I feel like a parent of a child who finishes medical school, and works for a decade and is on the brink of curing cancer, and he quits and practices at a small, community clinic giving flu shots.The Dallas Mavericks are better than giving flu shots. They should be a team on the tip of everyone's tongue when it comes to championship. They're not.
If people talk Finals contenders (not favorites!), Dallas might make the top 10. Even then, the Mavericks aren't even considered to be in the picture.
Why not? They have a top 10 player (Dirk Nowitzki), they win 50 games a year, they get top 4 seeds in the mighty Western Conference, they have the pedigree of previous post-season success and they have an owner that'll make a move if it's there to be made.
Everything that just about any NBA fan would want out of a team and, yet, the thought of 82 games from my Dallas Mavericks absolutely bores the shit out of me.
Why? Because nothing's different. Some of that isn't bad. Nowitzki being the same is a really good thing. But that's it. Nowitkzi is not going to get better. In fact, sometime in the near future, Nowitzki will start getting worse.
Same with everyone. Caron Butler's not getting better. J.J. Barea is still on this roster. Tyson Chandler and Brendan Haywood aren't getting any better. Haywood, after getting paid, might look worse than he did a year ago.
Two Mavericks might get better: Roddy Beaubois and rookie Dominique Jones. That's it. And they may not see the court much due to their rookieness (you know, game's too fast or they don't play defense) or due to injury (Beaubois' foot).
That's it, Mavericks fans. Do you think Butler's going to quit settling for jumpers? Do you think Jason Kidd's going to start guarding younger, faster point guards better?
Everyone's peaked. They probably peaked in 2006. Kidd in 2002. Butler in 2007. Haywood in 1999.
There's a minimum that the Mavericks are good for and they will no doubt hit that minimum. The Dallas Mavericks will be good and competitive. They'll make the playoffs. And get beat.
It's not the 50 wins or first-round loss that I'm concerned or bored with. It's the contentedness and lack of change.
For a decade, the Mavericks' management kept evolving and changing parts out to find the right mix around Nowitzki.
There's no way Butler or Jason Terry survive in 2004. They would've been sent to Miami, Charlotte or Minnesota.
I'm not purporting trades and changes for the sake of trades or changes. It's about getting better, it's about pumping new hope into the franchise and it's about thinking about the future.
Butler, Shawn Marion, Kidd, Terry and Haywood aren't going to win now. And they are not a part of the future of the Dallas Mavericks. It's like my kid quitting cancer research to work at a dumpy clinic that he knows he's going to be at for a year before he works at a Target optical clinic.
Here's to 82 games.
