The Mavericks defeated the Chicago Bulls 110-102 last night in a preseason game that featured the debut of No.1 overall pick, point guard Derrick Rose. Gerlad Green scored 18 pts for Dallas, while the Bulls Rose had 10pts in 27 minutes. The Mavs face the Milwaukee Bucks tonight.
The NBA season is nearly upon hoops fans with training camps already in full gear. The system will be in full effect with the latest BS hoops goods from around the webs - and we'll see if we can find Skin to get a pinch of his Mavs mentals.
* Jason Terry (Mavs): The Jet gives an interview with DIME Magazine and fellow Seattle born Jamal Crawford from the Chicago Bulls.
- nuggets include: a Jet Reebok video promo that debuts a new line of Talkin Krazy sneakers that you can write on.. and erase.. and re-write on again.
Dime: I hear you're going to be wearing the Reebok Talkin Krazy this season. What are you going to write on it?
JT: My nickname is JET, so I'm gonna write, "Clear The Runway."
Mavs point guard Jason Kidd had an interview where he discusses his current contract status, the NJ Nets and the Beijing Olympics.
[Via True Hoop]
Some might say it's not so good, that a lot of the traditional powers -- Phoenix, Denver and your guys -- are ready for a slide.
"That's the beauty of the NBA. You're going to hear that, especially when you have a team that didn't play up to expectations, after a trade everyone thought would be a little better. Now we have a training camp and a new coach (Rick Carlisle), so we're together. Really, I'm excited about this year. We've got one of the best players in the world, we've got a very talented player in Josh Howard, who will be come out strong after a disappointing second half. Jason Terry, Brandon Bass. I like the team we have."
The Mavs have seeped into the news with Josh Howard taking a big public relations hit
over the recent national
anthem snafu - but not all of the Mavs are making negative headlines off of the court.
It appears that Jason Terry has been spending his summer doing
charitable work in the community.
Not only is there a small exodus of NBA players to foreign soil, but it
appears that sponsorship deals are also expanding to overseas markets. Various articles and pictures that surfaced today report that Dallas Maverick's guard Jason Kidd has left TEAM NIKE and penned an endorsement deal with a China based sports entity named PEAK.
As I see it, there are 2 ways to look at this Chris Sheridan report on reduced playing time for Jason Kidd in tune-up play for the olympics.
Half-full guy will say we don't want Kidd burning up minutes on his 35 year-old legs anyway and that Coach K has plenty of guys who need minutes.
Half-empty guy will say it's a clear indication of the end of Kidd's effectiveness and if Russia can exploit him when he's ballin' with Kobe, LeBron and D Howard, what are NBA teams going to do to him when he's ballin' with JoHo and I dunno, Gerald Green?
I haven't seen a second of any of these games, so I'll be uninformed-shrug-my-shoulders guy who walks around with a bad feeling in his stomach.
I honestly don't have a very strong opinion on this. I like Josh Howard quite a bit as a dude. Really like him as a player.
But I think he is what he is and part of that make-up is that he's not a great decision-maker. He often gets caught up in the moment and makes critical mistakes - both on and off the court.
I'm not sure what it is Rick Carlisle will be able to do to change any of that.
I wish I had some hot opinions on this, but I don't feel one bit differently about Josh now than I did at this time yesterday.
After talking to a guy who has amazing insight/access on such things, we're sad to report that it's highly unlikely that the Hawks will be operating under the cap - thus making Josh Smith a probable BYC signing.
Our premise was accurate, our source just doesn' think the Hawks would renounce the rights to Childress to make it happen. His cap hold leaves the on Hawks October 1st and returns July 1, 2009 if they don't renounce.
DallasBasketball's cap genius David Lord has other off-season ideas. He says go get Mo Evans.
Skinathon and the Ticket crew will dig deep into Mavs news and summer scoop today on the Ticket. Here's a look at last night's game vs Minnesota, which was also top 5 overall drafted Kevin Love's rookie debut. I liked Big Love during his run at UCLA, but it remains to be seen how he will rank versus NBA level defenders. He has a decent outside jumper but will his slow speed give him problems getting good looks at the next level?
The Dallas Mavericks ruined Kevin Love's NBA debut as they crushed the Minnesota Timberwolves 88-74 in the final game of the NBA Summer League at COX Pavilion on Monday night. JaJuan Smith led all scorers with 19 points off the bench for the Mavericks.
James Singleton struck me as the only dude who may be able to give them anything this year. I didn't even realize he'd led them in scoring and rebounding until I saw the box, but that's not the reason why.
He looks like a useful rotation player at the back half of that rotation. A little like Junkyard Dog Jerome Williams, but somewhat of a spot shooter.
I'm not getting carried away here. Don't read anything into this as I'm not overhyping him. Just a useful guy for the roster - that's all. He also had 5 turnovers and 347 fouls - aiight?
I got confirmation from Mavs superhuman Scooter Tomlin that the following games will be shown locally on KTXA:
7/11: Mavs vs. Clippers, 9pm CDT (LIVE)
7/13: Mavs vs. Warriors, 5pm CDT (LIVE)
7/14: Mavs vs. Timberwolves, 9pm CDT (LIVE)
7/16: Mavs vs Kings, 7pm CDT (TAPE DELAYED)
7/17: Mavs vs Pistons, 7pm CDT (TAPE DELAYED)
I'm sure there are other games on NBATV, but since I switched to Fios I no longer have that channel so I won't torment myself by knowing what I'm missing. So you're on your own there. But dawg, I can dowload ish crazy fast so it's worth it.
BTW - when looking for a Shan Foster pic to post, I found this ESPN bit from before the tourney. 4 out of 6 ESPN experts said MC Shan was the go-to shooter in the tourney. Whatever, that's fine. But look at that 70s jumper - butter release.
Theoretically there is a lot to like about Green. Great size, stupid hops, a nice touch from long-range. However, remember that dude has already been traded twice and cut and he's only 22.
All that talent, yet he doesn't really seem to be any better than the day he left high school.
Maybe the Mavs will get lucky and he'll get his JR Smith on. But this is not really much different that Antoine Wright or Reyshawn Terry or any other unproven dude who has a shot at getting playing time at the 2.
I'm certainly way more interested in him than Mr. Frahm. And I can't imagine they dipped into any of their MLE for this.
I included the following clip, not as a highlight of Green, but as a reminder that most broadcasters not named Lazer Cannon Mouth are complete douchebags.
In the days since the draft, there has been plenty of discussion about why the Mavs didn't try to move up in order to grab the likes of CDR, Darrell Arthur or Mario Chalmers.
Cuban told Sefko the money to do so was stupid. Stupid money used to have no bearing on Mavericks' personnel decision-making, but that hasn't been the case for a long time as far as I can tell.
A couple of wheeling and dealings by other teams has me trying to figure out how I feel about the direction this team should take and I keep coming back to rebuilding on the fly.
And by that I mean parting ways with Josh Howard.
First things first - I'd say the Pistons are closer to a championship than the Mavs, yet they're looking to shake things up because they sense the staleness. It's bold, but think it's the right thing to do.
Hank has this post about the CDR claim that he's never lost a game of one-on-one. EVER!
That alone would make me apprehensive to draft him. Really the problem is that for whatever reason I have him slotted.
I realize he's money, but I can't connect and I'm not sure why.
It's an unfair prejudice I have against junky games. I felt the same way about Jalen Rose (another Detroit guy) and he ended up being a really nice NBA player.
If you watch the Jay Bilas commentary in the post then you'll see that he's the second coming of Rip.
But I started to wonder if he wasn't more like one of my favorite players growing up - the great Rolando Blackman. About the same size, same range, same hurky-jerky ball fakes.
So how could I have loved Ro but have my questions about CDR when pretty much everyone agrees that he's got it?
One of the points I haven't seen made anywhere in regards to Eddie Jones and his 2 millon dollar player option is just how badly the Mavericks need EJ to exercise that option for next season.
Why? Because it's an expiring contract (even if it is a small one) and for a team that needs so much yet has so little to offer back it could be huge. And ridiculously expensive.
Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle is getting a head start to next season by making the rounds with his new staff and players. After some of the alleged dictatorship-like rumors heard about the previous regime, this could be a welcomed approach by the team.
This week it seems that he's been hanging out with The Diggler in Germany as he preps for Olympic qualifiers with the German National Team. From the looks of these pictures, seems like they've mostly been slugging beer and watching Euro 2008, but that can't be all that bad either.
After seeing the NBA season nearly complete (Boston in 5 maybe?) and how some of the teams have played down the stretch.. with some key roster improvements, do you think the Mavs can still be a threat?
Many thought potential Mavs assistant coach Dwane Casey was the front-runner once The Bulls realized Doug Collins would spare everybody to death.
So if this story is true, then Casey would probably join Rick Carlisle's staff along with Terry Stotts. Here's some poop on Casey.
When not dodging Fire Ants Pants commericals, Carlisle has mentioned that he liked the fact that Casey and Stotts had chemistry from previous stops working together.
Save for 'Lano chiming in, it's been kind of dead around here for a couple of days. Sick kids, work chaos and Radiohead combined to chew through all my time.
But normalcy has returned and we've got lots to get to. Lottery, playoffs, the hole in the hozone layer - ish is crazy, B.
Avery was doing the ESPN routine last night. When talk of D Rose as the #1 pick came up, he said you had to have an elite point guard and cited CP3, Tony Parker and Devin Harris as examples of such.
I'm a Harris fan, but Avery's current routine of everyone-needs-to-know-how-screwed-I-was-by-the-Kidd-trade-that-I-wanted-no-part-of is bordering on absurd now. Almost like he's doing an Andy Kaufman bit.
Does anyone buy it? Not talking about fans and media, we're insignificant. But people who work in the NBA. It'll be interesting to see if all this machinating gets him any interviews - I doubt it.
The great Henry Abbott had this note yesterday about a comment Steve Kerr made in regards to the quality of the head coaching candidates currently available.
Kerr: "What's interesting is that there are no obvious candidates now. It's not like there are really prominent former head coaches out there. Once D'Antoni was off the market, it kind of changed things.'" If Avery Johnson, with his 74% career winning percentage, takes that as a slight, it would be understood.
Avery could take it as a slight. But what does that mean? Doesn't anyone who thinks they deserve that job take it as a slight? Del Harris, Bob Hill - I dunno, isn't there a sad story about the forgotten John MacLeod every 18 months or so?
Anyone catch Avery on TNT last night? Pretty funny stuff, especially Kenny Smith's impression. I already miss the guy. Meanwhile, the Chuckster has to go fishing for 400 large. Which he probably has in his back pocket.
They call it the "Bunker Suite" because it's deep in the heart of the American Airlines Center. It's a rarely seen hideout for one of DFW's most famous billionaires. It's the exclusive home away from home for Mark Cuban. He works there on game day, hangs out with family, and hobnobs with some of the world's top entertainers. But, you can't get in without the secret code.
Maybe the artwork is from a disgruntled fan - or somebody who made some fatal choices in a gambling situation. My guess is some extra happy Hornets loving employee. Mavs can't catch a break anywhere.
Check out Mark's recent blog post about the Kidd deal and how it impacts the team moving forward.
I really like that he doesn't seem to be taking any overt shots at Avery, especially in light of what's been going on the last few days in the press.
I just don't see the financial flexibility he's talking about. Keep in mind sites like Hoopshype aren't dead-on accurate, but they're close enough for jazz.
One thing he mentions is that they only have two guaranteed contracts in 2010-11. I'd always heard that Damp's last year wasn't fully guaranteed, so I hope he's referring to JET and Dirk (who has a player option).
Is it a bad sign when you barely made the playoffs and you don't have draft picks, nothing but your exceptions, a giant payroll, huge roster holes that need to be filled and you're wondering how many contracts are guaranteed three seasons from now?
When I was a kid (I've immediately offended the dude I'm about to hype up) I wanted to be an NBA beat writer.
Partly because I thought about basketball non-stop, but realized I wasn't good enough to play.
Partly because when you're a nerd, journalism seems cool.
And also because I thought Jan Hubbard was a genius. I couldn't wait to read his columns. I loved his writing style and always thought his analysis was dead on.
I wanted to be like Jan Hubbard.
Hubbard is covering the Association for the Telegram these days and he's still cranking out the good good.
Wouldn't it be ironic if Avery took over the reins for a Chicago team that struggles in the half-court because they have a bunch of jump shooters and no low-post threat?
I have a hard time believing the Mavs would settle in on one guy this early in the process.
Especially one who didn't open things up enough offensively at his last gig to the satisfaction of his bosses (which included pal Larry Bird).
But those things are always situational and a coach does what he feels gives his team the best chance to win. Rick Carlisle is a very good coach - his record speaks for itself.
I just anticipated a little different style. But maybe he is so prepared and so together in his interviews that the Mavs feel like they have to look no further.
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