Grading On A Curve: NBA Team Grades At The Break

[Erick Blasco]

Dallas has never been a seriously defensive team, at least not more so then offense and they are right around average for defense, which is where they always are. Im not sure if anything more was actually expected of them when their system has not really changed. According to insidehoops.com Dallas is 15th in overall defense (last season being 14th, so defense fallen apart does not really ring true). Maybe some individual efforts have fallen short, but some positions have also highly increased, as a team they are relatively the same though. In fact their defensive numbers are not much different from the year they went to the finals against the Heat.

 

Miami on the other hand is doing almost worst in every category from last season. What where their expectations for the season with a healthy wade? Was it really to do worse?

Improvements from their youth, Beasley, Chalmers, Cook, ect. Bringing in guys like Q-rich and an ultimate goal of keeping Wade happy this season and their expectations are for a questionable 7th-8th seed? Highly doubtful. They may not expect to be contenders, but right now they are questioning being in the play-offs.

 

A B+ for a team that is falling apart (which definitely did not have those goals set for the year) vs a C for a team that is a solid 2-4 seed in the West (which is definitely an expectation) and is one of the few true contenders in that conference is not a very good grading scale.

 

Dallas considers themselves a Western Conference Finals team, I'd imagine. They got to the second round last season and improved their team this year with Marion. They were supposed to have a ton of depth. They started the season exceptionally in defensive rating and have collapsed to reach the 15 spot they now hold. Despite upgrading their roster, the Mavs are in the same position they were last year.

 

Miami couldn't reasonably expect Wade to hold up after all he had to do last year. There had to be some regression. Most of Miami's youth isn't the kind that improves. Chalmers and Beasley yes, but Cook is what he is, a defenseless, sporadic gunner.

 

Q-Rich is as average as they come, and nobody thought Jermaine O'Neal would have more than a handful of good games a month.

 

Despite all those roster flaws, Miami is plugging away at a playoff spot I thought would go to the Wizards or Pacers in the offseason. They've played the sixth toughest schedule in the league and have been fine.

 

Before the Butler trade, Dallas had lost 10 of its previous 17 games, and had gone from a possible 2 seed, to joining the glut of teams that can finish anywhere from third to out of the playoffs completely.

[bravenewworld]

Not buying it.

Miami should be in a better position now and i can promise that the franchise expectations were not to be out of the play-offs (which supposedly them being a questionable 7+ seed is amazing and i cannot think of one news source that predicted them even that low). This is the almost same exact team as last season so there is no reason for anyone to hold them to any less then what they did the previous.

 

Dallas had a little skid but they are still in the position to finish as expected.