New Year's Mavs Donuts: It's A Game Of Attrition (Especially If Teammates Shoot Guns At One Another)

Friday Morning Mavs Donuts … Featuring a case for Roddy Beaubois, the headless-chicken Mavs, the secret message on the bottom of LeBron’s shoes, Kidd’s heavy load, the NBA game of attrition, Shawn Marion as an All-NBA Defender and my personal New Year’s resolution for both of us … NBA players shouldn’t draw guns on each other in the locker room!

    DONUT 1: Skin’s got a fine analysis of Jason Kidd’s heavy minutes load here, so fine that I agree with every single point he makes … save one.

    The headless-chicken nature of the Dallas offense when Kidd isn’t on the floor has occurred when JJB is running the point and it has occurred when Jet is running the point. But because the bulk of Roddy Beaubois’ playing time (back in the good ol’ days when he played) came at the 2, alongside Kidd. So we really haven’t seen Roddy at the 1, imposing his potentially precocious will on a defense.

    So are we trying to shave just a few minutes off of Kidd’s load? I’m never quite able to quantify what happens positively to a guy’s body if he plays 34 minutes a game instead of 35, but for the sake of argument. …

     If we’re trying to shave just a few minutes off of Kidd’s load … and if we agree that the Dallas offense doesn’t quite click when JJB or Jet are in charge … are we sure there aren’t one or two spots in occasional games in which French Cuffs wouldn’t be helpful for one or two minutes?

    I really don't think this is me overreating to a 97-94 loss in Houston in which the other team's waterbug point guard went off for 30 points. ... while J-Kidd played 42 minutes. ... and while Roddy once again got the DNP. ... because I truly believe that in the three or four minutes that Roddy might've chased around Aaron Brooks, those would've been three or four minutes in which Aaron Brooks would NOT have been scoring as a 30ppg pace.

    DONUT 2: What the Mavs wish to avoid with Kidd, of course, is subjecting him to the horrors of this game of attrition.

    And this “non-contact sport’’ is just that, right? From Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post: "The plan made sense -- rest Chauncey Billups during Denver's back-to-back games earlier this week, take four days off, and by Saturday, he'd be back. Not so fast. On Wednesday, when Billups was asked about playing at Utah on Saturday, he said softly: 'I don't know man, I really don't know, to be honest.' Billups' groin strain remains a pain on the court. …’’

     DONUT 3: And the game of attrition continues in Portland, where now LaMarcus Aldridge has an ankle problem.

   “This has gone past crazy,” McMillan said as he began his post-game press conference. “Bad luck or whatever ... to continue to see our guys drop ... to walk in that locker room and see LaMarcus in a boot ...”

   DONUT 4: The decade of LeBron’s greatest dunks. Let’s go to the video! 

    By the way, Happy Birthday to LeBron from Shaq … who reportedly just gave his teammate a $400,000 Rolls Royce as a present. 

    And one more LeBron note, the most important of ‘em all: On the bottom of his new Nikes comes a slogan: I Love NY.

     DONUT 5: Here’s Mark Cuban’s view of his defensive standouts:

Any doubt that @matrix31 should be on the All Defensive Team this year ? With Josh Howard not far behind. Both have been amazing

    DONUT 6: Show off your love of the Mavs and DallasBasketball.com by heading up to the DB.com Store to place your order … one shirt, two shirts, whatever you wish. … “The UberMan,’’ “The DUST Chip,’’ the retro “FISH for LUNCH’’ or the essential ice-grey “DallasBasketball.com’’ … your choice … and we’ll ship your shirts right away via PRIORITY MAIL!

     DONUT 7: I’ll be cancelling my subscription to any publication that announces today that The Person of the Decade is … “Me, The Reader.’’ I mean, what was I last decade? Chopped livah?

    DONUT 8: Another gun story from the locker room of the Bullets … er, Wizards. You just knew Gilbert Arenas was lying about that first gun story … and now comes news that Agent Zero “drew’’ on a teammate over a gambling argument.

    This nut really does think he’s an “agent’’!

    DONUT 9: We can say that Dirk Nowitzki's elbow isn't a problem, and that he's gotten right back on that bicycle. ... but his free-throw attempts in the last three games are: 0, 0 and 4. Does that suggest an absence of banging?

     DONUT 10: Whatever happened to Tariq Abdul-Wahad? 

     ShamSports tries, not very successfully, to tell us. But this mention does remind me of a story. I once approached Tariq at Mavs practice – maybe in 2002 or so – and introduced myself.

   And he said, “My last name isn’t ‘Wahad.’’

   “Whaaa?’’ I replied.

   “It’s Abdul-Wahad. Always. Abdul-Wahad.’’

   Apparently, he’d heard me reference him on the radio (I doubt it was a flattering reference) and I’d accidentally dropped an “Abdul.’’

   And that’s what really happened to Tariq Wahad … er, Abdul.

    DONUT 11: Hey, will you be so kind as to follow me on Twitter? Click on twitter.com/fishsports ... And make yourself a New Year's resolution you'll actually keep!

   DONUT 12: As we turn our attention to Saturday in Sacto, some guidance from Mark Followill, who notes that in the last few days the Kings at home have taken the Cavs to OT, taken the Lakers to OT and defeated Denver. So, watch out for cowbells, is what we’re saying.

   DONUT 13: However … the Kings might be playing hurt. Their best player, Kevin Martin is out. And their emerging best player, Tyreke Evans, is hobbled and only hoping to return this weekend. 

   Like I said. … a game of attrition.

   Especially if the players start shooting guns at each other.