Nail in the Coffin: Why the Dallas Mavericks Are Crumbling

Most Mavericks fans know that Dirk probably goes through more criticism than many players will hear in a lifetime, but the fact is simple—he is not a vocal leader. If you are in the Dallas area and listen to ESPN radio and the Michael Irvin show, you may have heard about the leader role they discussed a couple of days ago.

Dirk was injured and did a little tiny jest at a playful commentary on what the team was doing on the court against the Clippers. He may have been just having some fun and joking around, but the setting he did it in was unprofessional.

As the supposed leader of the team, he should have kept a more serious tone and discussed how close they are from being knocked off from playoff contention. Now, if the Mavericks had a 10-game win streak or were one of the top seeds again, I see no problem with that situation.

Don't get me wrong, I love Dirk, and, if he just wanted to have some fun, then it's fine by me. But don't try to give off or ignore the team is falling apart and trying its hardest to stay in the playoff race. You would be pulling an Isiah Thomas right there.

      But anyways, the factor of the matter is simple. Dirk may be a leader in the mind of the actual Mavericks team but there is a part in which he needs to show and present it to the media and to the fans that HE IS the undisputed leader.

3. The Finisher Factor

In my opinion, 90 percent of good teams with great offenses have three things in common—a good point guard, a good big man, and a great finisher.

The problem is that the Mavericks do not have a finisher. Convince yourself all you want, but no one on that team, even Dirk, can finish consistently. All the games, except Denver, were games that could of been won if one player stood up in the fourth quarter and consistently scored.

The problem is that Dirk is looked at to be the answer, but, the truth is, he isn't consistent. If Dirk scores constantly in the first three quarters of the match, he typically runs out of gas by the fourth quareter. Once Dirk stops shooting well, it feels like the entire team shuts down after his shooting night.

The great thing we had in Harris was that he kept the energy running high even late in the game. Just having athletic ability to constantly try to get to the rim was enough to motivate the Mavericks.

Kidd, unfortunately, is not a scoring threat and cannot finish the game when the time calls for it. Each great team has a finisher, and we don't. We don't have a Bryant, Iverson, or Ginobli.

We don't have guys who can just score the key baskets to keep the game close or put them over the summit. Howard, Terry and Stackhouse are inconsistent when it comes to finishing games. The Mavericks lost Harris' energy, and they cannot copy it into the fourth like they used to.

It is really quite simple. We had a team that had minor problems, and we used drastic measures to try to fix it and have gotten worse than before. But the Mavericks are not the only one to blame, obviously.

One even can look at the fans being a problem, as well. I'll admit, I criticized the Mavericks for collapsing in the Finals and the first round back-to-back years.

But I realized that patience and having the ability to grow on our mistakes was the key to fixing a problem and not taking drastic measures because fans called for Johnson, Cuban, or Nowitzki's head after those collapses.

I'd rather be back in those situations in which we actually can beat winning teams and be considered a Western Conference power instead of losing to winning teams and barely holding on to the playoffs.

Wasn't there an old saying once?

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

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