Heard It Through the Grapevine

Posted by Rob Mahoney on June 11, 2010 under The Grapevine | 2 Comments to Read

• We already knew this was going to happen, but the Mavs have announced they will pick up J.J. Barea’s $1.8 million team option for next season. Michael Dugat of DallasBasketball.com compared Barea to other reserve point guards around the league by using base statistics, and the results show about what you’d expect: we’re all far harsher on Barea than we should be.
• The Mavs plan to bring in Brian Zoubek for a workout, likely as a prospect for the 50th pick.
• Eddy Rivera reviews Brandon Bass’ 2009-2010 season for Magic Basketball: “In retrospect, it’s fair to wonder why general manager Otis Smithsigned Brandon Bass. There’s no question that Bass is a good player but he’s the equivalent of being a round peg trying to be inserted into a square hole. Bass’ strengths as a player are completely the opposite to what makes the Magic successful. For instance, even taking into account his efficiency on offense, Bass is the lone player on Orlando that bases his game around the mid-range jumper. Add to the fact that Bass was never able to learn the Magic’s defensive schemes and there shouldn’t be a surprise that he barely saw minutes this year.”
• We should know by the end of the day whether or not Dwane Casey will be the next coach of the Atlanta Hawks.
• Andris Biedrins is a very attainable non-free agent that the Mavs could score this summer, but doing so would mean Dallas struck out on a number of fronts beforehand. If Nelson and Cuban end up using Dampier’s contract to grab Biedrins, it’s merely consolation. Still, better something than nothing, right?
• UPDATE: Jason Terry, on Nate Robinson’s performance in Game 4 of the NBA Finals: “What a game from 1 6th man to another nate way 2 show up and show out town bizness”
• UPDATE: John Hollinger ranked the top 50 single-game Finals performances of all-time, and Dwyane Wade’s Game 3 and Game 6 in 2006 ranked 9th and 19th respectively.