MVN - Most Valuable Network

The Biggest Big 3? Not in Big-D…

DB.com’s Mike Fisher recently spoke to Dallas Mavericks GM Donnie Nelson about the team’s “Big 3″ of Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd and Josh Howard.

“Look at the two teams in the Finals. In LA, there’s Kobe and a nice supporting cast. In Boston, they have their Big 3. We think there is not a huge or significant difference or gap in talent between our top players and theirs.”

Now don’t get me wrong - I like the Mavs’ trio and am very excited to see how they will perform next year under a new coach with a different system.  It’s sounding like Rick Carlisle is doing everything he can to ingratiate himself with his players (including spending time with Nowitzki in his hometown), and I’m hoping that his fresh, post-Avery approach to coaching will make a difference in the win column and hopefully in the playoffs.

But at this point, to put Dallas’ Big 3 on the same level with either Boston’s or L.A.’s respective trios is just ridiculous.  It’s no secret many around the league believe that Josh Howard is on the trading block, yet Nelson continues to insist that the Mavs’ core trio is a “good foundation for a contending team.”

He may be right there.  Sure, the Mavericks may have been a contending team, but there are at least a dozen other contending teams out there also.  I want the Mavericks to be more than just a contending team.  I want them to be a championship team.

Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen is the crown jewel of “Big 3’s” and no other team’s comes close in my mind.  The Lakers’ Bryant, Gasol and Odom are up there as well, along with other trios such as Duncan-Parker-Ginobili, Billups-Hamilton-Wallace, Nash-Stoudemire-O’Neal and Boozer-Williams-Okur.  Heck, the Mavericks got beaten down by the Hornets’ Big 3 of Paul, Chandler and Stojakovic so one would have to put them above Dallas as well, right?

When I look at the Mavericks, I see a team that is coming off two straight first round exits at the hands of teams that lost in the second round.  I see a team in transition with a lot of question marks surrounding its future.  I’m every bit the optimist like Nelson seems to be, but I don’t overvalue the team’s talent as much as he does.

To me, Nowitzki still has a couple more years left of being a solid number one option.  Kidd, in the right situation, is still an elite point guard and great facilitator but no longer a good second offensive option, while Howard is a legit number three under the same circumstances.  The rest of the roster is made up of a mix of complimentary veterans and youngsters, most of whom made little impact in the playoffs and can’t all be counted on consistently.

The point here is that the Mavericks’ Big 3 plus a decent group of compliments still didn’t even come close to cutting it.  Donnie acknowledged that the team has a “long way to go” before the season starts, and for that I’m glad.  But can he (and more importantly, will he) do something about it?  By the looks of what the Mavs have (a late second round draft pick, an assortment of aging veterans with bloated contracts and a handful of promising but unproven newbies), it’s not going to be easy.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 20th, 2008 at 5:16 pm and is filed under Rick Carlisle, Josh Howard, Donnie Nelson, Jason Kidd, Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.