Dallas Mavericks Not Much Better Than .500

The Dallas Mavericks are struggling for several reasons:

1. They have a new coach in Rick Carlisle.

2. They are old.

3. They are mentally scared

4. They have Mark Cuban.

OK, so Mark Cuban has helped the Mavs more than he has hurt them, nobody will argue that point. But, the trade he made for Kidd did. This trade covers two reasons, #2 and #4.

Before the Kidd trade the Mavericks could be considered a young team. They had Devin Harris, who at 25 has many years of play left in him, unlike an aging Jason Kidd. Harris had a career night last Sunday with 47 points, eight assists and seven rebounds.

Mark Cuban wants to win a championship and he traded talented youth for talented age. Harris would have been great under Carlisle’s new system. Harris compared to Kidd this season is helping the Nets more than Kidd is helping the Mavs.

The Mavericks eked out a win against the Clippers last night and Kidd didn’t score a single point. Harris would have put up a few more than that and the win would have been better than by two points.

The Mavericks core is still suffering from the losses in the first round of the playoffs in the last two seasons. However the emotional scarring goes back to their only championship game against the Miami Heat, which as we all know, they lost. With Avery out and Rick in, this should help some.

It takes a new team time to adjust to a new system. The Mavs struggled with the transition during the first few weeks of the season, but Carlisle and his boys have started to turn this thing around.

Only time will tell if the Mavericks as currently constructed have the talent and the determination to finish strong this season.

Mavs v. Clippers