How Boston, of ALL teams, managed to work out a deal with Minnesota defies logic. The Celtics are an automatic force to be reckoned with: Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Big Baby, and Michael Olowokandi are an automatic NBA Finals Contender and national favorite. Expect Celtic apparel and product sales to skyrocket. Teenage guys will be sporting Celtic gear across the nation.
July 2007
While we in Dallas prefer not to discuss the 2006-2007 playoffs, we can’t help but applaud Michael Finley. The Mavericks were carried by Michael Finley for years, then Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki were added to the mix and the team became a playoff contender year after year.
As Nash and Nowitzki took center stage, Finley began to fade from the public eye. He had fewer touches, fewer scoring opportunities, and he seemed to lose the will to win. Perhaps it was Don Nelson that left him feeling unimportant or uninspired. Whatever the case, Finley lost his fire over his last few seasons as a Maverick. Perhaps he just ran out of gas after carrying a sub-par team for so many years.
Mavs columnists and bloggers everywhere seem to be enamored with J. J. Barea after his second promising summer league. Two years in a row, Barea has put up solid numbers like you would expect from your starting point guard. But it’s not just that he averages double digit points and 7 assists per game. He takes control. He plays with a confidence and self assurance that Devin Harris desperately needs.
I am a huge Devin Harris fan. Truthfully, Harris is my #1 Maverick. I think he has top 5 point guard potential league-wide. He has yet to produce at his potential, and this is his year to either shine or fade.
The commissioner David Stern is saying yes. While the truth remains to be seen, this seems unlikely. Not that every referee is crooked or addicted to gambling, but it would be rather naive to believe that it’s ever an isolated case. Expect more.
Of course, the way Tim Donaghy’s exposure came about was unexpected, to be sure. The NBA’s reputation has been seriously rocked by this scandal. Stern is doing his best to reassure the public that the games are being won and lost based on merit, not crooked refs.
103.3FM ESPN Radio hosts discussed yesterday the great debate: who is our favorite DFW pro sports team owner? Tom Hicks is automatically disqualified for putting such a pathetic Rangers team out on the field year after year after year. The Stars won the Stanley Cup once upon a time. Big deal. At least they love him in Liverpool. Good for him.
But here in Dallas, Hicks is one of those people you love to ignore. Maybe that’s giving him too much credit. He’s just irrelevant to Dallas sports.
You can read about the transaction between the Dallas Morning News and Mark Cuban, and draw your own conclusions. It appears that the DMN is a little sensitive to criticism from the Mavs nationally renowned owner, Mark Cuban. Michael Landauer writes, “Media don’t present assertions in a ‘wanna bet’ fashion. They use credible sources like the AP wire, hardly a sports blog.”
While this was a response to Mark Cuban’s assertion that the DMN must have received its misinformation about Chauncey Billups from a sports blog, it also appears to be a backhanded slap at sports blogs. Perhaps it is the fact that sports blogs are stealing readership away from traditional media sources that irritates Landauer so.
It’s a question worth asking. While Randy Galloway obviously won’t get his preferred player in the “thugged out” Zach Randolph, it seems the rumor mill puts the Mavs in reach of only two players: Chris Webber and Steve Francis.
As mentioned previously, both players would probably be a huge mistake for this Maverick team. We’ve maintained a certain teamwork mentality that these “superstars” certainly wouldn’t recognize.
Webber would be the lesser of two evils. Of the two players, he is likely to be the more impressionable, and consequently might have some teamwork attitude rub off on him.
Now that Portland has bought out Steve Francis’ contract, the question remains: where will he play? And a better question: should the Mavs pursue him? The Pig Pen seems to think he’s worth another look, although they point out the obvious problem in that Francis is a near carbon copy of Jason Terry. Do we really need another Jason Terry?
The obvious answer, in case you couldn’t decide, is definitely NO. The Mavs don’t need his skill set. They don’t need his attitude. He brings nothing to the table that the Mavs don’t already have. Think power forward. Think offensive rebounds. Enough of this perimeter-only offense. Find a balance.
It’s a sign of the times when you see summer league basketball on TV. A sign that we Mavs fans are growing in number, and that we crave action year-round. Thus far, it’s been the J. J. Barea show. This guy has serious skills. He may or may not make it as a top 5 point guard in the NBA, but he’s a solid starter. I like what I’ve seen. That means Devin Harris needs to put the pedal to the medal and show us some growth, or he’ll find himself as part of a trade for someone like Garnett.
It’s simple, really. Though this site is dedicated your very own Dallas Mavericks, we are inclined to provide you with the very best in NBA sports coverage. Does that mean you can expect links to blogs on every team? Well… no. We don’t like every team. In fact, it’s safe to say that we don’t like most NBA teams.
There are a few exceptions, most notably Phoenix, San Antonio, Miami, Denver, Chicago, Golden State, Seattle, and Portland. In other words, teams worth watching and/or teams that haven’t made us very angry. Most Eastern teams are obviously not worth watching. And this year’s NBA Draft has elevated two more teams (Seattle and Portland) to national attention-worthy status.
