[Mavs41]

After last night's game this team needs a real gut check. They looked like they rather be anywhere else than playing basketball. The first half looked like they were just fine with getting blown out. What a coincidence that Nellie was back coaching the team. I'm really SICK of it I hope other fans are too! The team knew they could relax since AJ was back as the assistant. I'm really starting to believe there are two different philosophy's inside the organizartion.

When Nellie coaches it's just whatever happens will happen. He just throws guys out there for a couple of minutes. If they don't perform they will just sit the rest of the game. Then when they don't perform he will embarasse them in the media. To me that's silly and childish and doesn't get anything accomplished twoards the good of the team. All you need to do is look at when he said JET wasn't a PG in the papers. Seems to me like JET has proven him wrong when plays big minutes his assist numbers are excellent.

The games that AJ has coached have been a total 180. He is yelling out plays and screaming at players if they make mistakes. He is VERY demanding and chew's this team out. When he kicked that chair against the T-Wolves that impressed the hell out of me. It's about damn time we have a coach who doesn't truly take crap. When he did that he was upset with Finley, a team leader. It doesn't matter who it is, he's going to put his foot on their neck. He also preaches defense and demands it from ALL of his players. His style of coaching will result in better playoff sucess.

 

[Tersk]

I can see where your coming from, but IMHO you just need to relax.

We are missing our man in the middle, who stops the opposition from getting easy rebounds. Also, we are missing our offensive spark aka Jerry Stackhouse who will stop scoring droughts which we are having

Breathe, 1, 2, 3 and relax

No need to worry IMO. As long as we get a few games before the playoffs in which we have those two back then I'm fine

 

[Dre]

I agree, but not to the extreme that you do. We've been saying after every loss (and a few wins) that this team didn't give it %100 out there, and it's true. I can't really say much that hasn't been said.

 

[Mavs41]

I can see where your coming from, but IMHO you just need to relax.

We are missing our man in the middle, who stops the opposition from getting easy rebounds. Also, we are missing our offensive spark aka Jerry Stackhouse who will stop scoring droughts which we are having

Breathe, 1, 2, 3 and relax

No need to worry IMO. As long as we get a few games before the playoffs in which we have those two back then I'm fine

No offense or anything, but enough with Damp is the reason we aren't playing well. How can a team like the Spurs still be very competitive WITHOUT both of their all-stars in Timmy and Manu? They've been doing that the past couple of weeks. I think they are a little bit more important to the Spurs than Damp is to us. Don't get me wrong Damp is a big factor, but it comes back to preperation. This team doesn't come out with whoever they have and bring it every night. They play like they're looking for excuses right now. Also, when Damp comes back don't be surprised if Nellie goes with KVH rather than Damp. Remember he's always gone with offense over defense, so it's not that crazy of a thought. When Nellie is the coach of team it's always time to panic.

 

[Tersk]

No offense or anything, but enough with Damp is the reason we aren't playing well. How can a team like the Spurs still be very competitive WITHOUT both of their all-stars in Timmy and Manu? They've been doing that the past couple of weeks. I think they are a little bit more important to the Spurs than Damp is to us.

The Spurs have been playing together as a unit for like 3-5 years, they are extremely deep and know how to handle when TD is out. Plus, Popovich is one of the best coaches in the league

Don't get me wrong Damp is a big factor, but it comes back to preperation. This team doesn't come out with whoever they have and bring it every night. They play like they're looking for excuses right now. Also, when Damp comes back don't be surprised if Nellie goes with KVH rather than Damp. Remember he's always gone with offense over defense, so it's not that crazy of a thought. When Nellie is the coach of team it's always time to panic.

I didn't say you were completely wrong, I do agree with you. But your taking it to another level. I agree that Nelson will/has mess(ed) us up but with our lineup of
Dampier
Nowitzki
Howard
Finley
Terry
He can't mess up us that much.

Yes he prefers offense to defense, but he won't go overboard on that. It's like saying JVG would play Mt. Mutombo over Yao

 

[DHarris34Phan]

I agree with Mavs41....I just don't buy the whole, "once Damp gets back, we will automatically get better" thing. If we are a true championship team, even a team that can make an impact through the playoffs, we wouldn't be a .500 team without Damp. This team has to learn how to play without Damp, because who knows, he might not be 100% when he comes back, and what if he gets hurt again during the playoffs? Will it be justified to lose in the playoffs because "Damp is hurt"? I say no, and this team just has to pony-up and play like they want it out there. It seems like everyone on that team is feeling bad for themselves and just lollygagging around until Damp comes back. If it keeps up the way it has been going, we are going to get destroyed by the Rockets in the 1st round.

 

[Mavs41]

I agree with Mavs41....I just don't buy the whole, "once Damp gets back, we will automatically get better" thing. If we are a true championship team, even a team that can make an impact through the playoffs, we wouldn't be a .500 team without Damp. This team has to learn how to play without Damp, because who knows, he might not be 100% when he comes back, and what if he gets hurt again during the playoffs? Will it be justified to lose in the playoffs because "Damp is hurt"? I say no, and this team just has to pony-up and play like they want it out there. It seems like everyone on that team is feeling bad for themselves and just lollygagging around until Damp comes back. If it keeps up the way it has been going, we are going to get destroyed by the Rockets in the 1st round.

Thank you. I'm glad to see someone else is as fed up with the team making excuses. This team needs to realize Damp probably isn't going to be 100% again this year. Everybody needs to accept a role and act like they actually want to go somewhere this year. I also agree when you say we will get "destroyed" by the Rockets if we keep this up. I can easily see the team getting swept if they play this way in the playoffs. The Rockets are a dominant team right now.

 

[DHarris34Phan]

Thank you. I'm glad to see someone else is as fed up with the team making excuses. This team needs to realize Damp probably isn't going to be 100% again this year. Everybody needs to accept a role and act like they actually want to go somewhere this year. I also agree when you say we will get "destroyed" by the Rockets if we keep this up. I can easily see the team getting swept if they play this way in the playoffs. The Rockets are a dominant team right now.

Furthermore, I am fed up fellow posters making excuses for the team...Even without Dampier, we have a payroll in the top 5 in the league, but without Damp we are a .500 team? Give me a break....If someone told us last season that Erick Dampier would be the glue to hold the team together next season, most Mavs fans would laugh...but now we are treating Erick Dampier as though he is Shaq....Damp is great and important to us, but we should be able to easily beat a team like Minnesota at HOME without him.....this team needs to find an identity, fast.

 

[mavsman]

Clearly this team is not the same team with Dampier out. We can say all we want that this team must learn to play without him but that is not going to make them actually do it.

I would have expected that we would have a slight dropoff in defense with Dampier out of the lineup. What I did not expect is the incredible dropoff that we have seen. Without that big guy in the middle to defend the basket we are apparently unable to stop the other team with any consistency. So rather than try to find a guy who could perform Damps job to a lesser degree, this team has instead tried to beat teams a different way. With the use of small lineups to try and cause matchup problems or different lineups to try and outscore the other team.

Here is what I would like to see. How about giving D.J. MBenga a chance to take the role of Dampier? For 10 minutes in one game since Damp went out we saw D.J. That was in the Phoenix game. He was not perfect but I thought he was OK defensively in that game and given more time he would get better quickly. Why is it that we could not find any playing time for him when we clearly have a hole in the middle without Dampier? If we are not able to defend without some presence in the middle than lets get someone in the middle who is a big physical body. Even if he is not ready to do all the things that Dampier can he could at least make this team better defensively than they have been.

We should be able to use MBenga to help this team. I would rather see Nelson try to replace Dampier with another player to fill that role instead of seeing gimicky lineups. Just because we have Dampier out does not mean that we can't continue to try and play traditional baskeball.

 

[Mavs41]

Furthermore, I am fed up fellow posters making excuses for the team...Even without Dampier, we have a payroll in the top 5 in the league, but without Damp we are a .500 team? Give me a break....If someone told us last season that Erick Dampier would be the glue to hold the team together next season, most Mavs fans would laugh...but now we are treating Erick Dampier as though he is Shaq....Damp is great and important to us, but we should be able to easily beat a team like Minnesota at HOME without him.....this team needs to find an identity, fast.

Speak the TRUTH!!! I can't agree more with your view on how this team was built. It's a team that needs to find who they are before they are sitting at home. Not just giving excuse after excuse while they have one of arguably the top 10 players in the league. It's time to buckle down and play and stop all the talk about injuries when this team has real depth.