Hot Tickets!

College Football Tickets Bowl Game Tickets College Basketball Tickets Final Four Tickets

Mavs Sunday Morning Donuts: Time To Step TOWARD Your Crack Dealer?

Mike Fisher -- DB.com

   Sunday Morning Mavs Donuts … And let’s begin here: In the last 30 days, the Mavs have played 16 games. They are 8-8. You are about to hear Mark Cuban say things like “We’re not looking for a blockbuster’’ and “We always want to be opportunistic, that’s all’’ and maybe even “Step away from your crack dealer.’’

    But trust me. … The people who lead this team – Cuban and others, all the way into the locker room -- are not happy with the Mavs’ recent performance. And they are not ignorant in regard to some of the efforts that must be made.

    Now, on with it. Donuts.

 

 

    DONUT 1: Recently we reflected on the latest chapter in “Mavs Looking Hard At Trade Options’’ by explaining the Mavs’ dilemma: Do they refrain from swinging for an extra-base hit now in anticipation of hitting a grand slam in the summer?

     But I neglected to provide my answer to what I’d do.

    To paraphrase my man MD and to stick with the baseball analogies:

     If you wait for the perfect pitch, you invite the strikeout.

 

    DONUT 2:.And let me add this (an idea worth fleshing out, with the help of David Lord, in coming days): Josh Howard really doesn’t need to have to have all that much to do with the Summer of 2010 pursuit of a sign-and-trade free agent.

    Dallas can swap out J-Ho now (to get a little better now) … and can use The DUST Chip and more (to get a lot better later).

    Yes. The Mavs can do that.

    There are plenty of scenarios we can play with that allow them to, for instance, send Josh Howard to Philly in exchange for Andre Iguodala (making Dallas better now) and then follow up next summer with an offer of Dampier’s contract plus stuff (giving the Mavs a player superior to Damp) … and then re-sign Damp after he’s been cut by his new team.

    So in total, you make two trades.

    You lose Josh, you “lose’’ Damp, and you lose “stuff.’’

    You gain Iggy, you gain Player X for Damp, and you end up getting Damp back.

    (Plug in any number of guys for Iggy, from Mike Miller on up. Same deal.)

    Yes. The Mavs can do that.

     None of that, by the way, represents “blaming Josh.’’ This isn’t about blame. This is about “asset management.’’

 

    DONUT 3: And one more thing on this subject: Any media report that insists that Erick Dampier is being traded before the deadline is probably off the mark. And if that report doesn’t include Dallas getting a center back in return, it is definitely off the mark.

    Aren't we seeing in the last couple of games how much a not-healthy Damp is missed?

 

    DONUT 4: OK, one more: Why does anyone think Josh needs to be retained to make a Summer of 2010 sign-and-trade happen?

    Let’s say you deal J-Ho now. For Mike Miller or Caron Butler or Kevin Martin or Iggy or whomever. Then, next summer comes, and while you no longer have Josh to dangle in tandem with The DUST Chip, guess what you do have?

    Mike Miller or Caron Butler or Kevin Martin or Iggy or whomever.

   Looking at it this way, trading Josh Howard NOW makes you better NOW and LATER.

    And let me repeat – because I know some people will misread all this as a Josh Bash and they will cite his fine 17-point effort in Saturday’s 114-112 OT loss to Portland and say, “Leave J-Ho Alone!’’ – the reason the Mavs will spend the next two weeks closely analyzing Howard’s trade value is because he has some trade value.

    Barea will be evaluated the same way. So will Gooden. Their talents AND their contracts will cause their inclusion in discussions. Very real discussions.

 

    DONUT 5: Nike’s Kobe and LeBron ad is offensive because it uses a gun analogy to describe Bryant’s talents. Just as dopey: It features LeBron saying he surprises basketball opponents because they don’t realize that down deep, he’s actually a football player.

    Really, LeBron? You don’t think people realize that? Hell, you and your other commercials tell me it 100 times a day! 

 

    DONUT 6: Let’s clear this up: In the final six minutes of the loss at Phoenix, when Dirk didn’t touch the ball, it wasn’t because Nowitzki “drifted around the perimeter’’ or whatever. Watch it again: Dirk is setting up to participate in the Dallas as he always does: On virtually every play in that six-minute span (condensed to two minutes in this video, and thanks to TrueHoop for it), Dirk is either fighting for position down low, or, more frequently, setting a screen up top in order to trigger a pick-and-roll/pop that is supposed to result in him getting the ball.

    That’s not “drifting.’’ That’s Dallas’ offense.

    And it works.

    If you give him the ball.

    (P.S.: Except Saturday against the Blazers, when the Mavs ran the same stuff, got Dirk five shots in the last five minutes of the game, and he made just one. But still. ...)

 

   DONUT 7: Paraphrasing the Raptors’ stated position on a Chris Bosh trade: ‘Now that we’re playing better, we’re keeping him.’’ That’s either posturing nonsense or short-sighted nonsense. We all already knew that Bosh’s presence in Toronto could make the Raptors a respectable team with, say, a 25-22 record in late January. … but that they wouldn’t be able to beat Cleveland, Boston, Orlando or Atlanta.

   That’s exactly what their record is. And they cannot beat those five powerhouse teams.

   So what’s changed, really?

 

   DONUT 8: I was invited to talk movies over at OnlyGoodMovies.com. If you dislike Nicolas Cage as I do, you will enjoy it.

 

   DONUT 9: Lots of praise here for the Mavs from an NBA scout, who says Dallas is a really fine West team. … relative to the Lakers being much more fine than everyone else, of course.

 

   DONUT 10: You can follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/fishsports. It's good -- and good for you.

 

   DONUT 11: You take former Rangers catcher Gerald Laird, his Yankees prospect brother, and NBA’er Eddie House’s wife – and her claim that the Laird’s grandpa touched her inappropriately -- and what do you get?

   Maybe a new NBC sitcom?

 

    DONUT 12: Nobody puts Baby in a corner. And nobody puts TCU student Amon Carter IV’s butt cheek under a branding iron.  

 

    DONUT 12: It’s FISH and the MAVS on ESPN! But a programming note: We’ve got “Mavs Magazine’’ this weekend on Sunday … today!… 10 to 11:15 a.m. … on 103.3 ESPN Radio!

 

 

 

The DB.com Store: New designs, "The UberMan,'' "Fish For Lunch'' and "The DUST Chip''!

Follow us at twitter.com/fishsports

Discuss this story at DB.com Boards

911am jan 31 2010

 

                                                     

 

 

Back to Directory...