00:00How much better are the Mavs than when the finals ended?
00:19I think their ceiling is higher.
00:21And I think that there are, you know, good questions, curiosities that we're going to
00:26find out about this team in the regular season.
00:29You know, I don't want to gloss over the loss of Derrick Jones Jr.
00:33It makes the team different.
00:35But I think we saw very clearly in the finals, you know, Dallas needed shooting.
00:40And they needed more depth.
00:42And it is impossible to look at this new-look roster and, you know, not see that it's deeper.
00:48And it has shooters.
00:49It has one of the best shooters to ever, you know, play this sport.
00:53And so, yeah, I think this team's ceiling is higher.
00:56I think there's a chance that, a good chance, that this is all going to come together and
01:01work really well.
01:02And that this is going to be an improved version of a team that just went to the finals last
01:08year.
01:09And that's obviously a great spot for Dallas to be in.
01:13Were they able to get better shooting without losing the defense that Derrick Jones Jr.
01:18provided with all the moves together?
01:21It's going to look different.
01:22I mean, the thing that, you know, I think we were all so impressed by Derrick Jones
01:26Jr.
01:27And, you know, by the, you know, as the regular season went on, you know, I just, I didn't
01:33realize he was that good.
01:34I knew he was good.
01:36He's someone who I had on my all-defense shortlist.
01:39You know, so not a top-10 defender in the NBA, but, you know, I thought he had a legitimate,
01:47you know, case to be a top-20 guy.
01:49You know, a top-10, you know, wing defender, perimeter defender, and it's, you know, that's
01:55what you lose.
01:56You can only put so much, you know, like you can, they have replaced him with good defenders,
02:02but they haven't replaced him with great defenders.
02:05And I do think that absence is going to be felt a little bit.
02:08I do think that, you know, how the team closes games, you know, which players are able to
02:15step up and, you know, be the defenders for players like, let's say, Tyrese Maxey and,
02:20you know, and Ja Morant.
02:22You know, I think that's something that we need to see in the regular season, whether
02:26it's, you know, Najee Marshall, whether it's Quinton Grimes, whether Kyrie is going to
02:30be able to, you know, step up to that challenge throughout the regular season.
02:35Something that Jones, you know, handled real capably, those type players last season.
02:40But yeah, they have options.
02:42They absolutely have options in depth and ways to manage this.
02:46It's just a matter of how they go about doing it.
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