Mavs Afternoon Drive: 'Silence Isn't Inactivity'

   “Don’t confuse silence with inactivity,’’ teases Mavs GM Donnie Nelson. “We’re preparing for a very active summer.’’

    Tease! “Don’t Confuse Silence With Inactivity’’ could be another MFFL bumper sticker. (You can paste it on top of “We Love Our Team’’ which is pasted over “We Like Our Boys In Blue’’ which is stuck atop “Our Big 3 Matches Anyone’s’’ which is pasted over “The Best Roster Ever.’’

   And now there’s another one. From Tony Cubes: “It used to be in the NBA you tried to accumulate as many bigs as you could. That's kind of changed. You can't have enough point guards."

    Even if you don’t like the picks (or the bumper stickers), you have to agree, the Mavs did handle their Draft Day assets craftily. So maybe they’ll do the same with The Stack Chip as July approaches. In the meantime, an overflowing notebook in Mavs Afternoon Drive:

 

 

 

  *Could they have gotten an immediate rotation player in this Draft?

   Yes.

    Did they instead bank on potential -- or, as Rick Carlisle prefers, “upside’’? (Because, as Slick Rick notes, quoting old mentor Hubie Brown, “’Potential’ means you ain’t ever done it.’’)

   This notion rankles fans who want Donnie to “do something,’’ but here goes: The ability to pick on potential is the advantage of having a management team with job security. They don’t need to panic to make a “now’’ move.

   Having said that, Donnie knows he’s on the hot seat.

   “That’s part of the job,’’ he said. “It’s like a player in front of 20,000 fans, some of whom like you and cheer, some of whom hate you and boo. There is always that pressure.’’

 

   *Video of the afternoon presser on Friday....

 

    *I get every indication that Kidd’s coming back. (Three years, $24 mil, with the last year not fully-guaranteed?) And Mark Cuban gave that impression on Friday, too. But. …

    Jan Hubbard writes otherwise. Rather strongly. 

    And now I’m a little confused.

    *Quote from second-round power forward Ahmad Nivins: "I've come to learn the game throughout my past four years in college," Nivins said. "I think I'm still a student of the game."

     *Quote from Carlisle, on Nivins’ having stayed at St. Joe’s: "College is too much fun to leave early," added Mavs head coach Rick Carlisle. "I remember some of it."

     *You shoulda heard the media contingent in the basement of the AAC when the Mavs' first-round pick was announced as BJ Mullens of Ohio State. The whole room sounded like two dozen Joanna Krupas.

    Nothing wrong with being a 7-footer. … unless you’re a 7-footer who resembles in any way other BWS’s who’ve plodded through Dallas.

    Blab, Wennington, Bradley, Garnett, Alford, Montross, Meyer, Anstey, Fazekas ... Notice a trend?

     

    *The Mavs swear Roddy loves to play defense. Here’s a reporter who learned the same.

 

 

     * I think "French Cuffs'' would be a solid nickname. You?

 

  

 

 

   *Oh, and depending on what you think of Nick. ... how about "Greek Gawd''?

   

     *Mark Cuban says “championships aren’t won in the summer.’’ True, in the same sense that games aren’t won in the first quarter. But. … you do still want to avoid getting blown out in the first quarter, right?

 

     *There is no doubt about French Cuffs in one category: He runs, he jumps, he quicks. .. he wins the Underwear Olympics.

  

     * A local columnist has, in the last few days, written two pieces exclaiming that it would be a “colossal’’ mistake for the Mavs to not get better. Listen, they’re trying to get better, OK? But if they don’t … what ensuing disaster, exactly, would be categorized as “colossal’’? An earthquake’s gonna hit the AAC?

    I’ll tell you what will happen – the only thing of any significance that will happen -- if the Mavs don’t improve: They will lose revenue. Season-ticket holders will be hesitant to renew. Interest will wane.

    Mark Cuban is already quite aware of all that, thank you. None of those things would be good … and we already know the natives are restless.

    But “colossal’’?

    Ridiculous.

       

     *Why is Donnie Nelson going with the Tina Fey Look?

  

     *I guess Kidd has ended his romance with the lovely Hope Dworaczyk. So now, dude, you got a shot.

 

   *If you trust the Spurs’ judgment (and you do) you come away from the Mavs’ take wondering if they should’ve pushed a little harder to get DeJuan Blair before SA managed to move to him at No. 37.

  

    *Don’t you rather like Carlisle’s understated approach here? At first, when he came out as the Triangle of Trust’s lone spokesman, I sort of felt he was being thrown to the media wolves. Then, as he calmly set the bar at a reasonable height for the draftees, I came to another conclusion: Cuban is excitable. He’ll high-bar it. And the previous coach, The Lil’ Johnson, he used to go nuts in predicting greatness for guys like Nick Fazekas.

   So Carlisle handled it. Without hyperbole. Smooth move, boys.

   

    *Nice of Shaq to go on live TV to mourn Michael Jackson. Shaq apparently cares little about Farrah, McMahon or Cronkite.

 

    *By the way: Nothing wrong with being saddened by the death of a stranger who happened to be famous. But I'm not why anybody gets all wobbly-legged at the news that somebody like Farrah died. Why? Because 35 years ago you had a poster of her right nipple on your wall?

 

   

    *I don’t know if I want Rubio. Unless I’m a shoe company. In which case I’m all over that kid – with his highlights mixed into a black-and-white TV ad with Pistol Pete.

 

    *Two foreign guys taken in the 22/23 range who the Mavs apparently didn’t care for: Israeli forward Omri Casspi. He goes to Sacramento and the Mavs don’t flinch. And Victor Claver, the forward from Spain who Portland was targeting.

   The only disgruntlement at the AAC in this range was when Casspi went off the board. Mark Elfenbein of the Ticket yelped a Yiddish curse word.

 

    *No, President Obama, you do not need to issue a formal acknowledgement of the death of Micha. ...

     Oh. Too late.

 

   *When you watch your Ahmad Nivins highlights, you see the PJ Brown comparison that Donnie makes. Forget the Bass comparison; that’s not accurate. He’s not a “shooter,’’ but he shoots an astoundingly high percentage because his game is about scrapping around the basket. He’s a worker bee with more hops than polish.

 

   *You’ve heard me rant before about how when a guy dies, his obits somehow wash away the warts. So it is with Michael Jackson, who is now a dead and therefore somehow less of an alleged child molester. I was always able to separate the artist from the art (how else do we go to Woody Allen movies?) and I am also able to accept that not all dead people are “angels.’’

   Like I’ve said before: At my funeral, come, don’t come, get drunk, cuss me. … let Jean-Jacques Taylor take the stage and announce that I was “ridiculous.’’ … I don’t care.

   Why should my death make me a better person? Besides, what do I care? I’M DEAD.

   PS: I‘m not a concert guy. Pretty much all the big music acts I’ve seen in person have been while attending Super Bowls. I saw Michael. … but I also saw Diana Ross and Tony Bennett, and they were cool, too.

 

    *At least Five Reasons (none of them about his money) You Want To Slap Ricky Rubio.

 

   *Listen, if you want to be pissed, go for it. Hey, maybe the Mavs should've taken Blake Grifin!?

   But, if you allow this moment to be one of just a little optimism, go for that, too. In Denver, the newspaper has already proclaimed Ty Lawson as “the steal of the Draft.’’ I’ve seen three writers already predict who will be next year’s Rookie of the Year. The Knicks media seems to think they have secret arrangements to acquire a roster than would have to have room for 47 guys. On Thursday night, after Cuban announced, “Let the fun begin,’’ I asked, “Are we having fun yet?’’ My answer is “yeah.’’ The Mavs draft was kinda fun.

  

    *Now, check back on Aug. 11 if The Stack Chip hasn’t been flipped. Then we get us some torches, some pitchforks and some rope.

  

   *If and when the Suns and the Warriors do that Amare deal, the rosters will be largely re-made. But does that mean they are substantially better? Let’s just take Phx: A Suns team without Shaq and Amare is better than one with it? I’ve heard of “addition by subtraction.’’ … but that’s the subtraction of TWO MVP-level giants.

   

     *So we’re all making fun of BJ Mullens. Does that suddenly mean that the geniuses in OKC are idiots? Oh, and now we hear the Hornets liked him, too. All the teams in our region except for ours are made up of idiots?

   

   *Good ol’ Skin ran a gentlemanly betting pool on which Green Room player would be the last one left undrafted. Gentlemanly, I say! Renee Felton of the Mavs staff and I split the pot because we both KNEW Jrue would be that unlucky fella.

    We each magically walked away with 25 bucks. But it was all gentlemen’s betting, I tell ya.

 

 

 

    * Antoine Rigadeau and Tariq Abdul-Wahad and now ... we'll see.

   

 

 

    *In a throwaway line, I asked Donnie if he plans to be active’’ come July 1.

    “You bet,’’ he said. “Absolutely.’’

 

 

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617pm june 26 2009

 

                                                            

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