Wednesday Morning Donuts: Mavs ... With Sprinkles!

Should Kevin McHale join the Mavs? … Did two players bet $10,000 on the outcome of an NBA game? … G’bye, Jawai … LeBron-vs.-Matt Carroll hardly seemed fair – and Dirk Nowitzki predicted it. … It’s Mavs Wednesday Morning Donuts! …

    DONUT 1: It seems the door is open to adding Kevin McHale to the Mavs staff as … well, as something. Maybe it’s like Paul Westphal before him and Del Harris before him. He’s an asset, he’s not doing much of anything else, he’s a non-threatening presence to buddy Rick Carlisle, the man who suggested he come here to tutor big men in camp. … somebody get this guy an apartment across the street from the AAC and let’s get McHale to work, eh?

    DONUT 2: One addendum to the above: I understand Carlisle is doing a little something. He’s been hired by TNT (or more likely by NBATV) to be part of the network’s NBA coverage. Maybe some studio work, maybe some on-site game analyst stuff, maybe some jousting with Barkley.

    Can McHale do that and still work as a Mavs consultant? Doubtful.

    DONUT 3: DallasBasketball.com T-shirts, anyone? At the Oct. 27 opener against the Wizards, you will see folks wearing them. (Especially the “DallasBasketball.com classic’’ and “The UberMan.’’

     Wouldn’t you like to see those same folks see you wearing one?

     DONUT 4: Welcome to Journalism 101, a lesson we will call “Burying the Lead.’’

     Good hustle here to scribble down what Al Horford said in a radio interview about how last year he and Paul Pierce bet on the outcome of a Hawks-Celtics game and, yuk-yuk, Pierce still hasn’t paid up on the $10,000 bet.

    Ha-ha!

    But …

     DONUT 5: Isn’t a player betting on the outcome of a game rather. … you know … against the rules?

     Ha-ha.

     DONUT 6: The LeBron fast-break block of Matt Carroll, as described by Dirk … as described by MD of DB.com Boards: 

      “It came during the Dirk interview in the third quarter. There is a steal on one end of the court, Barea lead a fast break and passed a nice dish to Carroll who is about to go up for a quick layup, though a whisper lingers in the tightening shadow of the break, a sharp breath bearing the name of Lebron James, and in a shudder he erases the distance between himself and Carroll when we hear Dirk say:
   "Uh oh, here's a block about to happen."

   An instant later, James leapt and wiped away Carroll's shot - and as quickly as it had come, it was gone...like a blink in the dark.
   Anyway, I just thought it was a very entertaining moment...which made my wife and me laugh. …’’

     DONUT 7: Nothing against my guys Followill and Ortegel – and nothing against JJ Barea, either. But you know you must be planning on a long and uneventful night on TV – as a broadcaster and as a viewer – when you hear/say the words, “Now joining us in the broadcast booth, Jose Barea’s college coach Ron Everhart!’’

    DONUT 8: This Twitter thing is a good thing. Do not be frightened. Follow us at twitter.com/fishsports.

    DONUT 9: With Ryan Hollins last year and Nathan Jawai this fall, I think we are seeing the Mavs’ attempts to develop a young center as a project.

   But after a half-season, Hollins was allowed to be lured (over-priced, in the Mavs’ view) to Minnesota. And after a half-month, Jawai was shipped (along with a check to cover his salary) to –hmmm – Minnesota.

   So yes, we are seeing the Mavs’ attempts to develop a young center as a project. It’s just that patience is thin. So if you don’t develop fast, you are no longer a project here.

    DONUT 10: And then there is that “hmmm.’’ What’s Minnesota doing up there? They’ve got room to develop Hollins and Jawai? Maybe that’s the difference between a team that perennially wins 50 and a team trying to win 30.

    DONUT 11: There are some dotted I’s and crossed T’s that I haven’t much bothered with in this Jawai thing. There is that check (Cuban pays Jawai’s $735,000 salary in Minny rather than Dallas keeping him and with the tax, having to pay double). And then there is the second-round pick that the Mavs receive in the swap. I’m told the pick may be “protected’’ in some way.

    Whatever, we’re essentially dealing with a future pick in a future year for a future player who the Mavs will draft in the second round … quite possibly from Europe … and then send back to Europe … and then we never hear from him again.

   That’s as dotted-I/crossed-T as I feel obliged to get right now.

   DONUT 12: Were the Cavs wrong to sit their studs on Saturday in Dallas? Did the Mavs “retaliate’’ by doing the same thing Tuesday in Pittsburgh?

    Here’s hoping the organizations’ decisions accomplished something. Because if you are some mom and dad who bought four tickets and drove the kids from rural Pennsylvania to see Dirk … or if you are some mom and dad who bought four tickets and drove the kids from rural Texas to see LeBron … you aren’t easily convinced that anything was accomplished.