Tuesday Morning Donuts: Mavs ... With Sprinkles!

Mike Fisher -- DB.com

    DONUT 1: Criticisms of our criticisms of ESPN’s big-brained John Hollinger are fair: When Hollinger writes something positive about the Mavs, we herald his intellect. Something negative? We call him a geek.

     This time, I’ll let you decide.

    Here’s Hollinger, at it again, with his Mavs preview: “The Mavericks won 50 games last season and made several upgrades to the roster by acquiring Marion, Gooden, Humphries, Thomas, Ross and Beaubois. Those additions should help offset the unfortunate loss of Bass and the age issues that are creeping up nearly everywhere, but I’m not sure it does anything more than that. They’ll win more than they lose because they have Nowitzki and a decent supporting cast, as well as a coach in Carlisle who excels at optimizing his roster. … Based on the current roster, it looks like another year at the tail end of the West’s playoff roster and an early May tee time. 47-35, 3rd in Southwest Division, 7th in Western Conference.”

   DONUT 2: OK, I cannot resist.

   If you read this space, you already know what I think of so-called “age issues.’’ Really, there is only one “age issue’’ with the Mavs, and it comes in the form of Jason Kidd, the only player on the roster who is notable older than the norm.

   “Win more than they lose’’? Surely that is an unintentional understatement, right? Because “win more than they lose’’ suggests something in the range of a 42-40 record. Is that what John is predicting?

   Well, no. John is predicting 47-35.

   I suppose 9X50 has to end sometime. But is it ending now?

   DONUT 3: A cool and very subtle add to the Mavs’ look: On the sleeve of their warmups, there is a patch celebrating the coming 2010 All-Star Game. Cool.

   DONUT 4: The Mavericks' Rick Carlisle is the NBA’s best coach? By far? This is more from Tony Cubes’ stat guy Wayne Winston. And while it’s all very interesting, this might be where “objective’’ and “raw data’’ meet opinion. I’m sorry, but there is no way to quantify Carlisle’s skills versus, say, Popovich’s skills.

   Nor is there any way to justifiably argue that, if we turned back the clock a year and a half, and the Mavs were looking to hire a coach, and both Carlisle and Popovich were available, that Carlisle would’ve been “by far’’ the right choice.

   DONUT 5: The Mavs are back to the grind today with a single mid-day practice. We'll have a report later in the day. 

   DONUT 6: I thought last night’s Brandon Bass-vs.-Kris Humphries wrasslin’ match was fun to watch. Humphries is auditioning to be what Bass was when he first came here: An energetic role-playing brute. I also think he can be what Eddie Najera was when he became a Mav: Again, an energetic role-playing brute – who can play a little defense.

   I was hoping Jake Voskuhl might “brute’’ some people around, too, at the end of Monday’s 110-105 preseason loss to Orlando. But alas, Jake was a defensive sieve.

   DONUT 7: Misty Mav misses you. Go check out our Fish-designed T-shirts in the DB.com Store!
   DONUT 8: The reviews of the DallasBasketball.com “Lucky 13’’ ticket giveaway are rolling in. A bunch of the passes we gave away courtesy of the DB.com Store turned out to be platimum-level … super seats … and later in the day I think I’ll print the emails I’m getting from Mavs fans who had a blast at the game.

    Thanks so much to everyone who participated – I received almost 500 ticket requests in less than four hours – and thanks to all for being a part of DallasBasketball.com!

   DONUT 9: Nowadays, we get very caught up in newfangled stats, and they all have their value. But when you listen to Mavs coach Rick Carlisle talk about the Magic, you hear him mention a stat that he’d really like to apply to his own team.

    "Don't overlook the fact that they were No. 1 in the league in defensive points per possession last year,'' Carlisle said."This is a terrific team.’’

   Defensive Points Per Possession. You watch: This will be a season-long Carlisle theme.

    DONUT 10: Not surprisingly, Mark Cuban has a pro-Mavs slant on the Marcin Gortat transaction.

    "They could have saved themselves a lot of money just by saying they'd match,'' Cuban said. "If the team says they'll match, you don't make the offer.''

     The Magic kept quiet – and received a lot of credit for being sly after they eventually did match Dallas’ five-year MLE offer. Cuban’s point: Orlando isn’t as sly as you think. If the Magic had simply announced that they planned to retain Gortat, he wouldn’t have gotten such a large offer – and Orlando, with no other bidders out there – would not have needed to spend  $34 mil to keep him.

    DONUT 11: Good try, Rangers, but you’re still no closer to truly giving us “Baseball Fever’’ than you are giving us Swine Flu.

    Instead, we are left with today’s AL play-in game, my Twins (hopefully riding a Vikings crest) vs. the drunken Tigers.

    Rangers fans can watch … and dream of what someday might be.

    DONUT 12: The Browns' Braylon Edwards beat up a friend of the Cavs' LeBron James?

     Cleveland Rocks!

    DONUT 13: Well, it took me a month to overcome 17 years. But I now rather like this Brett Favre person.