MAVS NEWS:

[OBX Maverick]

I think that we'll hear from him again in the offseason. He will likely have time to talk with PR people and hopefully put more thought into it when he talks with the media.

Once we see the team fully healthy hit the floor I think he will be justified. Just watching the games after the trade says a lot. They have fully committed to a high energy defense first style. That's truly what it takes to win.

Luka is like watching the Globetrotters. He is flashy and incredibly fun to watch. But, he would often come out flat early in games causing the team to get down and have to come back to win. I heard it mentioned that Luka needed defenders around him because he expended so much energy on offense he couldn't play defense. That's just not true. His conditioning made it so that he didn't have enough energy to play defense. When the leader of the team is like that it makes the coaches job hard.

The team since the trade has reminded me of watching old Celtics games with Larry Bird. Those teams played hard for 48 minutes. I am honestly starting to feel like Nico will be justified over the next 2-3 years. Mainly due to seeing how hard this team plays now combined with how rough Luka looks right now. Luka will get into basketball shape. But, I don't think he's going to all of a sudden change his conditioning and diet. If he hasn't by now why would he?

I completely agree.  We had just learned to live with it as fans because of what he brought to the offensive side of things and because he is fun to watch. Plus, Luka seems to be a good guy….an immature young man, but I believe a good person nonetheless. I don’t want to beat a dead bush, but I think what this boils down to for me and most other fans, is that we could live with losing him a lot more easily if Austin Reaves and 2 more first round picks  were included in that trade…Christie might end up making this thing look more even down the road, but the trade haul should have been much more.