Welcome to the Week Five Dallas Mavericks roundtable!
This features four of the most active Dallas Mavericks community members, and their thoughts on the previous week of Mavericks action.
This week, we saw Dallas' win streak hit seven games, and the Mavs played the Lakers tough for three quarters. Jason Terry and J.J. Barea had great weeks, and Dallas looks to be putting a slow start in the rear-view mirror.
Scores for this week:
11/25: Pacers 106, Mavs 109
11/28: Mavs 107, Lakers 114
11/29: Mavs 101, Kings 78
The first three questions will be the same every week: an analysis of the week's games. For the last two, we'll be examining some topics on a larger scale.
How did the Mavs look to you this week?
Blake Gibbs: The Mavs looked decent, however, their ugly fourth quarter against L.A. shows they still are going nowhere without a change.
Janet Kessler: I give them an A. They really look confident, more like a unit of one instead of five individuals.
Waleed Ershad: They looked great! Two wins and a close game with the best team in the league. The bench came out and played pretty well. Jason Terry has been stepping it up. The defense looks great. All this without our No. 2 guy: Josh Howard.
Alex McVeigh: The Mavs look to be back to form, meaning they can beat bad teams and struggle against good teams. Except for the 19-0 run against the Lakers, they looked good. B.
What was a personal highlight for you?
Blake: My personal highlight was seeing Jason Terry turn into the Mavs legitimate No. 2 guy.
Janet: J.J. See my latest read. O'le Barea, O'le!
Waleed: Barea and Jet are probably gonna be mentioned. So I'll go with Devean George. He's shootin it well and plays excellent defense.
Alex: Watching J.J. Barea make us forget about losing Devin Harris (at least, until Harris dropped 34 and 47 during a back-to-back), by getting to the basket, making great passes, and hitting jumpers.
If you had told me that Barea and Kidd would be on the floor together during a fourth quarter close game at the Staples Center, I would have thought you were crazy.
What is the most immediate issue that needs to be fixed?
Blake: The most immediate thing that needs to be fixed is simple: Trade Howard, Stack, and anyone else, except for Dirk, Kidd, Green, to get a big man here.
Janet: J-ho's ankle, especially with Antoine Wright's injury. I wasg going to say fix the two-guard spot. However, if you check out the box scores, that's the most productive position on this team. Somehow putting it to a committee works for them.
Waleed: Josh Howard needs to come back! And closing out games is always a problem. Dirk needs to show up in the fourth. They should run more pick-and-rolls with Terry and Dirk as well.
Alex: They need to play a full game against a good team. For 40 minutes, the Mavericks were outplaying the Lakers in every way possible, and then they had a lapse. That can't happen in the playoffs if you expect to win a title.
Should the Mavs start rebuilding (by trading Howard, Kidd, etc.) or stand pat for the season and try and make a run?
Blake: The Mavs should start rebuilding, but not completely. Keep Dirk, Kidd, and Green as your core, then trade everyone else and change the DNA of this team.
Janet: This team is built around two future Hall-Of-Famers. Let's do it. Besides Chris Kaman, there's not much out there. I don't know, other than Devean George, whom I would give up.
Waleed: Heck no, they shouldn't start rebuilding. We got Kidd now, whether we like it or not, and we need to make a run. Plus, no one's going to give us any good value for our guys.
Alex: I am encouraged by Jason Terry's return to form, and the promise that Barea, Wright, Green and Singleton offer. I think this is the last year for Dallas to stay the Mavericks as we once knew.
If they get another first-round flameout or miss the playoffs, everyone but Dirk is on the block. Although, if they miss the playoffs and snag Ricky Rubio on the draft, all is forgiven.
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