In other words, no one knows

PatAg said:

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In other words, no one knows

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Luka Dončić feeling that right knee injury as he scores the basket, you can see him wincing after the bucket…#MFFL pic.twitter.com/7ZauwSWwnY

— Kevin Gray Jr. (@KevinGraySports) July 2, 2024

Everyone knows. It isn't exactly a secret…

shack009 said:

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Slovenia lost to Greece and is eliminated.

Three months of much needed rest for Luka.

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Nice!

Glad Luka gets three months to recover. I can't imagine how painful it would be to go into a new season with Luka battling lingering injuries.

Feels weird now that the Mavs/Ags news has slowed down the last couple of days. Between NBA Finals, CWS, Aggie baseball coaching drama, NBA draft, and free agency, there has been a constant stream of exciting news every day for the last few weeks. I'm not ready for the slow down.

Spurs getting very washed Harrison Barnes for some reason. Helped facilitate DeRozan to Sacramento. Hate that move for both teams.

Not a fan at all, but his shooting numbers are still solid and we needed PF depth. Shot like 47/38 last year.

Also got an unprotected swap from the Kings in the future

Yeah, the shooting numbers actually aren't near as bad as I thought they were. You hate to see that 0.1 VORP though… And a fairly substantial negative in both offensive and defensive box plus minus.

Really interesting team y'all are putting together.

There are only about 4 players from this team that will be on the team in 2026.

Classy statement from THJ.

In other news, has anyone ever rooted harder against Slovenia?

Thanks. I don't use Twitter or Instagram, and probably would have made a mess of it.

I'm here for Luka and have become a Mavs rent-a-fan

Our boy Dwight starting for canada

Mavs first Summer League game is tomorrow night.

Hopefully OMax looks like the best player on the floor while guarding the other team's best player. He should take his open 3s and make good decisions when he drives.

Wonder if we'll see some plays to get Ajinca some movement shots, a preview of what we will see from Klay at a higher level this season. My goal is to not overreact too much in either direction to whatever happens with Ajinca. Dudley said we may see a little point forward from him. Looking forward to seeing what he can do.

I like AJ Lawson, I just don't think he'll ever be a contributor for the Mavs. I always enjoy watching him play, he's probably just too skinny and not a consistent enough shooter to be a guy.

Fudge was with the Mavs towards the end of the year. He probably won't be a guy, but he was with the big club down the stretch and in the playoffs, so who knows. They clearly think good things about him.

The most intriguing guy outside of OMax and Ajinca is Jamarion Sharpe from Ole Miss. He didn't play a ton at Ole Miss, but he's 7'4", so he's an interesting guy to watch. Maybe Mavs will want to keep him around until he can be the 3rd center in a year or two. Mavs play offensive and defensive styles that seem to fit his game. I think his biggest area of concern is fouling.

The bad thing about watching this team will be seeing Brandon Williams as the point guard. He might have more of a "I'm the guy" mentality than Jaden Hardy but with far less efficiency lol.

Mavericks say Kyrie Irving has undergone surgery to repair a broken left hand. He sustained the injury earlier this month while training.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 17, 2024

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/40617393/sources-spencer-dinwiddie-agrees-1-year-deal-mavericks

Dinwiddie back. That is pretty good insurance for inevitable stretches where either Kyrie, Luka or Klay is out. I don't really see how he gets minutes though when everyone is healthy, unless Kidd benches Hardy.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C9u_ahhvGAJ/?igsh=dTN6MWs0bWxyMWh0

D Live 3 point session

jeffdjohnson said:

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https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/40617393/sources-spencer-dinwiddie-agrees-1-year-deal-mavericks

Dinwiddie back. That is pretty good insurance for inevitable stretches where either Kyrie, Luka or Klay is out. I don't really see how he gets minutes though when everyone is healthy, unless Kidd benches Hardy.

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This was my problem with a Dinwiddie return. If you are going to sign a similar style player, I'd just rather give the minutes to Hardy. Dinwiddie isn't adding anything that wasn't already on this team.

Guard/smaller-wing minutes are now up for grabs between Luka, Kyrie, Klay, Naji, Grimes, Exum, Hardy, and Dinwiddie. Logjam...

Yea unfortunately there is no way Kidd plays Hardy over dinwiddie in my opinion.

I think there are plenty of regular season minutes to go around. No reason for Luka to play 40+ min per game now. When it comes to playoff minutes, Kidd benching THJ for a whole month told me that he sees the big picture. Even in the playoffs, it never hurts to have another guy that can come in and score if everyone else goes cold

Hardy is too out of control for my taste.

Spence is huge. He will fill in when Klay is load management starting, and he'll be 2nd/3rd off the bench nightly. If he can stay healthy, still attack the rim, and knockdown a couple threes a night, this is as good as it gets.

Trade him and DFS for Kyrie, get him back 1.5 years later coming off a title appearance. That's huge, and a testament to Nico.

I was a huge Don and Donnie apologist, but I've seen the light with Nico taking the reins and Cubes staying out of things from a personnel standpoint.

I only wish Jerry/Stephen/Jerry Jr would get that memo

There is a reason he's available for about $2 million.

The spot starters will be Grimes and Marshall, if you ask me. Then Exum would be next up. Dinwiddie is pretty buried. It's still possible Hardy plays more than him, also.

500,000ags said:

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Hardy is too out of control for my taste.

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I thought he really did a good job passing and finding the lob man in the playoffs. Maybe he would be able to adapt to the speed of the game if Kidd played him more.

shack009 said:

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There is a reason he's available for about $2 million.

The spot starters will be Grimes and Marshall, if you ask me. Then Exum would be next up. Dinwiddie is pretty buried. It's still possible Hardy plays more than him, also.

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Dinwiddie played awful for the lLakers, but there are a lot of guys that deserve more than the minimum that wont get it because of the new tax rules. Okoro didn't even get a contract offer for anyone.

Tyus Jones was expected to get about $15M/year and didn't get a contract. Precious didn't get a contract. Luke Kennard. Gary Trent.

The new cap rules are destroying the NBA middle class.

That may be true, but Dinwiddie isn't the middle class. Dinwiddie is so poor he has to go home to live with Momma.

I'd take any of those guys you mentioned, other than Kennard, well before Dinwiddie. Dinwiddie got bought out 5 months ago.

I was bored so I looked at the Mavs season o/u and fanduel has it as 50.5 at -110 for both the over and the under.

My initial reaction was that felt pretty low. The mavs won 50 games last season, weren't a good team until after the trade deadline, and also punted the final 2 games of the season, 1 of which was against one of the worst teams in the league. We also lost a game on a 60 footer. Don't we all think the team is better this year, as well as deeper?

Best argument for the under would be related to a Luka injury. Other arguments would be Mavs "luck" in clutch games last season and then that the Mavs had a really good record against teams you are supposed to beat. Like close to 90% against lottery teams last year.

Luka hasn't been in his best shape lately, had additional playing in the summer, and Kyrie always misses a number of games. Plus, the west should be tougher with Sacramento, Memphis, SA, Houston and New Orleans getting better. Denver and LAC should drop some, but not as much as the others gain, imo

Guitarsoup said:

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Luka hasn't been in his best shape lately, had additional playing in the summer, and Kyrie always misses a number of games. Plus, the west should be tougher with Sacramento, Memphis, SA, Houston and New Orleans getting better. Denver and LAC should drop some, but not as much as the others gain, imo

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This was all true last season. Mavs also have way better depth this year to handle any sort of long term injury and load management games. We are talking about Dinwiddie, Hardy, Exum, Powell and OMax as 10-14 on the team. Guard depth is ridiculous and forward depth is serviceable.

It's certainly up for debate if some of those teams got better (looking at SAC, Houston, and NO). SA may have got a little better, but Mavs will probably be favored in every game against SA. Mavs got better too.

Mavs actually only went 2-2 against both NO and Mem last season despite their weird years. Mavs could pick up at least a game against one of these two even if they drop another game against SAC/SA/HOU (9-2 last year).

Mavs went 2-4 against Denver and LAC last year, so I expect that to be 3-3 at worst this year.

Mavs went 2-5 against OKC+Min last year, maybe they pick one up there.

It won't be easy, and I'm usually pretty optimistic before every season of every sport, so I may be way too high on my own supply. I just keep coming back the fact that we were talking about firing Kidd in March and the Mavs still won 50 games last year somehow. I thought the O/U should be more in line with Minnesota's at 52.5. Doesn't make much sense that Minnesota's o/u is 2 more than the Mavs' and that Denver's is 1 more than the Mavs'.

I had no idea Spencer averaged 17 points as a Mav.

Denver should be lower, but that represents 6 wins less than last year.

Even with better depth, Mavs still go as Luka+Kyrie go. I don't think one of them is enough to carry the team against the top half of the league most nights.

Free agent F Kessler Edwards has agreed on a two-way NBA contract with the Dallas Mavericks, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium. Edwards has averaged 3.5 points and 11.9 minutes across three seasons for Nets and Kings. pic.twitter.com/qJTF7Jvila

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 26, 2024

Not a bad guy for the end of the bench. Seemed like he always killed the Mavs.