NBA Playoffs: Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks Falling Apart

Dallas and Phoenix have a lot more common that just the friendship of Nash and Dirk.  Both of teams have great players, both are great regular season teams, and both find ways to beat themselves in the playoffs. 

Few season ago, Suns were the darlings of the NBA.  They had one of the biggest turnaround in the history of the NBA, played a loose style basketball that reenergized the whole NBA and made watching non-defense playing teams fun again.  I swear they brought a whole new concept of launching a shot before the viewers could blink more than 3 times.  They had pieces to make a deep run in the playoffs for years to come.  They had the best PG in the league, an emerging Power Forward in Amare, one of the best, if not the best, all around guy in Marion, a defensive specialist in Bell, and probably one of the best bench player in Barbosa. 

Mavericks on the other hand, had just let go of Nash, made Dirk "THE MAN" of the team and asked him to lead them to a championship.  After losing to his close buddy Nash in 05, they back much stronger in 2006, going all the way to the finals and losing to Heat in 6.  Something they could never let go of. But it seemed like they had all the pieces to keep coming back to finals just about every year.  They had best big-shooting man in Dirk, do-it-all Josh Howard, a proven scorer and clutch shooter in Terry, an up and coming young PG and an owner who was willing to do whatever is necessary to win now.

In 2007, Dirk and Mavs were ousted in first round after winning 67 games in regular season and pheonix was clobbered by San Antonio in 6 games in the conference semifinals.  Then comes the 2008, Pheonix trade their style of play and their best all around player for an aging HOF Center with playoff experience and Mavs trade their future away for an aging HOF point guard with playoff experience.

Fast forward to the playoffs and after 2 games, both team are down 0-2 to their opponents and probably headed out of the playoffs very soon unless their opponents just collapses in the next few games. 

The question is, where do these teams go now?  Is it time to wipe the slate and start rebuilding early since the players they have on their team are still worth something.  Or do you keep going at it the same way again next year with probably the same results again next playoffs with emerging new powers in the west like NO, and LAL.  What will Cuban do?  Will he ship some of his players out and stop paying all those high salaries for first round exits or will he keep his faith in them?  Will Steve Kerr become the next Mitch Kupchak? Not for trading Shaq away but FOR Trading Shaq. I have a feeling that the front offices of these two teams will be very busy through the offseason and if either or both of them do decide to break up, there are lots of team out there who will be on the lookout.