MAVS NEWS:

[F Gump]

So Kyrie, Flagg, and lively were all at duke with a ton of other pros.  There is a pic of Lively lifting weights and also talking to players on the court.  Recently there was a picture of him in the weight room with Tyson Chandler.  Unless I missed it though, there has not been any pictures of him playing basketball.  So either they are being extremely secretive or he is not playing on the court yet with a month before camp opens.

I am not surprised, because I don't think there has been anything whatsoever re Lively that has said he would be ready to play when the season opens - much less that he would be playing more than a month sooner than that. Instead, we have had a steady stream of non-answer "answers" to the question of when he will be ready. He's in the training room every day, he's working hard, etc, it's nebulous vagueness each time where team mouthpieces want to make it sound like he's just a half-step away from a full-speed return, yet really saying nothing of the kind.

From that, I have formed the belief that any expectations on him are going to be a setup for disappointment. Maybe he returns sometime, and maybe he plays in games from time to time, but I am just not expecting anything remotely team-changing.