Flagg looks awesome

Everybody else….

Why is the game blacked out in Dallas? At least it is on NBA channel on DTV

Legend said:

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Why is the game blacked out in Dallas? At least it is on NBA channel on DTV

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It's on Mavs.com for people in Dallas, I think.

NBATV switched to the Rockets broadcast after the first commercial because the Mavs were having such bad audio issues.

Vessel said:

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Flagg looks awesome

Everybody else….

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There's just not a ton of good shot creation out there without Kyrie or even Larry on the floor. Just feels like Flagg, some shooters and a big. That's going to be the single biggest concern for this team.

Also, I think Houston could be a wagon this year with FVV back. I think he's that important to their success, and could unlock Reed Sheppard by allowing him to play off the ball more and not have the ball in his hands to turn it over.

Overall not great but trying not to overreact to the first preseason game on the other side of the world. Missing Kyrie, PJ, and Aldama, who are 3 of the top 7 or 8 guys on the team. Not even factoring Lively.

Flagg looks to have taken the step we all hoped. 3 pointer is still a little shaky. The one he made was so pure and the few he missed were all disjointed from the ground up and you knew they had no chance.

Rez was fine, he seemed to do better against Sengun than Gaff did. Made a 3 that looked nice but also missed two that were completely disjointed and were hopeless. Wish he was a little more aggressive inside the arc.

Gaff made a 3 that was so pure. He's going to shoot this year. Looked ok overall but still always seems to leave something to be desired. Sengun bullied him a little.

Biberovic has such a nice looking shot. He was way too hesitant to shoot about 5 times before putting the ball on the ground leading to nothing. He just needs to be ready to pull from 3.

The Risacher preseason hype train should officially be dead. He was terrible in the minutes against the Rockets starters. He has absolutely no plan on his way to the basket and he's extremely weak.

Dwight Powell getting lots of minutes before we even saw Cisse on the court is concerning.

Looking forward to see how different it looks with Kyrie on the floor and on this side of the world.

I'm not reading to much into that one outside of Risacher looking pretty putrid. That was just throwing guys on the court more or less, and as you said, they were missing 3 of the top 7 guys who are going to get tons of minutes this year. Sasser didn't play either, and I just do not think they traded for him to be a DNP every night with our lack of guard depth.

Oh and Larry continues to impress. He's going to be a guy.

Agree on Larry. Needs to take care of the ball a little better but he's nice.

Reading tea leaves, seems like Kyrie is going to miss plenty of games this year, so Larry and Sasser are going to play big roles. Get Larry up to speed quickly.

A good year for Kyrie will be playing 60 games. Also, they already said he was only going to play one of these two games, which I agree with. Absolutely no need to have him play both. He's Kyrie freaking Irving.

I do think it's odd he didn't play this one. He hasn't played a game in 20 months, so I don't understand what holding him out two more days does.

Now he's going to play his first game in forever and he's going to be doing his recovery on a day long plane ride home? It's also shorter recovery time before the next game.

Probably not a super big deal, but just not how I would have looked at it.

Also this

Yes pic.twitter.com/XKvd6YpE79

— Did Dwight Powell get hit in the face tonight? (@DwightsFace) October 9, 2026

Finally got around to watching more of the game this evening. My takeaways were kinda what I mentioned earlier in that I think Houston could be a wagon this year with FVV back. I think he makes that much of a difference. I was also pretty encouraged from what I saw overall. Love them just chucking up threes, going fast, and looking confident, especially Christie.

What I worry about right now the most is lack of point of attack defense (go figure). It won't be as bad as last year, but it probably won't be good either unless someone, or a few, take it upon themselves to lock in and be dawgs on defense and let their offensive game take a back seat. Looking at you Naji and PJ.

Another mutual option, this time in Brandin Podziemski's extension with the Warriors. @JakeLFischer did a great job outlining the comeback of mutual option for @TheSteinLine in the piece linked below! https://t.co/yoqjVhqac1

— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) October 10, 2026

Interesting league wide trend that seems to be gaining steam is the "mutual option."

Also nice deal for GS getting Podz at 5 for $110 million.

Tksymm7 said:

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Also, I think Houston could be a wagon this year with FVV back. I think he's that important to their success, and could unlock Reed Sheppard by allowing him to play off the ball more and not have the ball in his hands to turn it over.

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I think he and Adams are the leaders they need, but I still think the locker room will be kind of broken as long as Durant is there. Just the most toxic type of guy there is. And Houston blew so many leads last year but Durant was brought in to be that clutch go to scorer. Maybe with Fred setting him up it will be better, but FVV also looked like he lost a step before he tore his ACL. He shot .378/.345 in 24/25 before the injury and only 5.6apg in 35mpg. He turns 33 this season. I think he will help by being a real PG but I don't have confidence in him being the guy that can really turn it around. Smart, Amen, Reed and Sengun are going to be their secondary playmakers, so I think they will have similar issues to last year in play creation. I also think they will have spacing issues, even with Fred back. Fred was sub35% last time he played. I don't believe in Sengun and Amen's shot. Smart is career 32%. So they have Jabari/Eason (both 36%) and Durant./Sheppard and a bunch of non- or subaverage shooters. I think two shooters with 3-non shooters is going to be easy to defend.

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Back to the Mavs, I'm probably higher than most on Morez. I think he is going to be a legit player. I think he will be an All-Defense level player that defends primarily 3-5 but won't get abused on switches. Assuming the Spurs are going to be good for a long time, he's exactly the guy you want to defend Wemby. Strong and athletic. People keep wanting it to be tall slow guys like Mara or Clingan or Gobert, but those guys get played off the court. It is guys like OG Anunoby, and I think Morez is a bigger, stronger, more athletic version of OG. He just really needs to keep developing that three, but I think his mechanics are pretty solid so I believe in that. If his shot develops and Lively's feet arent toast, a Lively, Morez, Flagg front court would be exceptional defensively. Just need to find that long term Kyrie replacement and a POA D&3 SG. I like Sasser a lot as a long term backup/depth PG. Risacher should be a solid backup D&3 wing. That is the right role for him. I think he is realistically like a skinnier Julian Champagnie. Playing with better front court guys and guys with more gravity and consistency should help, especially now that he is gone and doesn't have the same pressure as he did in Atlanta.

I like what the Mavs are building, especially with all the front court size.