Dunc'd On Basketball NBA Podcast
Sep 29, 2026 · 1 hr 36 min · 31 segments
Nate and Danny make their over/under picks for every Western Conference team, weighing roster changes, health, depth, and fit. They also examine how lottery reform could redistribute wins across the…
Nate DuncanHost
Danny LerouxHost
And last year, kind of to the point that you mentioned, There were no teams that won roughly those type of games.
The New Orleans Pelicans won 26 games, the Bulls won 31, and then the Warriors won 37.
So what I did for this exercise for a few teams was, well, what were things like at the All-Star break, which isn't exactly the inflection point, but it's close enough.
And at that point, teams that had differentials in this vicinity, the Bucks, the Grizzlies at that point before the Grizzlies started not playing a big man ever or anything like that, they were in this vicinity.
So like, would Dallas be a team like that? Both of those franchises were in the low teens on offense and the mid 20s on defense.
But there are a lot of ways to get to a, let's call it a negative four net rating, something in that vicinity.
I wish, of course, that I could have done all of them and thought about some of these teams a little bit more.
There is some news to get to involving the Mavericks, and that starts with Derek Lively II because he is not going to be ready to start the season.
in December after a surgery to remove bone spurs in his right foot in July of 2025.
And so this surgery that he's had, I haven't seen the exact nature of what that surgery is.
We have not heard the dreaded phrase navicular, but if it were something on the outside of the foot, like a Jones fracture or something, we wouldn't be on this type of a timeline.
that is consistent with a navicular injury, some sort of a something-is-wrong-overall type of injury, not just an acute injury, and going back even to when he had all those issues with a... stress fracture in his second season the whole belton billsborough thing where they were working him out with a broken foot and all that so obviously they want a slower timeline here to me he started running on the treadmill which probably if they're saying that just means that he's running on like the alter g treadmill with less of his less than his full weight and doing a little bit of jumping so yeah i would imagine it's going to be at least for our purposes here a couple of months at minimum before he debuts but also this has we can go a little bit far afield here because we haven't discussed it yet this has implications for his possible extension and it also has implications just for the mavs overall team building if he's just i mean there are guys who've come back from this but at this point in time you have to be very skeptical that he's going to be a foundational piece for these guys
And last year, kind of to the point that you mentioned, There were no teams that won roughly those type of games.
The New Orleans Pelicans won 26 games, the Bulls won 31, and then the Warriors won 37.
So what I did for this exercise for a few teams was, well, what were things like at the All-Star break, which isn't exactly the inflection point, but it's close enough.
And at that point, teams that had differentials in this vicinity, the Bucks, the Grizzlies at that point before the Grizzlies started not playing a big man ever or anything like that, they were in this vicinity.
So like, would Dallas be a team like that? Both of those franchises were in the low teens on offense and the mid 20s on defense.
But there are a lot of ways to get to a, let's call it a negative four net rating, something in that vicinity.
I wish, of course, that I could have done all of them and thought about some of these teams a little bit more.
There is some news to get to involving the Mavericks, and that starts with Derek Lively II because he is not going to be ready to start the season.
in December after a surgery to remove bone spurs in his right foot in July of 2025.
And so this surgery that he's had, I haven't seen the exact nature of what that surgery is.
We have not heard the dreaded phrase navicular, but if it were something on the outside of the foot, like a Jones fracture or something, we wouldn't be on this type of a timeline.
that is consistent with a navicular injury, some sort of a something-is-wrong-overall type of injury, not just an acute injury, and going back even to when he had all those issues with a... stress fracture in his second season the whole belton billsborough thing where they were working him out with a broken foot and all that so obviously they want a slower timeline here to me he started running on the treadmill which probably if they're saying that just means that he's running on like the alter g treadmill with less of his less than his full weight and doing a little bit of jumping so yeah i would imagine it's going to be at least for our purposes here a couple of months at minimum before he debuts but also this has we can go a little bit far afield here because we haven't discussed it yet this has implications for his possible extension and it also has implications just for the mavs overall team building if he's just i mean there are guys who've come back from this but at this point in time you have to be very skeptical that he's going to be a foundational piece for these guys
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