2010 NBA Playoffs: Denver Nuggets and Dallas Mavericks Were Highly Overrated

Maybe now that both the Denver Nuggets and Dallas Mavericks have been eliminated from the 2010 NBA postseason we can start discussing their ill-fated playoff journeys with a little bit of realism.

It was widely assumed the Nuggets and Mavericks existed in the rare air of NBA title contenders, but their respective first-round losses revealed them to be pretenders of the highest magnitude.

For instance, the Mavericks were exposed by the San Antonio Spurs in the very areas which have been their bane, namely post defense and offense, and the deal for Caron Butler and Brendan Haywood proved to be highly overrated.

Butler and Haywood were simply role players, nothing more, and their signings glossed over the fact Dallas was still a poor defensive team which was too reliant on the perimeter to create scoring opportunities.

The only people who should be surprised the Mavericks were defeated are the fans in Dallas who deluded themselves into thinking the Mavericks were real contenders in the first place.

Some say insanity can be defined as repeating the same wrong actions while hoping for a different result, and if so, Dallas has been engaged in a mad dance with insanity for the last decade.

The fact that some people actually expected them to win may be the most perplexing of all, and considering the Mavericks numerous past failures, those people may be engaged in insanity themselves.

If the Mavericks troubles could be predicted, the Nuggets get a pass because they were caught off guard by Deron Williams and his dominance in their first round matchup.

The Nuggets participated in last season's Western Conference finals, and it was previously a safe bet to assume they would reprise their role, but Denver fell victim to some very familiar haunts.

The Nuggets cruised through the regular season pretending their lack of girth in the post was no real reason for concern, and they may have been right about that, but what happened to everything else?

Coach George Karl's battle with cancer surely took its toll, and it may be a cause of the discord and selfishness the series against Utah came to be defined by.

Denver regressed to the team they were in 2008, and Carmelo Anthony struggled to live up to his role as a superstar and was visibly frustrated by his own ineffectiveness.

I guess the Nuggets could say they suffered from the loss of Nene to injury for Game Six, but that excuse fails to hold weight when considering the Jazz defeated the Nuggets minus two injured starters.

The cold truth of the matter is the Nuggets and Mavericks were decent teams, nothing more, and their status as contenders has been revealed as something similar to a desert mirage.

Funny thing is, most people knew this to begin with, yet chose to disregard the mountains of evidence which supported this truth. Maybe we can all come together now and expose the Mavericks and Nuggets for the frauds we knew they were.