Game Thread | Game #29 | Cavs @ Mavericks | Dec. 14, 2022

[KilgoreTrout]

Stevens is a great rotational piece. I’d just love to turn Cedi & Windler into a guy that’s a reliable shooter for 10-15 min a game.

Love looks cooked, and I think when Wade gets back he winds up playing some SF but mostly PF and Love might find his way out of the rotation. That being said, it’s tough to do that without an additional guy outside of Stevens that can give you minutes at SF.

What kind of player did you have in mind? Isn’t Cedi often the player that you speak of?

 

[KilgoreTrout]

Man feels like they have given away several games. 3 or more? We are only 4 games behind the best team in the NBA. Feels like the sky is falling around here.

The fact they are this good and everything isn't clicking just means there is a lot of upside to this team

…that won’t be realized until we upgrade our head coach and our PG starts playing winning basketball…

 

[KilgoreTrout]

But would you take him on the Cavs?

Alongside Mitchell, or in place of Mitchell?

I take him alongside Mitchell.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

What I loved was in the second half when the Mavs tried to trap Mitchell with two players he saw it coming and got the ball to Mobley or Allen at the free throw line where they were in position to lob it to the other for a dunk or pass to Stevens on a baseline cut for a dunk or layup. Easy buckets, and it was all because the Mavs were forced to double Mitchell and he knew how to beat it.

Stevens is a very good mid-range shooter and he should take more of those. If he ever gets to where he can hit 40% of his uncontested corner 3's he'll be a pretty good all-around player.

Kevin Love looks like that time off with the hand injury really affected him. He's not doing jack offensively and other than rebounding his defense is very lacking. He moves like he has five pounds of mud in each shoe. Maybe he just needs a few more games to get his offensive rhythm back.

 

[Cement]

Maybe he just needs a few more games to get his offensive rhythm back.

Hopefully he'll be wearing a different uniform for those games.

My word is he terrible.

 

[InBoobieWeTrust]

Luka is so spoiled. Throws tantrums on the court constantly, shows up his teammates(there's a line between holding them accountable and just being a douche), plays no defense, but cries when his guys or are trying gives up a bucket, acts like he has nba rings to his name and to me in general is just overrated. You can blame his teammates but it's hard to play and get a rhythm when a guy has to control the ball and make every play. Guys on his team can play, but Luka wants to play that way and that's not going to be enough to win a championship if he doesn't change his game. I would not want to play with him. He's got all the talent in the world, but he's unlikeable to me. He's not even in my top 5 mvp contenders right now, behind Giannis, Tatum, Zion, Morant, jokic. I don't care if he averages 50, 15,10 this season of he's not winning games and it's not his teammates fault, it's his.

Plus he cries to the refs all game long. Like man just play basketball.

I dunno man. He carried them to the Westen Conference Finals last year with Jalen Brunson as his #2. He’s pretty damned special.

The Mavs have generally done a pretty god awful job building around Luka. Now, to be fair..they had the same issue we had in 2003 and beyond. The dude was so good, so soon, that he raised their ceiling so high there weren’t any additional high lottery picks coming in. The pressure to win and put a team around him off rip was tremendous.

But theyve bungled every big move since. They traded a lot for Porzingis….a 7 footer coming off of a devestating knee injury…which was a disaster. And then the Brunson debacle was embarrassing. To lose a legitimately really good player and your secondary ball handler for absolutely no compensation….when you could have locked him up for a super valuable deal last year…just an epic failure there.

They have no super exciting young talent. They still owe other teams draft picks. They’ll probably be able to make one more “trade 3 unprotected firsts” type of trade before Luka hits unrestricted free agency. But their current roster is just…not championship level.

But Luka Doncic, while he may be unlikable, is absolutely one of the best 5 players in this league. They’re 14-14 right now…replace Luka with a replacement level player and they’re probably something like 5-23 at best

 

[daytripper]

I dunno man. He carried them to the Westen Conference Finals last year with Jalen Brunson as his #2. He’s pretty damned special.

The Mavs have generally done a pretty god awful job building around Luka. Now, to be fair..they had the same issue we had in 2003 and beyond. The dude was so good, so soon, that he raised their ceiling so high there weren’t any additional high lottery picks coming in. The pressure to win and put a team around him off rip was tremendous.

But theyve bungled every big move since. They traded a lot for Porzingis….a 7 footer coming off of a devestating knee injury…which was a disaster. And then the Brunson debacle was embarrassing. To lose a legitimately really good player and your secondary ball handler for absolutely no compensation….when you could have locked him up for a super valuable deal last year…just an epic failure there.

They have no super exciting young talent. They still owe other teams draft picks. They’ll probably be able to make one more “trade 3 unprotected firsts” type of trade before Luka hits unrestricted free agency. But their current roster is just…not championship level.

But Luka Doncic, while he may be unlikable, is absolutely one of the best 5 players in this league. They’re 14-14 right now…replace Luka with a replacement level player and they’re probably something like 5-23 at best

Unfortunately was at a holiday party and missed this game. I totally agree about Luka though. He's a very special player. In a way losing Brunson was almost similar to how the Cavs bungled the Boozer situation during Lebron's early years here. They were both 2nd round picks that blossomed into 2nd bananas too. Mavs have done a terrible job building around him. They also did a poor job building around Dirk but did squeeze out one championship. I'm highly doubtful Luka is going to be nearly as patient with them.

 

[cavsfever]

I was okay going with a smaller rotation tonight because we really really needed to get a road win, especially one against a decent team, just to exorcise our road demons a bit. I felt we were just so uptight in that Spurs game. It was just a really ugly performance and then to lose the way we did, despite deserving to lose...I think the whole team took that one to heart and really stepped up preparation for tonights game.

6 Turnovers total all night was the stat of the game for me. Garland has been the worst culprit there so to see him come out and protect the ball all night as priority #1 was nice to see, and as the point guard of this team, and one of our young leaders, the rest of the team then followed suit. Mobley, Stevens and LeVert each had 1. And then Mitchell had 3(which isnt bad given his usage tonight).

Just felt like while we still didn't shoot well outside of Mitchell from deep, we played under control and with attention to detail all night.

Yeah from an intensity and sustained focus perspective this game was a real pleasure to watch

 

[Los216]

A WINE & GOLD WINNER

 

[letgocavs]

I dunno man. He carried them to the Westen Conference Finals last year with Jalen Brunson as his #2. He’s pretty damned special.

The Mavs have generally done a pretty god awful job building around Luka. Now, to be fair..they had the same issue we had in 2003 and beyond. The dude was so good, so soon, that he raised their ceiling so high there weren’t any additional high lottery picks coming in. The pressure to win and put a team around him off rip was tremendous.

But theyve bungled every big move since. They traded a lot for Porzingis….a 7 footer coming off of a devestating knee injury…which was a disaster. And then the Brunson debacle was embarrassing. To lose a legitimately really good player and your secondary ball handler for absolutely no compensation….when you could have locked him up for a super valuable deal last year…just an epic failure there.

They have no super exciting young talent. They still owe other teams draft picks. They’ll probably be able to make one more “trade 3 unprotected firsts” type of trade before Luka hits unrestricted free agency. But their current roster is just…not championship level.

But Luka Doncic, while he may be unlikable, is absolutely one of the best 5 players in this league. They’re 14-14 right now…replace Luka with a replacement level player and they’re probably something like 5-23 at best

So when the make it far in the playoffs just last year it's because he's that good, but when they are .500 it's because his team isn't good? Got it.

 

[Jscc]

Doncic is special, but he's more Rockets Harden than first stint LeBron imo. LeBron was the best offensive player and guarded the best opposing player.

 

[Medina smoke]

Just want to point out that Evan Mobley is a 21 year old who should legitimately be in the top 3 of DPOTY voting this year if people have any sense. He is the most important part of our very elite defense.

They need to keep a stat for the “ Mobley u-turn”

 

[InBoobieWeTrust]

So when the make it far in the playoffs just last year it's because he's that good, but when they are .500 it's because his team isn't good? Got it.

I mean,the league is just way too talented dude you need a competent team around you to go deep into the playoffs. Even Giannis.

Luka was a fucking monster in the postseason last year. And Brunson was an adequate 2nd option most nights.

The Mavs lost their 2nd best player for nothing. Of course they’re struggling more than last year. But Doncic while not perfect defensively, is just clearly one of the best players in the league and will be until he gets old.

 

[letgocavs]

I mean,the league is just way too talented dude you need a competent team around you to go deep into the playoffs. Even Giannis.

Luka was a fucking monster in the postseason last year. And Brunson was an adequate 2nd option most nights.

The Mavs lost their 2nd best player for nothing. Of course they’re struggling more than last year. But Doncic while not perfect defensively, is just clearly one of the best players in the league and will be until he gets old.

I think his style of play is hard for anyone because he controls the ball too much. Hard to put talent him. Brunson is a beast, but it's hard to get into a rhythm playing with a guy like him. Plus all the whining. Who would want to play with him? Doesn't seem like a good teammate. An offensive juggernaut, but it's more to the game than one side of the ball. The way he currently plays he won't get a ring. I think he'll end up with a couple, but it'll be because he evolves his game. Right now he's just stat chasing. Not impressive. And Giannis didn't stat chase and knows how to play with an IQ to win. If you put Giannis on the Mavs they still make the finals and the bucks with Luka aren't.

 

[InBoobieWeTrust]

I think his style of play is hard for anyone because he controls the ball too much. Hard to put talent him. Brunson is a beast, but it's hard to get into a rhythm playing with a guy like him. Plus all the whining. Who would want to play with him? Doesn't seem like a good teammate. An offensive juggernaut, but it's more to the game than one side of the ball. The way he currently plays he won't get a ring. I think he'll end up with a couple, but it'll be because he evolves his game. Right now he's just stat chasing. Not impressive. And Giannis didn't stat chase and knows how to play with an IQ to win. If you put Giannis on the Mavs they still make the finals and the bucks with Luka aren't.

This Mavs terms with Giannis is not a finals team. Sorry.

Giannis is the best player in the NBA but there’s a lot of reasons people would want to play with Luka. He’s effective and if surrounded with talent he will compete at the highest levels. He has elite court vision, can shoot, great handle, great size..he may be a bit of a jerk but ultimately most players would love to play with Luka. You think LeBron wouldn’t take Luka Doncic on his team? If we would have won the lotto with the Nets pick(we were one Dinwiddie prayer bomb missing away from that…people forget) we would have been able to pair LeBron and Doncic if he would have stayed.

He’s a top 5 player and he’s definitely got room to take his game up another level. I’m sorry, but you’re talking crazy about Doncic. The dude is among the best of the best in the league.