Originally Posted by Lockjaw

As a Mavs fan....you have got to be kidding me.

Terry Fortson? He's not even on the team any more. I think you are talking about Dampier. And Devin will be riding the bench and Daniels will be running point.
The Mavs have had too much turn over to contend seriously this year. I'd be shocked if they made the top 5 teams in the West. They'll be better defensively but they will be much much worse on the offensive side of the ball and against some of the shut down defensive teams in the league their shooting won't get it done. They'll basically play out like this. They'll be able to beat exclusive offensive oriented teams with their improved D.
Teams that are able to ugly up a game with a shut down D will give them problems but they should be able to win. Overall teams with a powerful offensive and a tough defensive they'll get raped against because they can't play defense as good as those guys and they can't shoot and score as well as they could in the past to compensate for their lack of D. It used to be they would force teams to run the court with them. Now they'll try to play a half court game they aren't going to be able to pull that off. Maybe next year...but we hear that all the time.