Dallas mavericks roster for tonight9/10/2023 This is not to discount the individual work both of these players did to improve their jumpers in Dallas, but it’s clear Doncic’s presence was a big boost. His time in Dallas post-trade and then before the Kyrie trade? 40.4 and 40.5 percent. Let’s move to Dinwiddie: in the two and half seasons he played (outside of the missed ACL tear season) before Dallas, he shot 33.5, 30.8, and 28.6 percent from three. In the seasons after, with Doncic running the show? 37.6, 39.4, 39.5, and 35.5 percent. Just look at Finney-Smith: before Doncic’s first season as the franchise player, he shot 29.3, 29.9, and 31.1 percent from three. The point is, those two weren’t the saviors and they expose a problem the Mavericks have been dancing around for some time, a problem the Mavericks have to answer now.Ī fun trick from Luka Doncic, carrying the torch from Dirk Nowitzki, is the ability to mask over the weaknesses of his teammates. Game 2 wasn’t much better for either: Finney-Smith had eight points and seven rebounds in 27 minutes, while Dinwiddie had 12 points on 5-of-14 shooting. The Nets are currently in a 2-0 hole to the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round, with Finney-Smith playing only 18 minutes in Game 1 with six points and one rebound, while Dinwiddie scored only 14 points on 12 shots, missing four of his five three pointers. Dinwiddie’s assists rose to nine per game, but his efficiency cratered, shooting only 49 percent on twos and 29 percent on threes. The truth was the team wasn’t in a good spot before the trade, and the trade wasn’t enough to fix the core issue - the Mavericks weren’t good enough.įinney-Smith and Dinwiddie didn’t do much to make the Mavericks feel regret - Finney-Smith shot 43 percent on twos, 30 percent on threes and averaged about seven points and five rebounds per game as a Net in the regular season. But the 22nd best defense a year after being in the top 10 is simply not good enough for a team wanting to contend. Could Dallas had used Finney-Smith’s defense presence? Sure. The offense got a little better, the defense got a little worse. At least, not different enough to explain the massive collapse. Dallas at the time had the seventh best offense and the 22nd best defense.Īfter the trade, the Mavericks fell apart, but the numbers aren’t that different. The team was 28-26, the eighth seed by only the slimmest of margins. That’s fair, but here’s the dirty secret - no matter what point of the season, whether it was pre-trade or post-trade, the Dallas Mavericks talent simply was not good enough.īefore the Mavericks traded away Finney-Smith and Dinwiddie, the team played one final game together, losing to the Golden State Warriors 119-113. Irving was good, but the Mavericks needed the bodies more than another star. So as Dallas’ defense toiled after the trade, there was a growing narrative that the Irving trade was a failure, that Dallas couldn’t afford to lose its defensive stalwart and steady backcourt-mate for Luka Doncic. Losing two starters for one, no matter how great that one starter is, can cause some cascading effects that doom a team, especially one that was already as limited with its depth as the Mavericks. While most acknowledged that judging the trade by pure talent, the Mavericks won, there were plenty of risks involved in terms of breaking up and losing two major contributors from a team that went to the Western Conference Finals a year ago. Since the Mavericks blockbuster trade of Kyrie Irving, I’ve kept my eye on the progress of Dorian Finney-Smith and Spencer Dinwiddie, the two Mavericks that had to depart in the trade so Irving could come to Dallas.
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