MavsFanForLife

Not Last Years Team

Even though Billups was out, the Mavs kept Carmelo in check (only 16 points, almost half of what he is averaging this season so far) which secured their win against the Nuggets.

It also helps when 7 players post double digit scoring, that’s called teamwork since basketball is a team sport. The Mavs players seem to be listening to their captain in taking bigger roles to lead to more wins instead of just depending on him.

The Mavericks ended up winning 104-96 to push them in second overall place in the West, right behind the Lakers.

What’s In Store For The Mavs

So there’s been a lot of happenings around Mavland. Lots of player transactions which resulted in a lot of familiar faces sticking around but a lot of new faces we’ll be seeing this coming season.

With the Mavericks already over the grand old luxury tax imposed by the NBA, Stackhouse, George and Bass are just a few of the familiar faces no longer with the team. The newcomers are Shawn Marion, Drew Gooden and Tim Thomas, along with Rodrigue Beaubois, Ahmad Nivins (still unsigned) and Nick Calathes (still unsigned) who were all draft picks.

Gerald Green, Ryan Hollins and James Singleton are all free agents. I honestly hope the Mavs can keep Hollins around, the others really wouldn’t make an impact to the team.

As for the starting lineup, we can probably count that it will be Kidd, Marion, Howard, Nowitzki and Dampier. Jason Terry will continue to come out as the 6th man and Drew Gooden will be a versatile player who can back up Nowitzki and Dampier.

Tim Thomas being a 3 point specialist could come off the bench in hopes to get some easy baskets in little time, as he averaged close to 8 points a game in 20 minutes on average playtime each game.

Little Jose will continue coming off the bench and maybe get some more starts as well to back up Kidd. Hopefully Kidd can continue to mentor Barea to possibly take over the PG role while Kidd deeparts from his playing days in the NBA in the next few years that he has left.

Overall I believe the players we picked up makes the Mavericks a better team than last year and even the year before. If Gooden stays healthy along with Josh Howard staying healthy and Tim Thomas can put up some decent numbers, I can see this team being a threat to the Denver Nuggets and maybe rebounding to be a contender in the tight Western Conference. I’m not even so worried about Denver any longer, everyone should realize that the Lakers just got better picking up Artest and retaining Odom, so that’s the team to beat this year.