we should hope we don't send Atlanta a pick this year (meaning we bink a top 5 pick and get to keep it), and then we will send Atlanta and the Knicks picks in the 20-30 range in the future. If we don't make the playoffs that's the best outcome. Sending Atlanta and New York three picks in the 20-30 range is clearly better than sending them one pick in the top 10 and two picks in the 20-30 range.

Can you imagine having Doncic, Porzingis, a top 4 pick, and cap space? We could become contenders for years to come if things fall our way. It would be great.

Obviously, we are still set up very well if we don't keep our pick this year (the future is bright no matter what). And odds are, we won't keep it. But it's fun to think about.

etxag18 said:

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jeffdjohnson said:

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http://www.tankathon.com/

Look at the current records and odds. It just isn't possible to tank. NOLA is imploding. Memphis and Washington have thrown in the towel. The Mavs could literally lose out and they wouldn't catch NYK, CLE, ATL, PHX and CHI. At best the Mavs can move from the 11th spot (8.5% odds) to the 8th spot (26.3% odds). Near the very end of the season (last 5 or so games) they could try to jockey for position with ORL, MIA and MIN with some end of season rest. The range there is 7% to 20% depending on the final order. It is a long shot either way.

Anyways, a picture like this after a "meaningless" win against Portland last week is worth far more than improving their odds by 10%.

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Good lord Kristaps looks huge

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Tallest active player in the NBA.

mavsfan4ever said:

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Agree with most of that other than the part about wanting to send Atlanta a pick this year. Unless something goes very wrong, we should not be in the lottery again for a long time. Hopefully, we won't even have a pick under 20 in those years. So we should hope we don't send Atlanta a pick this year (meaning we bink a top 5 pick and get to keep it), and then we will send Atlanta and the Knicks picks in the 20-30 range in the future. If we don't make the playoffs that's the best outcome. Sending Atlanta and New York three picks in the 20-30 range is clearly better than sending them one pick in the top 10 and two picks in the 20-30 range.

Can you imagine having Doncic, Porzingis, a top 4 pick, and cap space? We could become contenders for years to come if things fall our way. It would be great.

Obviously, we are still set up very well if we don't keep our pick this year (the future is bright no matter what). And odds are, we won't keep it. But it's fun to think about.

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From what I've heard,

The 2020 draft is MUCH stronger than the 2019 draft. The only must have player in 2019 draft coming up is that Zion kid from Duke. The mavs chances of getting him are probably astronomical at this point. The mavs could probably still get a good player in the 2020 draft as long as they keep their draft pick. That means they'd need to pay Atlanta off this year.

Dwade coming to the AAC for the final time in his career tonight. True MFFLs never forgot 2006 and 2011 (mocking Dirk sickness). I seriously doubt he'll get much of an ovation tonight

rsf0626 said:

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Dwade coming to the AAC for the final time in his career tonight. True MFFLs never forgot 2006 and 2011 (mocking Dirk sickness). I seriously doubt he'll get much of an ovation tonight

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Probably won't even be in the starting lineup.

rsf0626 said:

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Dwade coming to the AAC for the final time in his career tonight. True MFFLs never forgot 2006 and 2011 (mocking Dirk sickness). I seriously doubt he'll get much of an ovation tonight

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Game hasn't even started and he's already drawn a foul.

Wade looks like he has another year at this rate.

Jackson looks terrible.

The mavs better hope they bring in a player better than Barnes or the trade was a waste of time.

What does it take to get Kleber some longer shorts?

Speaking of Kleber, I love his game, but he needs some coaching on the pick and roll. He doesn't stick long enough. Defeats the purpose.

Dirk was fired up. 14 shot attempts in 16 minutes.

Cool moment with Dirk and Dwayne....I guess.

It might be an ugly finish to the season with the players we have now...

rsf0626 said:

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It might be an ugly finish to the season with the players we have now...

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were you saying this after we beat Portland?

I couldn't watch last night. Only followed on my phone. Was it a case of bad Mavs D, or was Miami just shooting lights out?

NoahAg said:

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I couldn't watch last night. Only followed on my phone. Was it a case of bad Mavs D, or was Miami just shooting lights out?

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It was a bit of both. The Heat just couldn't miss last night. Luka distributed the ball well- he has 9 credited assists from the game, and it easily would've been much more had the shots had fallen. But their defense was bad as well, and they got destroyed on the glass

I left like Luka was really going for the triple double last night. He was really trying to get that last assist. Not a huge deal by any means, but it annoyed me.

mavsfan4ever said:

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I left like Luka was really going for the triple double last night. He was really trying to get that last assist. Not a huge deal by any means, but it annoyed me.

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I mean, a big part of his job on the team is to create for others

PatAg said:

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mavsfan4ever said:

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I left like Luka was really going for the triple double last night. He was really trying to get that last assist. Not a huge deal by any means, but it annoyed me.

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I mean, a big part of his job on the team is to create for others

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Yea, but he was literally ONLY hunting for that assist. It's hard to 'create for others' when it's fairly obvious you have no intention of creating for yourself. It's not a big deal, but was definitely a little letdown.