(08-19-2024, 01:12 PM)Ghost of Podkolzin Wrote: Point being he is who he is. Dude started to drink a beer after winning the West, before Fin took it. That speaks volumes. I hope he changes it and becomes Lebron, or even a shadow of Lebron's taking care of his body, but I just don't see that happening.
This said, all you can do is manage his time on the court and off the ball (again like Lebron).
Who amongst us would not happily have a beer with Dad after winning the WCF? Especially since you didn't have another game for ~5 days?
(08-19-2024, 01:44 PM)michaeltex Wrote: Who amongst us would not happily have a beer with Dad after winning the WCF? Especially since you didn't have another game for ~5 days?
I thought Fin's reaction was ridiculous. Watching Luka and Jokic play, you see they're different dudes. They always clown each other in shoot arounds. It's a game to them. They'll never be Lebron or Jordan in the way of the intense, manic competitors. IMO, this shows most in Luka's conditioning. Hell, Jokic makes me look cut and jacked up.
(08-19-2024, 01:44 PM)michaeltex Wrote: Who amongst us would not happily have a beer with Dad after winning the WCF? Especially since you didn't have another game for ~5 days?
Alcohol and its effects on the body are severe enough that any high level serious athlete should never consume it, let alone in the middle of a playoff run where the final goal is on the horizon.
And that's before even broaching the optics of it, given that one of the biggest critique's of Luka has been his conditioning and he's seen downing a beer.
Of course, I don't buy into the optics side of it. Does it really matter that he had a beer (or two?) after the WCF? No. Jordan smoked cigars and pulled all nighters before games. Larry Bird drank beer the entire regular season but only stopped during the playoffs.
Luka deserved that beer with his dad after clinching a finals berth. But it is also true that Luka clearly had several nagging injuries during the playoffs that one has to wonder if he took his conditioning/recovery/diet a bit more seriously would he already have his 1st ring by now?
I give Luka all the credit for battling through his injuries. I will never question his competitive drive or want to be out there so don't take my words as me saying the opposite.
14x All-Star, 12x all-NBA, 1x MVP, 1x Finals MVP, 1 NBA Championship: Dirk Nowitzki, the man, the myth, the legend.
(08-19-2024, 10:29 PM)SleepingHero Wrote: Alcohol and its effects on the body are severe enough that any high level serious athlete should never consume it, let alone in the middle of a playoff run where the final goal is on the horizon.
And that's before even broaching the optics of it, given that one of the biggest critique's of Luka has been his conditioning and he's seen downing a beer.
Of course, I don't buy into the optics side of it. Does it really matter that he had a beer (or two?) after the WCF? No. Jordan smoked cigars and pulled all nighters before games. Larry Bird drank beer the entire regular season but only stopped during the playoffs.
Luka deserved that beer with his dad after clinching a finals berth. But it is also true that Luka clearly had several nagging injuries during the playoffs that one has to wonder if he took his conditioning/recovery/diet a bit more seriously would he already have his 1st ring by now?
I give Luka all the credit for battling through his injuries. I will never question his competitive drive or want to be out there so don't take my words as me saying the opposite.
Come on man, Luka took his diet and conditioning/recovery/diet way more seriously than mark did putting a long-term winning team around Luka. mark let Brunson walk, then had to pay assets to bring in Kyrie. This team was on the treadmill to mediocrity whether it was coaching, GM, or payroll as long as mark was running it...
Now it LOOKS to be that mark got 2 things right in Nico and Kidd, but even then he held them back by certain decisions (or lack of). There appears to be hope in this direction. (crosses finger emoji)
Here is hoping that Luka is able to come into this season rested (crazy to think that about a player making his first finals appearance) and ready/beginning to get into shape sooner than he has been able to due to a LACK of team Slovenia commitments this summer. (prayer emoji)
So yes there is some pressure on Luka this year, because for the first time in recent days the team appears to be better assembled going into a season than in any other for Luka's career.
I have been worried about minutes at backup PF. So... I projected out everyone's minutes and how they should be allocated. I think we're fine, even though I hate relying on Maxi as he's declining.
“I would love to say it was all me,” said Kidd, a key member of Dallas’ recruiting squad. “But it wasn't. It was a team effort. But I think player-to-player – in this league, they all talk about their situations, and they all recruit one another – this was about Kai and Klay being able to talk.
“When you talk about the recruitment, it was a lot of people that were involved in that. But one of the biggest players in that was Kai,” Kidd said on the latest episode of NBC Sports Bay Area's "Dubs Talk," which debuted Tuesday. “Kai being able to, player to player, (detail) his experience of what Dallas has been like for him in two years and being able to tell Klay the honest truth of what he thinks can happen with Klay coming to Dallas.”
“And I also believe Klay did his homework, just understanding the situation. It would have been an easy for him to stay (with the Warriors or elsewhere in California). So, he had to put in some effort of doing some homework to see what Dallas was all about.”
14x All-Star, 12x all-NBA, 1x MVP, 1x Finals MVP, 1 NBA Championship: Dirk Nowitzki, the man, the myth, the legend.
Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine)
A number of Mavericks are practicing together in Los Angeles this week and league sources tell my podcast partner @ChrisBHaynes and me that Kyrie Irving has been in attendance even though he is not yet cleared to play 5-on-5. Irving had surgery in July to repair a broken hand.
14x All-Star, 12x all-NBA, 1x MVP, 1x Finals MVP, 1 NBA Championship: Dirk Nowitzki, the man, the myth, the legend.
(08-20-2024, 04:30 PM)SleepingHero Wrote: Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine)
A number of Mavericks are practicing together in Los Angeles this week and league sources tell my podcast partner @ChrisBHaynes and me that Kyrie Irving has been in attendance even though he is not yet cleared to play 5-on-5. Irving had surgery in July to repair a broken hand.
Hollinger under the radar moves of the summer. He has Klay Thompson too, but for what the Warriors were able to get for a declining player where both Heild and Anderson are making less than Thompson. He does note that Thompson seems like a good fit in Dallas.
************************
Mavs’ Tim Hardaway Jr. trade
Dallas’ sign-and-trade for Thompson hogged the spotlight, and early returns are tilting positive after Josh Green’s 0-for-the-Olympics in Paris. (Dallas sent Green to Charlotte as the matching salary in the deal.)
However, the Mavs’ other moves might have been better. The trade of Hardaway’s $16.2 million salary for Quentin Grimes’ $4.3 million salary set the stage for the Thompson trade and the Naji Marshall signing. The deal only cost them two seconds, and it was critical to keeping the Mavs under the first apron and thus making both the Thompson and Marshall additions cap legal.
Yet even if there were no apron component, this deal would be a win. Yes, Grimes’ knee injury from last season looms as a question mark, but at full strength, he’s a better player than Hardaway at this point in their respective careers. Grimes is a volume 3-point shooter who defends his position and can fit in perfectly as a weakside player while Dončić and Kyrie Irving dominate the ball. He’s also only 24 and a restricted free agent after the season (if the Mavs don’t extend him in October, that is).
Meanwhile, don’t forget that $16.2 million trade exception Dallas took away from this deal. The Mavs are more likely to use it in the 2025 offseason given their position just pennies from the first-apron limit (they can’t go over due to acquiring Thompson and Marshall). However, they project to have enough sub-apron space to utilize most or all of it next summer or could potentially roll it into another, longer-lived exception in a future trade.
"Overall, I think it will be challenging for O-Max to secure a spot in the rotation next season. His game is still too raw, his shot too inconsistent, and there are too many more proven options like P.J. Washington, Naji Marshall, Quentin Grimes, Maxi Kleber, and Dante Exum ahead of him. Exum and Josh Green are recent examples of players who, despite their improvements, still aren't the most confident or natural shooters, and who were challenged (or rather ignored) by NBA defenses in the playoffs. O-Max isn't there yet. First, he needs to prove that his improved G-League three-point shooting is real and start justifying his defensive reputation in the limited opportunities he’ll receive. The hustle, we know, will be there."
Omax just doesn't pass my eye test, and yes he declined from last year's summer league. He looks like a general athlete, not a basketball player. As the writeup notes, his block and steal ratings are a huge indicator he's just not what he needs to be.
(08-24-2024, 02:01 PM)SleepingHero Wrote: Watching Nash play and start at his age is crazy.
Seeing him lead a break and do his little drop off passes brought me back. Still my 3rd favorite Mav ever.
Nash is my all-time favorite player, actually professional athlete. Graduated with him at Santa Clara, then moved to Dallas just as he was traded. Years of season tickets (starting with the last year at Reunion), I became a diehard Mavs fan.
What a lot of people don't know is that at Santa Clara he was more Curry than Stockton. He was our SG for his first 2 years, then a scoring PG. The crazy distribution didn't develop until he was in the NBA. Seriously, the dude became at top 5 distributor all time and developed it all professionally.
Nash and Curry proved that there are different types of athleticism.
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