Dallas Mavericks
Starters
PG - Jason Kidd
SG - Jason Terry
SF - Shawn Marion
PF - Josh Smith
C - Troy Murphy
Bench
C - Erick Dampier
SF - Peja Stojakovic
PG - Steve Blake
G/F - Marquis Daniels
F/C - Julian Wright
i'll save my "dynamic offense" rant for another time, since i'm bound to go on forever...
i think we get a bad rap in terms of people judging team defense. People see troy murphy at the 5 and think we'll be in trouble. Reality is that Kidd, Marion, and Smith are all (at minimum) above average defenders when they dig in. Concerns over Terry's height are legit, but he can always be swiched onto the PG and have Kidd cover the 2-guard. Murphy is undersized, but rebounds like a fiend and is a very cerebral player; he will take his medicine from time to time, but that's what old friend Erick Dampier is on the roster for.
When we need to go big, we can go Dampier, Murphy, Smith, Daniels, and Kidd. When we need shooting we can go Murphy, Marion, Stojakovic, Terry, Blake. Basically our flexibility allows us to match up in any situation while also imposing our punishing up-tempo offense on the opposition.
Defense worries me less than who plays in the post? Every player you have but Dampier likes to start at the perimeter.
it's true, we don't have a prototypical post player, but Josh Smith does most of his damage around the basket, and with Murphy keeping his defender honest, it should keep a bit more of the lane open for Marion and Smith to weave their way into space.
i tried to model this team to look somewhat like the early 2000 nets and the suns teams from a few years back. Kenyon Martin was more of a face up player for jersey and Amare, though very good in the post, also prefered and still does prefer to attack his man from a triple threat position on the elbow. Obviously Josh Smith isn't quite at the level of Amare, but the dynamics of his game (mixed with the others) allows this offense to succeed in either a breaking mode or at a slower pace....obviously our intentions are to force the pace though.