Posted by Rob Mahoney on September 29, 2010 under The Grapevine | 
It’s that time again. Jeff Clark of CelticsBlog has organized bloggers from all across the way to chant out their season previews in unison. We’ve already been through the Atlantic division, and next up is the Pacific:
Clippers: Clips Nation | SBNation Recap
Kings: Sactown Royalty | Cowbell Kingdom | SBNation Recap
Lakers: Silver Screen and Roll | Forum Blue & Gold | NBAtipoff | SBNation Recap
Suns: Bright Side Of The Sun | SB Nation Arizona | ValleyoftheSuns | SBNation Recap
Warriors: Golden State of Mind | SBNation Recap
(Tardy) Knicks Preview: Straight Bangin’
Posted by Rob Mahoney on under The Grapevine |
- This.
- Rick Carlisle will have no tolerance for players complaining about their minutes this season. Considering how many players have found success in roles off the bench and the token importance of starting in the first place, I still don’t quite see what the big deal is about playing the opening tip.
- Jamal Mashburn owns 34 Outback Steakhouses and 37 Papa John’s locations. He also might want to buy the Detroit Pistons, and thinks Michael Jordan’s flu game was mostly hype. Just a Chatty Cathy, that Mash.
- Gina Miller, on Caron Butler’s efforts to slim down this summer as a part of a workout program with Tim Grover: “He told me his trainer had people at his hotel spying on him. If he wanted to cheat and order pancakes from room service - not happening.”
- Bobby Simmons, once a candidate to join the Mavs’ training camp before being bypassed in favor of Steve Novak and Brian Cardinal, is in camp with the Spurs.
- John Hollinger (Insider) forecasts the Mavs’ coming season, which he predicts will bring 48 wins and the 5th seed in the West. Honestly, the relative ranking isn’t a bad as it sounds. The West’s second tier is no cakewalk, and to make matters worse, Hollinger’s qualms (reliance on victories in close games, roster shortcomings, slight drop-off due to age, player utilization, etc.) are legitimate.
- Monty Mathis has been bumped from player development coach to full-fledged assistant, and will work from the bench this season.
- Jason Kidd advised Carmelo Anthony to be wary of the Nets. Or not.
- Tuesday was the first day of training camp, and all foundational, non-contact work. Apparently — and this is news to me — teams are not allowed to hold more than one contact practice per day. Just some food for thought as the Mavs continue to conduct two-a-days through camp.
- Jason Kidd, on Dirk dropping five pounds in the off-season to make it “easier on [his] body, easier on his joints,” (via Mike Fisher): “I think he’s tired of people telling him he’s a ‘power forward.’ I think he wants to get down to 220 so he can be a 2-guard.’’
- Dee Brown, Mavs camper (via his Twitter account): “Man I see why J.Kidd has had an hall of fame career amazing player much respect big homie!”
- Shawn Marion may be shooting more threes this season.
- Tim Thomas has been officially waived.
And a few older bullets from an edition of the Grapevine that accidentally went unpublished:
Posted by Rob Mahoney on under Commentary |
The NBA season is often (and appropriately) described as a grind.
Shootaround. Nap. Eat. Game. Plane. Hotel. Memphis. Orlando. New Orleans. Houston. The days and the hours blend together, and it’s a wonder that NBA players, coaches, scouts, and any traveling personnel aren’t driven absolutely batty by the routine. There are so many games to be played and so many flights to be caught that lethargy of some kind is almost inevitable.
In rookies, it manifests itself as a wall. Many rookies’ production begins to dip around mid-season, and their inexperience is underlined and bolded for emphasis with each errant pass and poorly chosen shot. But veterans, too, are subject to in-season wear. It’s more than ice packs on tired knees; even the most experienced and accomplished of NBA vets can see the finish line begin to blur. Rather than a wall that must be climbed or broken through, NBA veterans can find themselves in a bit of a trance: sure of which direction they’re headed, but looking past the specifics of their surroundings.
The best players know how to refocus. They still may dawdle at times during the initial 82, but figuring out how to recenter in the midst of the games and the practices and the flights enables talented players to consistently succeed. Jason Kidd is one such player, and with this Dallas team, he’s found a new mechanism through which to keep focus: the versatility of the Mavs’ lineups.
Dallas can field a number of different looks this season, as the roster is lined with players with varied skill sets, many of which are atypical to their traditional positions. Rick Carlisle will have his options with the Mavs’ rotation this season. That also means that as the leader of the offense, Jason Kidd will have to adjust to each and every one of those options on a moment’s notice.
“I think that would be the fun part,” Kidd said. “Being able to throw different lineups out. Being able to run. Being able to have a group out there that can stretch the defense when you’ve got Dirk on the post and shooters around the three-point line. I think this is fun for a veteran guy because you can sometimes lose focus somewhere in the 82 games, but with the different lineups, you’ve gotta stay focused on who’s out there on the floor.”
Considering Kidd’s pedigree, his focus rarely gives cause for concern. That said, living legend though Kidd may be, he’s just as susceptible to regular season pitfalls as any other NBA player. Kidd faces the same grind, and admittedly loses focus from time to time. He’s simply resourceful enough to endure, and seeing the blessings of the Mavs’ roster is but one way to do so.
Posted by Rob Mahoney on under Commentary |
Jason Kidd smiled. More than Media Day positivity, it was as if Kidd were laughing to himself over a joke that was never told. “Nah, I slept well this summer,” Kidd said, still grinning, now chuckling. “I wasn’t worried about Dirk.”
Dirk Nowitzki’s free agent flirtations didn’t cost Kidd a wink. The same could likely be said of many Mavs fans, who considered the star’s return a virtual certainty. Yet that sound you heard when Nowitzki agreed to a new four-year deal with Dallas this summer?
One giant collective sigh of relief.
Kidd may not have been worried. Mavs fans may not have been worried. Even Mark Cuban and Donnie Nelson may not have been worried. But don’t think that all of those parties, confident or not, were oblivious to the magnitude of Nowitzki’s decision. Had some team caught Dirk’s eye, everything — the 50 win seasons, the quasi-contention, the well-paid roster built to compliment his talents — would have come crashing down. It didn’t. Dallas may not have the same bright hope for the coming season that Los Angeles and Miami bask in, but they certainly have that.
“I looked around,” Nowitzki said, “but this is where my heart was. It wouldn’t have felt right to put another uniform on. The fans, and everybody here, and Mark, obviously, and Donnie have been so loyal to me over the last 12 years that it would’ve felt like running away a little bit in a way.”
Still, Nowitzki wasn’t so swayed by his loyalty as to dismiss reason. There are valid justifications for “running away,” and one of them was put before him at Media Day: What if LeBron James and Dwyane Wade had called Nowitzki up to present him with the basketball opportunity of a lifetime? What if, instead of Chris Bosh, it could be Dirk Nowitzki playing with two top-five players?
“It would’ve been tough,” Nowitzki said. “That would’ve been something I would have had to think about very hard. My goal is a championship, and that would obviously have been a nice option to have. But it’s something that never happened so I never really had to think about it.”
In terms of NBA stars, Nowitzki is as reliable as they come. His production is rock steady, and his keel absurdly even. He’s grounded. He’s loyal. He’s a walking, talking 25 and eight, and his absurdly dependable production and efficiency can be written on the stat sheet in pen before the season even begins. Let Nowitzki’s comment serve as a reminder, though, that his trademark statistical exploits didn’t have to come with him in a Maverick uniform. Sometimes even the most consistent of stars on the most consistent of teams can be prey to mere falling dominoes. They never fell Dirk’s way. He never got that phone call, and Nowitzki is every bit the Maverick he’s always been.
Smile. You were never worried.
Posted by Rob Mahoney on September 23, 2010 under Commentary, News |
Ike Diogu has spent five years in a bottle. During four of those years he was a natural force waiting to be unleashed; Diogu played limited minutes for multiple Warriors iterations, landed in Indiana, was sent to Portland, and wound up in Sacramento, all without regular playing time or a role worthy of his talent. He’s been around, and yet in spite of impressive per-minute production, Diogu has yet to find a proper gig. He wasn’t a starter. He wasn’t a sixth man. He wasn’t even a utility big, really. He has filled in minutes here and there, but his career hasn’t been more than a series of sublets.
Now, despite being linked to the Mavs as a training camp prospect, it’s seems Diogu will have no lease in Dallas, either.
In some ways, it’s hard to blame the Mavericks’ brass for passing on a chance to sign Diogu. He is, after all, coming off a season lost in its entirety. The dreaded microfracture surgery saw to that, and it’s on such a note that I hope the Mavericks hesitated. When healthy, Diogu was a contributor. In better days, he was everything that Mavs fans found so endearing in Brandon Bass, but with sharper interior scoring and superior rebounding. He was capable of having that type of impact, on good teams or bad, on fast teams or slow. Ike Diogu was a player, and yet because of a few bad hands, this post reads like an obituary.
If Ike’s injury really has grounded him, Dallas was right to pass. However, should Diogu show for another team in another camp? I won’t quite understand the Mavs’ logic. Brian Cardinal and Steve Novak (among others) will be joining the Mavs on unguaranteed deals, but both are niche players. Each has a role and fills it well, but if Dallas is looking for a candidate to play consistent frontcourt minutes, I fail to see Diogu’s (non-injury) downside.
He obviously has weaknesses in his game (Defense and court sense, ay, caramba!), but Diogu can hit the boards and create on the offensive end, even if he often does so with blinders on. That’s something otherwise lacking among the Maverick reserves. His game offers more than a neat little trick, or token court balance; Diogu is a certifiable low-post option, particularly against second-string bigs. He’s capable of being something the Mavericks need, whether they acknowledge that to the public or not.
Or at least he was capable of being something the Mavericks need, last we saw him. Back then, Diogu was dropping big-time double-doubles in meaningless games, a plea for observers to raise his projected ceiling. The proper headroom does give the Diogu estate the appropriate character, but now, right or wrong, that very ceiling’s structural integrity has come into question. Diogu’s career marks of 17.7 points and 8.9 rebounds per 36 minutes should speak for themselves, and I hope they do. More importantly, I hope that the Mavericks listened. I hope they honestly and truly considered Diogu, only to find him slowed to the point of ineffectiveness by his injury, unfortunate though that may be. I hope that there is something going on here aside from a determination that “Ike Diogu is no Brian Cardinal.”
There has to be.
…Right?
Posted by Rob Mahoney on September 22, 2010 under The Grapevine |
- Kyle Weidie of Truth About it picked up on a vague contrast in perspectives between the Wizards organization and Josh Howard. It’s a great read, with familiar parting words from Kyle to Josh: “Just let it happen. Don’t force the issue.”
- In crowning his franchise all-time lineup, Michael Schwartz of Valley of the Suns dubbed Shawn Marion the top small forward in Phoenix Suns history.
- Craig Watkins, Dallas’ incumbent District Attorney, could be facing a little bit of heat for spending a bunch of money that’s only kind of his to spend. Among those expenditures? Dropping nearly two grand in campaign contributions to treat a bunch of law school students to a luxury suite at a Mavs game.
- According to HoopsHype, Mo Ager will be joining the Minnesota Timberwolves for training camp.
- Jason Terry on Twitter (@jasonterry31): “Great workout it was good to see the fellas too mavs look hungry and so did MC ctc” - Read a bit into that, and Terry’s throwing a little hint the Mavs’ way to CTC: cut the check. Maybe it’s nothing, maybe it’s just a turn of phrase, but an interesting bit from a guy with a partially unguaranteed contract for next season and his role up for debate, no?
- Mark Cuban isn’t done with his trips to the court room after all. He also isn’t done with reality television (via Early Termination Option, Vulture).
- Darryl Watkins, part-time Mavericks Summer leaguer (he joined the crew with their SL season already in progress, if you’ll recall), will join the New Orleans Hornets for training camp.
- A random Caron Butler sighting.
Posted by Rob Mahoney on September 20, 2010 under Commentary |
Tim Thomas won’t be playing for the Mavs this year after all. In his place, Dallas is apparently looking to fill the void with a cartoon character capable of fulfilling what would have been Thomas’ most basic function: spacing the floor.
Maybe I’m the only person who still views Thomas as a three-dimensional talent, but his value for Dallas last season really did stretch beyond his ability to hit the three. Thomas wasn’t as bad as advertised defensively. He showed off off some of his post-up scoring ability. He displayed a great sense of court spacing that went beyond parking himself in the corner or rotating around the perimeter; Thomas found spots behind the defense and dug up free scoring opportunities. He even rebounded a little bit, and kept his turnovers in check.
Shooting from the perimeter was undoubtedly one of Thomas’ strengths last season, but he was far more versatile in his season as a Maverick than many of the free agent bigs left on the market will likely be in the coming year. Namely, the three candidates that Mavs are currently considering to slide into Thomas’ proposed role, according to Art Garcia of NBA.com: Brian Cardinal, Steve Novak, and Bobby Simmons.
Oddly enough, Cardinal, as the seasoned veteran of the trio, has somehow become the headliner and “early favorite” in spite of his limited athleticism and abilities. Perhaps this view of Cardinal’s game is overly simplistic, but I fail to see what he can offer any team that Steve Novak couldn’t; both are pretty poor defenders both in the post and on the perimeter, and find their strength in scoring from the outside. Though while Brian Cardinal has posted impressive three-point shooting averages in nearly every season he’s been in the league, he’s never really had the in-season volume to validate those percentages.
In his 10-year career, Cardinal has shot a total of just 517 three-pointers. Novak attempted 286 in a single season, and hit 41.6% of them. Cardinal has proven himself as a reliable deep threat, but Novak seems like a superior three-point shooting option, and is six years younger, to boot. Novak has shown that his shot holds up even when his attempts skyrocket, and that in a jam, he can use up minutes without taking anything away from the Mavericks offense. Novak isn’t leaps and bounds better than Cardinal, but if the Mavs are looking for a token three-point shooter, why settle for anything less than the best one left on the block?
We’ll conveniently neglect to discuss either player’s defensive abilities. They’re end-of-the-bench candidates for a reason, folks.
In fact, Simmons may also be a more attractive candidate than Cardinal to fill the roster vacancy. Simmons, too has a terrific career mark from the three-point line (.401 in eight seasons), is a few years Cardinal’s junior, and at least has a tinge of utility beyond three-point shooting. Novak and Cardinal are pure specialists, but Simmons does have some aptitude as a slasher, and a bit more defensive versatility. His absolutely absurd contract has made Simmons into a bit of a laughing stock over the last few seasons, but Dallas could do far worse for a 14th or 15th man.
In all likelihood, neither Cardinal, nor Novak, nor Simmons would really come into play (they’d come in to play, but not come into play, if ya dig) for the Mavs, so debating this issue too much is just splitting already-split hairs. There would have to be notable injuries at the top end of the roster for any of these players to register consistent minutes, and in that case, Dallas will have far more to worry about than the relative shooting abilities of these gents.
Posted by Rob Mahoney on September 19, 2010 under xOther |
Photo by by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images.
Posted by Rob Mahoney on September 18, 2010 under xOther |
Jeff Clark of CelticsBlog has again organized bloggers from all across the way to chant out their season previews in unison. First in the round are the bloggers of the Atlantic division:
Celtics: CelticsBlog | Celtics 24/7 | Celtics Central | Celtics Hub | CelticsLife | Gino’s Jungle | RedsArmy.com | SBNation Boston | SBN Recap
Knicks: Posting and Toasting | Bandwagon Knick | KnickerBlogger.Net | SBN Recap
Nets: NetsDaily | NetsAreScorching | Fanway | SBN Recap
Raptors: Raptors HQ | Hoops Addict | Hip Hoop Junkies | SBN Recap
Sixers: Liberty Ballers
Posted by Rob Mahoney on September 17, 2010 under The Grapevine |
- Can the Mavs beat the Lakers? A definitive answer from within the Dallas organization.
- Erick Dampier is making his list and checking it twice. Certain to be considered: Miami and Houston. A possible surprise: Atlanta. I’ve heard Utah may be interested as well, but I haven’t the faintest idea if there’s any reciprocation.
- Josh Howard, on why the Wizards “took a gamble” on him for the coming season, and how the Wizards stack up with Howard’s former teams in terms of talent (via HoopsHype): “[The Wizards] see a natural-born leader. They got a guy that loves to win games, loves to play, has a total enjoyment for the game… I appreciate that they gave me the chance and I will take advantage of it...Oh, talent-wise the sky is the limit for this team. It’s a young team. Blatche, McGee, Nick Young, No. 1 pick John Wall and a host of other guys. These guys have tremendous upside. If we stay focused and stay dedicated to the game, the sky is the limit for them. I think that’s one other reason they brought me in here – to be a leader. I think I can take those guys on the right path.”
- Mike Prada of Bullets Forever takes a look forward at what’s in store for Howard over the coming season.
- Here, you can cast your vote for the top Mavs of all time at each traditional position, but the race has long been decided: Steve Nash, Rolando Blackman, Mark Aguirre, Dirk Nowitzki, and Roy Tarpley should win-out easily. There are other good candidates — Michael Finley, Derek Harper, and Jason Kidd among them, but those five were clear favorites from the tip. (EDIT: I stand corrected. Finley has surged to take the lead at SG. I love Fin, and I’m still shocked.)
- For a journey down the other path, Tom Haberstroh, ESPN Insider, a fellow contributor at Hardwood Paroxysm, and one of the invaluable minds at HoopData, has identified the five worst statistical tenures for players of each and every team. Dallas’ bottom five: Devean George (’07-’09), Scott Lloyd (’81-’83), Darrell Armstrong (’05-’06), Bill Wennington (’86-’90), and Elston Turner (’82-’84). My initial reaction: isn’t there any way we could come up with a harsher distinction than “worst Maverick ever” for George? My secondary reaction: Armstrong doesn’t deserve to be on this list at all, if for no other reason than the role he played in the Mavs’ comeback, overtime win against the Toronto Raptors in February of 2006.
- Haberstroh also continued his fine series exploring the statistical implications of position on HP, and it’s worth your time.
- According to a report by Sport97, Jessie Begarin, a Guadaloupean and participant in Rodrigue Beaubois’ camp, was invited to tryout with the Texas Legends and his since been invited to Mavericks training camp. If this report is indeed true, you could be looking at a future Legend (capital L, y’all). (via DOH at Mavs Moneyball) EDIT: According to Mike Fisher of DallasBasketball.com, the Mavs/Legends don’t have any plans for Begarin after all.
- Akis Yerocostas conducted an interesting exercise at his blog, Pick and Scroll, in which he launched a hypothetical expansion draft. I was consulted as an unofficial representative of the Mavs, in order to choose which players to “protect” for the purposes of the draft. See who I selected and who he ended up drafting here.
- Tim Thomas, on his wife’s health (via Earl K. Sneed): “She’s healthy, she’s getting better. I don’t want people to think that she’s on her deathbed. I just want everybody to know we’re doing fine. She’s doing better. Who knows, if she gets better then maybe I’ll give it another try.”
- This commercial for NBA 2k11 has nothing to do with the Mavs whatsoever, but is glorious nonetheless. Plus, the 2k series makes a mean game, to boot.
- Rodrigue Beaubois goes shopping…at the MavGear headquarters.
- Former Maverick Malik Allen will go to training camp with the Orlando Magic this season.
Tags: Bill Wennington, Darrell Armstrong, Derek Harper, Devean George, Dirk Nowitzki, Elston Turner, Erick Dampier, Jason Kidd, Jessie Begarin, Josh Howard, Malik Allen, Mark Aguirre, Michael Finley, Rodrigue Beaubois, Rolando Blackman, Roy Tarpley, Scott Lloyd, Steve Nash, Tim Thomas
