The biggest loser in the finals! From the team's third core to falling out of the rotation, the Mavericks have a hard time keeping him in the offseason

Achenggao

2024-06-19 11:00Published in Shandong Sports Creators

On June 19, Beijing time, although the Mavericks lost to the Celtics in the Finals, they exceeded expectations in terms of their performance throughout the season. The Mavericks were only eighth in the West at the trade deadline this season, but after getting Washington and Gafford through the trade deadline, the team went straight to the fifth place in the West, although the fifth place in the West is not low, but they have met teams with better records than themselves in three consecutive rounds of the Western Conference playoffs.

The biggest loser in the finals! From the team's third core to falling out of the rotation, the Mavericks have a hard time keeping him in the offseason

In this case, the Mavericks have done three consecutive rounds of gramming, they are already legendary enough, in this year's playoff journey, many players have proven themselves, such as Doncic, the previous Doncic everyone only knew that it was powerful, but I didn't expect it to be so strong, if the Mavericks won the championship this year, maybe the face of the league is Doncic, and his personal ability is obviously stronger than the Celtics.

Although Doncic's defense has been questioned, friends who have watched the game know that Doncic can defend and he wants to defend, but because of injuries, he can't do what he wants on the defensive end, he has the level of a top star, and he definitely has a chance to win FMVP in the future, and his average of 28.9 points, 9.5 rebounds, 8.1 assists and 1.9 steals per game throughout the playoffs is very good, and he is only 25 years old and has not really reached his peak.

Irving has been questioned for the past few years, but this season he has proven himself as a mature star and can lead the team as a leader in the locker room, and although he was plagued by demons in the Finals against the Celtics and could not face his old club, we can't deny his performance throughout the playoffs, and Irving is now the top two in the league.

In addition to these two, the Mavericks have many players who have proven themselves in the playoffs this season, such as Lively, a first-year player, only 20 years old, but he plays the finals without stage fright, if it weren't for him, the Mavericks may be swept by the opponent, and Lively's impact and defense are still very good, this is the third core of the Mavericks' future, and Gafford may be replaced by him in the future, after all, Lively's ceiling is higher.

Washington used to be considered a cancer during the Hornets period, clamoring for a big contract, but the Hornets didn't give it to test the free market, and in the end there was no team wanted, he chose to return to the Hornets, after joining the Mavericks, he used his excellent projection and defense to help the team, although the Finals did not play well, but in the Western Conference playoffs he was the third core of the team to win, without him the Mavericks would never have reached the Finals.

Speaking of the team's third core, who is the third core of the Mavericks before the start of the playoffs, everyone must know that he is Hardaway Jr., Hardaway Jr. averaged 14.4 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game in the regular season, and averaged 2.7 three-pointers per game, because of his excellent performance, he was even selected for the best sixth man, thinking that the 32-year-old veteran could continue to play his role as a killer in the playoffs.

As a result, after the playoffs, the style of painting changed abruptly, and he was ineffective on the offensive end, and he couldn't get a comfortable shot opportunity in the face of high-intensity defense, and because he was limited by high-intensity defense for a long time, he sometimes couldn't shoot three points in the open position, and the defensive end became the target of the opponent's point list, I thought he would be the most reliable veteran of the team's playoffs, but he became the most strained one in the team's main rotation.

In fact, Kidd still wanted to trust him in the early stage, and Kidd also gave him a chance, but he just didn't reuse, and his best game in the entire playoffs was the Finals G4, playing 12 minutes, shooting 5 of 7, and getting 15 points and 3 rebounds in 5 of 7 three-point shooting. It's true that the data alone is very strong, in fact, his scores were brushed in garbage time in the fourth quarter, there was no pressure to win at that time, and the opponent was a three-team lineup, Hardaway Jr. played very easily, so he played a brilliant performance.

Looking at the entire playoffs, Hardaway averaged 4.4 points and 1.8 rebounds per game, shooting only 38%, three-point shooting rate of 35%, such a performance is like a three-in-command, he is not worth his annual salary of 19.6 million, Kidd threw him out of the rotation lineup is understandable, after all, his performance is not as good as Josh Green, in the offseason it is estimated that the Mavericks will try to send away Hardaway Jr., although he did not play well in the playoffs, but it should not be difficult to send him away, after all, he is still very good at playing the regular season, Young teams may like it.

After this season, Hardaway estimates that it will be difficult to get a big contract in the future, and it can be said that many players in the finals have played their worth, and no matter how bad they are, they have reached the level of salary, but he has become the biggest loser.

View original image 77K