MAVS NEWS: Luka Wins Community Cares Award! | DLive's Mom Passes Away| Maxi OUT

[SleepingHero]

@sixfivelando
Kyrie Irving: “I made a decision that I wanted to be one of the greatest to ever play this game. I know I have other peers of mine that are on that same mission. We’re all competing against each other. I’m fortunate to have one of the best to ever play the game in Luka with me.”

https://twitter.com/sixfivelando/status/...1681771672

He goes on with more detail. Honestly a great answer here.

[SleepingHero]

https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/stat...1629450615
@awfulannouncing
Mark Jones: "There was a Luka Dončić sighting around downtown Sacramento at Golden Corral.

I'm telling you, man. I haven't eaten there since the last AAU tournament my kids played in. That buffet is no joke."

[MFFL]

Why Mavericks’ defense changes everything in NBA’s wild West, and a look at chaos to come
Sam Amick
Mar 29, 2024

https://archive.is/VBkkk#selection-2891.0-2907.12

[Chicagojk]

I have been a loyal bill simmons fan. I still really enjoy his podcasts and listen to all of them. It is funny the shift he has had with the Mavs and Luka. I get most of it. Bob V was horrible. Cuban too. Brunson mess is well documented.

I am a week behind but on that podcast they gave their rankings of west teams they would like to be in 7 years. Bill had Dallas 7th. Right in front of Utah. He had Minny, San Antonio, Houston and New Orleans all in front of them.

I was in disbelief. Dallas still needs to grow their team and are not done yet, but I just feel like this Dallas team is hiding in plain site. They are starting to get press, but still.

Their rationale is Dallas doesn’t have much room to approve because they are on losing side of pick switches (are we sure?) and they don’t have a lot of growth potential with guys with upside unless Lively becomes great. I just don’t agree. Next year we may see even more youth with Jaden and OMax. We will have 2-3 players just over 30. The rest are in the mid 20’s.

Maybe it is the bob V stuff. I am sure he heard his take on things and it was a mess. But let’s not forget Bob V was just a big of a mess.

Keep ignoring the Mavs. Fine by me.

[Chicagojk]

Bob V on Twitter. Not exactly sure what his point is.

https://x.com/mavsfilmroom/status/177410...20584?s=46&t=iwQP5yZoJF3Ulzfb9MH7Cg

[Scott41theMavs]

I have been a loyal bill simmons fan.  I still really enjoy his podcasts and listen to all of them.  It is funny the shift he has had with the Mavs and Luka.  I get most of it.  Bob V was horrible.  Cuban too.  Brunson mess is well documented.

I am a week behind but on that podcast they gave their rankings of west teams they would like to be in 7 years.  Bill had Dallas 7th.  Right in front of Utah.  He had Minny, San Antonio, Houston and New Orleans all in front of them.

I was in disbelief.  Dallas still needs to grow their team and are not done yet, but I just feel like this Dallas team is hiding in plain site.  They are starting to get press, but still.

Their rationale is Dallas doesn’t have much room to approve because they are on losing side of pick switches (are we sure?) and they don’t have a lot of growth potential with guys with upside unless Lively becomes great.  I just don’t agree.  Next year we may see even more youth with Jaden and OMax.  We will have 2-3 players just over 30.  The rest are in the mid 20’s.

Maybe it is the bob V stuff.  I am sure he heard his take on things and it was a mess.  But let’s not forget Bob V was just a big of a mess.

Keep ignoring the Mavs.  Fine by me.

Nothing would give me more pleasure than Kyrie sticking it to the Boston faithful and Simmons in the Finals other than the resulting Larry itself.

I just hope that if we get there, Kai doesn't get as rattled as he did by the boos in that last game. Nick Van Exel 'em.

[KillerLeft]

I have been a loyal bill simmons fan.  I still really enjoy his podcasts and listen to all of them.  It is funny the shift he has had with the Mavs and Luka.  I get most of it.  Bob V was horrible.  Cuban too.  Brunson mess is well documented.

I am a week behind but on that podcast they gave their rankings of west teams they would like to be in 7 years.  Bill had Dallas 7th.  Right in front of Utah.  He had Minny, San Antonio, Houston and New Orleans all in front of them.

I was in disbelief.  Dallas still needs to grow their team and are not done yet, but I just feel like this Dallas team is hiding in plain site.  They are starting to get press, but still.

Their rationale is Dallas doesn’t have much room to approve because they are on losing side of pick switches (are we sure?) and they don’t have a lot of growth potential with guys with upside unless Lively becomes great.  I just don’t agree.  Next year we may see even more youth with Jaden and OMax.  We will have 2-3 players just over 30.  The rest are in the mid 20’s.

Maybe it is the bob V stuff.  I am sure he heard his take on things and it was a mess.  But let’s not forget Bob V was just a big of a mess.

Keep ignoring the Mavs.  Fine by me.

I am a fan, too, but I agree with your assessment of his biases. And, I will add that I think he is pretty overtly upset that anyone offered Kyrie Irving a good contract. I think he was low-key looking forward to Kyrie Irving having to sing for his supper this past summer. He’s still pretty bitter about how things  played out when Kyrie was in Boston.

[Jason Terry]

I am a fan, too, but I agree with your assessment of his biases. And, I will add that. I think he is pretty overtly upset that anyone offered Kyrie Irving a good contract. I think he was low-key looking forward to Kyrie Irving having to sing for his supper this past summer. He’s still pretty bitter about how things  played out when Kyrie was in Boston.

What happened with the Kyrie/Boston thing? I know he got hurt one of the years

I get the Cleveland thing. He made the most important shot in their franchise history en route to their 1st ship ever. He doesn’t owe them anything and wanted to do his own thing away from Lebrons shadow…….the Brooklyn thing is well known and easy to understand. 

He’s loved by every player in the league. The Boston guys(Tatum/Brown) look up to him to this day as like a big brother hero. That probably bothers Simmons

[SleepingHero]

Bob V on Twitter.  Not exactly sure what his point is.

https://x.com/mavsfilmroom/status/177410...20584?s=46&t=iwQP5yZoJF3Ulzfb9MH7Cg

He wants to prove that he's correct and that he wasn't apart of the problem that was the dysfunctional Mavericks.

And truthfully, I don't think he was apart of the dysfunction, but rather Cuban basically deputizing him is what caused dysfunction. Add onto Nelson basically giving up and not doing his job. It was a mess.

I still have PTSD.

[KillerLeft]

What happened with the Kyrie/Boston thing? I know he got hurt one of the years

I get the Cleveland thing. He made the most important shot in their franchise history en route to their 1st ship ever. He doesn’t owe them anything and wanted to do his own thing away from Lebrons shadow…….the Brooklyn thing is well known and easy to understand. 

He’s loved by every player in the league. The Boston guys(Tatum/Brown) look up to him to this day as like a big brother hero. That probably bothers Simmons

Boston fans will never be OK with Kyrie, for a number of reasons. One of the big things was that he did a season ticket holder event during which he got on the mic and basically said he wanted to re-sign in Boston and finish his career there. I might have the timeline wrong a little bit, but I’m pretty sure he left at the end of that very season. They were all kind of put out by that.

Also, the version of the Celtics he was on under achieved greatly, and there appeared to be a lot of friction between him and the rest of their core, all of whom were very young at the time. He was brought in to nurture their young talent, a lot like what he was brought in to do here in Dallas. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, it did not work very well there and there were lots of ugly news articles with quotes going back-and-forth between the Tatum/Brown crew and Kyrie over the course of his stay there.

Boston fans HATE Kyrie, Simmons notably among them.

[SleepingHero]

What happened with the Kyrie/Boston thing? I know he got hurt one of the years

I get the Cleveland thing. He made the most important shot in their franchise history en route to their 1st ship ever. He doesn’t owe them anything and wanted to do his own thing away from Lebrons shadow…….the Brooklyn thing is well known and easy to understand. 

He’s loved by every player in the league. The Boston guys(Tatum/Brown) look up to him to this day as like a big brother hero. That probably bothers Simmons

He was often injured first of all, which bothered a lot of Boston fans. 67 games in 17-18, 60 games in 18-19, but the fact he entirely missed the playoffs his first year is what started the fire for the Bostonian hate crowd.

That year Tatum and Brown led Boston to an improbable ECF run without Hayward and Irving. That empowered both of them next season to try and take the next step. Irving felt that those two were trying to usurp the chain of command of the team. As in, yes while they made a deep run, he was still the top dog having won a chip 2 years prior and hitting one of the most iconic shots in NBA history. 

That entire 18-19 season was a mess chemistry wise. Tatum and Brown complained about their roles because they basically proved they can be THE guys. Irving was offended because Boston made this whole song and dance of how he was finally THE guy after being behind the shadow of Lebron his entire career, only for it to be pulled from him in less than 2 seasons because he got hurt. And thats before I even mentioned the Hayward aspect of this where he too was trying to reintegrate himself as the former all-star and splashiest signing of the summer. 

This all came to a head in the 18-19 playoffs. Boston slept walk through the first round against Indiana, sweeping them 4-0. Irving was brilliant. Tatum was brilliant. The entire vibe was Boston runs the east and they are finally going to make their finals run this year. 

Then they ran into the buzzsaw of the Bucks. Boston won the first game but MIL made adjustments that basically took out Tatum and Brown. Both Tatum and Brown were rendered useless and their stats and efficiency plummeted. Boston fans turned to Irving as this was THE moment he can prove to them why he was THE guy. The one who can step up and lead the team and put away the up and coming Bucks. And mind you, Boston was stacked with talent. They had Kyrie/Tatum/Brown/Hayward/Roizer/Horford/Theis. They were the only team that had a chance against the Warriors or so we thought. 

So, what did Irving do given all that was at stake? If you ask Bill Simmons and any Boston fan, he quit on the team flatly. He was going through the motions. Didn't try on defense. He shot a horrific 30% from the field and 18% from 3 the final 4 games. And this was on 20+ shots in each of those games. Irving then left in the summer leaving Boston nothing to go join up with his buddy KD to form a new superteam and the damage was done.

Now hindsight can paint a picture that Irving just had a horrible shooting stretch at the worst time. No one wants to give credit to the Bucks but they also played fantastic defense as well. If you want to look at it from Kyrie's side, he saw how Boston turned on him in a second and he went to a team he thought actually appreciated him. Boston fans thought Irving lit a match to the bridge and tanked the games. 

I can see both sides of the argument. But it's still hilarious hearing Bill Simmons still talk about Kyrie and hear the disdain drip off of every word to this day.

[BigDirk41]

Pelicans lost to the Celtics. Looks like the Houston game is for first place in our division and the #5 seed.

[The Jom]

Yeah baby!

[SleepingHero]

Dirk's opinion on the Mavs

[Ghost of Podkolzin]

The only people who care when fans hate them, are fans. Kyrie is one of the most beloved players, by players. Everything else is just noise in his mind.

I wasn't a fan of getting Kyrie until the deal went down and he was coming, regardless of my opinion. Dude has shown nothing but incredible professionalism and a chameleon-like ability to change his game and stay at an allstar level.

[Scott41theMavs]

The only people who care when fans hate them, are fans.  Kyrie is one of the most beloved players, by players.  Everything else is just noise in his mind.

I wasn't a fan of getting Kyrie until the deal went down and he was coming, regardless of my opinion.  Dude has shown nothing but incredible professionalism and a chameleon-like ability to change his game and stay at an allstar level.

The only difference between your take and mine is that he won me over. Love him as a Mav. I still hope there isn't an explosion at some point, but I think it's very unlikely to be during the rest of this year if one's on the way. The greater concern is that he needs to not get hurt - which, unless he's been a professional malingerer for the past ten years or so, is out of both his hands and ours.

[Ghost of Podkolzin]

The only difference between your take and mine is that he won me over. Love him as a Mav. I still hope there isn't an explosion at some point, but I think it's very unlikely to be during the rest of this year if one's on the way. The greater concern is that he needs to not get hurt - which, unless he's been a professional malingerer for the past ten years or so, is out of both his hands and ours.

I think he's in the best situation possible.  He's Robin and no longer wants to be Batman.  He's in a small market-like homer sports media environment.  Luka seems to be an ingratiating superstar, making him an easy teammate.  The whole roster seems to be filled with good guys, allowing Kyrie to coach and motivate.  He feels wanted in Dallas because he is.

[The Jom]

Hey! We are the 5th seed!!!

[myconsumerclub]

Hey! We are the 5th seed!!!

pretty much and maybe we go to 4th if LAC continues at their current pace while we just go undefeated the rest of the remaining reg season.

[SleepingHero]

@BobbyMarks42
Luka Doncic has reached the 65-game criteria.

He is now eligible for MVP and All-NBA honors.

Doncic will also reach the super max criteria when he is named All-NBA this offseason.

He will be eligible to sign a five-year $346M super max extension in the 2025 offseason.

The contract would be the richest in NBA history.

He cannot sign in 2024 because of the years of service criteria (has to be 7 YOS).