Boy, Is It Ever Monday

No notes on the Bucks game. Is it being unfair to say the result was a foregone conclusion? Even with Jason Kidd taking a personal day and playing in the middle of nowhere? If you live in the neighborhood of LaCrosse, I'm not knocking your town. I'm from Michigan and I know how pretty the country is up there. For someone used to NBA-approved accomodations it probably feels like the Twilight Zone.

DLord crunches the dollars and cents of the Jones-for-Williams trade.

Okay, Mr. Nelson, I take back half the bad things I said about you over the offseason (you're not off the hook about Devean George).

This blows the season wide open. Williams's potential downside is considerable -- Pacman Jones has him beat in that Williams hasn't actually been convicted of anything -- but from a purely acquisitional standpoint we got him for loose change. Not as exciting as getting Ron Artest, but I think it's a safer bet. I have visions of Ron-Ron having to be taken out of restraints come game time.

Nnngh. Less than three weeks until the season opens. Meanwhile the preseason gets interesting with roadies at Indiana and Detroit. Of the two, I'm going to be obsessing over the Pistons game. Let's face it, the Wizards, Bulls, and Bucks were outclassed, under complement, and pretty much fucked from the start. Detroit, #2 in the Eastern Conference last year, are more like what Dallas should expect and fear in the coming year.

Oh, by the way, lineup on the floor at one point during the Wizards game -- Dirk at the 5, J-Ho, Antoine, Jet Terry, James Singleton. Hereby dubbed the Kentucky Fried Lineup; four wings and a biscuit. My phrase. Don't steal it.
-BJ

Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Ink In Your Roster . . .

Ex-tree! Ex-tree!

Check it out, yo. The Mavs have cut a deal with the Indiana Pacers to acquire Shawne Williams. The word around the campfire is the deal includes Eddie Jones and a couple of second round draft picks.

Not sure what to make of this, unless this is the Big Sou-Prize Donnie Nelson promised us way back in July. Jones is bench-bait for the Mavs at best . . . but what is Williams, exactly? According to the Morning News, his off-court doings are a definete cause for concern. Hanging around murder suspects, something happening in his house that might or might not have been rape-- schtick like that.

I'm wondering if the Mavs are placing too much stock in Coach's abilities as a wrangler of psychopaths. Or if being on a team led by the most unselfish, least drama-queeny, arguably hardest working star in the NBA is better for players than one might think.

Suddenly . . . our bench is looking deep, the team doesn't look quite as old, and how many days is it until the 30th?
-BJ

An Open Letter To Donn Nelson

Probably the first of many.

Dear Mr. Nelson,

I'll admit to knowing exactly jack shit about how the business end of this sport works. My familiarity with collective bargaining agreements begin and end with the UFCW They Can't Fire Me Unless clauses (God bless Local 951).

That said . . . I have to wonder what your line of reasoning is when the team's representatives negotiated Devean George's new contract. If I'm intepreting the news correctly, he still has final veto power over any and all trade proposals -- a power he has abused in the past.

I must ask, sir, is George so valuable that he's worth the kind of embarassment he produced by crying foul over being traded to the Nets? I can appreciate that Mr. George has elected to keep playing at a substantial drop in pay, but as the Organization has shown many times it is willing to invest whatever's necessary to give this team every chance of success.

In short, is this a case of being penny-wise and pound foolish?

I have faith, but you're not making it easy.

Sincerely yours, et cetera et cetera et cetera.

Meanwhile, the Olympics are coming down to the wire. Win or get lost. The semifinal game is tomorrow morning CST. The final is in the middle of the night Saturday night.

Argentina first. Defending gold medalists, with Manu Ginobli as The Man. Excited, but not worried . . . not terribly worried, anyways. The final will be up against Lithuania or Spain. Spain's no problem; Lithuania's an unknown factor.

I think hara-kiri's in the plan if Team USA has to settle for anything less than a gold medal. Don't think I'm going out on a limb by saying it's going to take a bona fide Act of God to keep it from happening.

USA!
-BJ

Basketball Junkies, Rejoice!

Oh thank God! TXA-21's televising the summer league games. First one's this Friday. We don't have to go cold-turkey until the season officially starts. Besides, I need my Followhill fix. Mark rules. :-)

There's been a lot of positive feedback about Coach Carlisle in the past couple of months, as he, Misters Cuban and Nellie, and the Organization's spin-meisters ladle out the sunshine. Whether that's a reflection of the man himself or the Mavs and fanbase working through post-AJ-hangover is a matter of interpretation.

The summer leaguers are playing for permanent roster spots; the team still needs some serious patching on interior defense. According to the Morning News Coach plans to run them into the ground over the next three weeks. "[W]e shouldn't lose a game," Carlisle said at practise yesterday. Anybody taking bets on that? I'll put ten on the Mavs.

We've also got the Olympics this year. Let not the USA be pwned again, please God?
-BJ

Fresh Meat!

First of the new blood, the future swinging big dicks of the NBA, cannonballed into the talent pool last night. Check out the live blog at Dallas Basketball dot com, or the video clip at the Morning News.

Speculation that the Mavs were planning on buying a first round pick came to zip as the Organization stuck with #51. I hope Mr. Nelson and the rest of the suits know what they're doing. The next few seasons is when the Mavs have to start developing talent ready to take over the team when Dirk retires. I'm all for finding a vampire and making Dirk immortal, but the NBA probably has rules against undead players. They're shortsighted that way.

But, nobody was willing to bite with what the Mavs were offering ($3 million) . . . at least not publicly. As Mr. Fisher points out, the back-door deals are also beginning, teams trading picks for established players, cash, and so on.

For now, our FNG is a young man by the name of Shan Foster. He's a graduate of Vaderbuilt University and that school's all-time leading scorer. He's being considered (how seriously is a matter of speculation) as a backup shooting guard or small forward.

With the draft done, free agency begins to warm up. Negotiations between franchise reps and players' agents begins July 1, players can sign on July 9. I'll look up those particulars later.
-BJ