Heard It Through the Grapevine
Posted by Rob Mahoney on May 19, 2010 under The Grapevine | 
- Annnd we’re back. A little delay following the Mavs’ playoff exit due to my non-blog commitments, but look for things to get slightly closer to normal starting today. Obviously there isn’t a ton going on aside from free agent speculation at this point, but there’s still plenty to go over in analyzing the roster, breaking down off-season strategies, etc. The summer may be slow on news, but that doesn’t mean it has to be slow on analysis.
- Jason Kidd was sick during the playoffs, has no (public) problem with Rick Carlisle, and has not spoken with LeBron James recently. Jeff Caplan of ESPN Dallas clears up a few things in a Q&A with Kidd.
- Basketball Prospectus’ Bradford Doolittle, in a measured response to the venomous criticism of LeBron James’ Game 5 performance last week, declared the embarrassing 88-120 Cavalier loss the most stunning playoff result aside from Golden State’s series-clinching win over Dallas in 2007. The Mavs-related analysis is only a blip compared to Doolittle’s excellent analysis of LeBron’s night, and the post is really worth noting for that coverage above the Dallas stuff.
- According to Tom Haberstroh, the smallest lineup fielded by any team in the NBA this season was a Beaubois-Barea-Terry-Butler-Marion unit trotted out by the Mavs against the Warriors. The average height of that lineup? 6′3.2”.
- There’s nothing wrong with building around a power forward.
- Jeff ‘Skin’ Wade offers a purely hypothetical scenario in which the Mavs swap J.J. Barea and DeShawn Stevenson (or really, DeShawn’s expiring contract) for Marcin Gortat. Dallas’ courtship of Gortat ended somewhat tragically, although if the Mavs end up with Brendan Haywood locked up long-term, was it really a net loss? Regardless, I don’t see that package as being attractive enough to entice Otis Smith; back-up point guard play hasn’t really been a concern this season for Orlando, and the sample size really wasn’t big enough for Brandon Bass this season to get an accurate take on his potential to play back-up center. I just don’t see it.
- A short interview with Rodrigue Beaubois from the PanCan/Dallas Mavs ping ponging pancreatic cancer benefit.
- A big, delayed welcome to the newest blog in the TrueHoop Network, A Wolf Among Wolves. I’m expecting great things from Myles and Ben, so hit them up via RSS, bookmarks, or whatever.
- Just a friendly reminder that even when the Mavs are eliminated from the playoffs, you can continue to read my work (and watch my videos) at Hardwood Paroxysm and ProBasketballTalk, and you can follow my assorted NBA (and non-NBA) ramblings on Twitter @robmahoney.