Last night I was scrolling through TikTok in the midst of an edible comedown, and I stumbled upon something so ridiculous, so cringe, so brilliant, that I couldn’t believe I had yet to see it before. It’s called Maverwatch, and it’s a 2018 hype video for the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks that features its star players doubling as Overwatch characters.
This Wacky Magical Girl Anime Is Studio Trigger-Coded To Perfection
Edited to look like an Overwatch play-of-the-game clip, which highlights a particularly gnarly play (usually a multi-kill) at the end of every match, this minute-long video feels like something my high brain cooked up in a daydream. But it’s not. This clip is real, and every second is transfixing, a strange mix of car-wreck tragedy and knee-slapping comedy. You can’t deny, however, that the editing is top-tier, with the all-too-familiar ding sounds indicating an Overwatch kill, the Overwatch font showing off “eliminations” of rival players getting stunted on, and the in-game music swelling in-between each wooden NBA player delivery of a hero’s line.
Athletes are, by and large, not known for their acting and line-reading skills. In the rare chance that you get an athlete with a glittering personality who can actually say dialogue without sounding like a kid forced to read out loud during class, teams will push them to the forefront of marketing materials and commercial opportunities (Eli Manning, Tom Brady) or even let them play the lead in a film (LeBron James, Michael Jordan). I can say with some confidence that none of the 2018 Dallas Mavericks players have the same je ne sais quoi as James or Brady, but that only makes the Maverwatch experience better.
The man behind Maverwatch
The clip begins with Dirk Nowitzki aping Soldier: 76’s ultimate ability line (“I’ve got you in my sights”) while pretending to activate an imaginary visor before cutting to clips of him sinking threes.
“Dirk got Soldier because he’s the rugged old leader of the team,” Austin Guttery, former in-game media creator for the Dallas Mavericks and creator of Maverwatch, told Kotaku via email.
The second player highlighted is former Mavs center Deandre Jordan, who pretends to pop a Lucio ult (“oh, let’s break it down”) under the nickname “Shootscio.” Help me. “Jordan got Lucio because of his great defensive plays and his ability to keep the team alive,” Guttery explained.
But when it came time to assign Mavericks point guard and Grandmaster Overwatch player Luka Doncic a character, things got a little heated. “Luka actually reeeeeally wanted to be Hanzo, since that’s who he usually plays, but there was a player on the team, Wes Matthews, who was known for pretending to shoot a bow and arrow after each shot during the games, so naturally we HAD to make him Hanzo,” Guttery said. “I picked Luka to be Junkrat because of his blonde hair. Luka was the tiniest bit salty and tried to talk us into making him Hanzo, but we had already shot Wes’s part, and we only got one quick shot with each player every year.”
The other players were assigned based on any connections Guttery could make between them and an Overwatch hero—or if he thought they could manage to pull off a good enough mime of a character’s moves. No, I cannot stop laughing at Luka pretending to pull a Junkrat RIP-Tire.
Aside from the drama that came with assigning Mavs players their Overwatch counterparts, Guttery says that it took ages for him to get the video approved because his boss “didn’t actually know what Overwatch was.” But telling him that Doncic was a huge Overwatch fan “really helped sell it.” The clip was shot during the team’s media day, and aired on the in-arena screens during a lull in gameplay to a “pretty good reaction” from fans.
“I almost got fired!” he related cheerily. “After our videos air in-game, we usually don’t put them out online until after the season, or unless we get permission from [owner Mark] Cuban to run them. But I was so excited about how this one turned out, I really wanted to see how the Overwatch community would react to it. So I posted it on Reddit and within the day it BLEW UP…It eventually caught the eye of my boss who got, um, pretty upset that it was out there, and he was afraid that if Cuban saw this, we wouldn’t be making videos for them anymore, so I removed it. Luckily Cuban never got wind of it, so it was a non-issue.”
But Overwatch developer Blizzard did indeed see the video, and sent Guttery a “really nice Widowmaker figure” that the team kept on display at the office. And now, that very same video is making the rounds on social media yet again. Time is a flat circle, but Luka Doncic is no longer a Hanzo main. It’s Zarya now.
Luka Doncic had an MRI that showed no significant issues with his bothersome left thigh, easing some concerns for the Dallas Mavericks that the All-Star might miss major time as they push for a playoff spot, a person with direct knowledge of the situation said Thursday.
That person spoke of condition of anonymity to The Associated Press because there was no announcement from the team about Doncic’s status. He is averaging 33 points a game, and made an early exit a day earlier. ESPN first reported the MRI result.
“I didn’t get hit. So, it’s kind of weird for me,” Doncic said Wednesday night. “I really don’t know what it is.”
He said that if the MRI came back clear he hoped ice and physical therapy would help him return quickly. Doncic said the injury affects his ability to run somewhat, but mostly bothers him on jump shots.
Dallas (34-33) was narrowly in the Western Conference playoff picture with 15 games remaining. The Mavericks next play on Saturday night at Memphis.
Going into Thursday, the Mavericks were in eighth place in the Western Conference. They were only a half-game out of sixth place to avoid the play-in tournament, and only 2 1/2 games above 11th place that would leave them out completely.
Doncic has been trying to play through the injury and had been productive recently. He scored 42 in a victory over Philadelphia, 34 in a loss to Phoenix and 29 in a win over Utah on Tuesday night.
“We all can see he’s not moving well. So, shooting, defense, it’s affecting everything,” Dallas coach Jason Kidd said after the game. “He’s trying to fight through it and help his teammates.”
In his last home game Sunday, when Doncic missed a late floater that would have tied the Suns, he had left the court in the second quarter for treatment on a his left thigh. He said then that it was the worst the injury had felt, but three days later he couldn’t finish a game.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — In the 1990s, Dallas Mavericks point guard Derek Harper famously shot down an offer to be traded to the Jazz, quipping to ESPN: “You go live in Utah.”
Two decades later, members of the Golden State Warriors squad mocked Salt Lake as a nightlife-free city that could “lull you to sleep.”
And two months ago, former Jazz star Donovan Mitchell, reflecting on his time in Utah, said it was “draining” being a Black man in the mostly white, deeply religious state.
As the spotlight turns toward Salt Lake City and Utah during this weekend’s NBA All-Star Game, business and political leaders are seeking to chip away at long-held notions — in basketball circles and elsewhere — of the state as a peculiar, boring and homogenous place that lags behind on LGBTQ- and race-related issues.
Their push to showcase the city and state as increasingly diverse and vibrant has been complicated by Utah’s enduring legacy as a religious conservative stronghold, coupled with recent political developments at the intersection of race, gender and sports.
Just a year ago, a statewide ban implemented on transgender kids playing girls’ sports raised worries that organizers of some events like the All-Star Game would think twice about coming to Utah.
“What happens with those oddities that people think is, they’re very quickly dispelled when people actually come to Utah,” said Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican and avid Jazz fan.
Downtown, a pop-up liquor store has been erected to serve fans this weekend between The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ flagship temple and the Jazz’s home arena. Team owner Ryan Smith is telling anyone who will listen about the state’s robust tech sector and progressive thinking. And the NBA is heavily advertising a pregame performance featuring Post Malone, a Utah-based, heavily face-tattooed rap star popular among residents.
Salt Lake City has long been more liberal and religiously diverse than the rest of Utah, a blue island in a sea of red. A majority of members on the current left-leaning city council identify as LGBTQ and are people of color.
In the three decades since 1993, the last time the All-Star Game was here, the population has diversified and almost doubled, transforming it into a thriving metropolis complete with the politics and problems that plague many midsize cities including pollution, housing shortages and homelessness.
A skyline dense with apartments, office buildings and two downtown malls has sprung up between Temple Square and the nearby mountains. The 2002 Olympics brought an influx of funding that helped build a light rail system many visitors will use during All-Star festivities.
Mayor Erin Mendenhall said The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the counterculture that rose up in response and continues to thrive both contribute to the city’s social fabric.
“We may still be peculiar, but we’re minority Mormon now,” she said.
The extensive influence of the faith known widely as the Mormon church will still be apparent, yet changes within its culture and the influx of thousands of secular residents may complicate how the expected 150,000 All-Star visitors perceive Salt Lake City, said Patrick Mason, a professor of religious studies at Utah State University.
“Anybody who visits — especially for the first time — is going to be immediately struck by the Salt Lake Temple and the church’s holdings right downtown very close to the arena. This is, as a lot of people say, ‘Mormonism’s Vatican,’ ” he said.
High-profile church members also demonstrate how the image the faith projects has remained distinct while also becoming more assimilated into the mainstream, he said.
“That really gets reflected in the younger generation of entrepreneurs and politicians,” Mason added. “People like Cox and Smith are Latter-day Saints who are committed to their faith but also are savvy people who grow up with the internet, plugged in to a global culture.”
Hosting All-Star Weekend is a major opportunity in particular for Smith, who purchased the Jazz in 2020 after selling the survey-software provider company that he founded, Qualtrics, for $8 billion.
“This is just a chance to really have a moment together. People definitely know that there’s something here,” Smith said. “It’s absolutely unique in all the positive ways. I think the one thing that is beautiful about Utah, that the people keep telling me from a wellness standpoint, ‘Utah is like where I’m at my best.’ ”
Since Smith attended part of 1993′s All-Star Weekend as a member of the Jazz’s youth basketball program, the NBA has cultivated a reputation for embracing progressive politics and social justice to a greater extent than most other professional sports leagues.
The ban on transgender athletes in girls’ sports didn’t end up costing Utah the All-Star Game. But some fear marketing efforts could face challenges as the state doubles down on socially conservative stances on matters of race, gender and sports. Last month lawmakers banned gender-affirming care for transgender youth, a policy being considered by lawmakers in a number of states across the country.
Utah has among the highest white populations of any state at 78% of its 3.3 million residents, and less than 2% are Black. That lack of racial diversity is long believed to have hurt efforts by the Jazz to lure free agents and retain players.
Mitchell, after being traded to the Cavaliers last offseason, said it took a lot of energy to confront a series of highly public race-related experiences and the pushback he received in response. They included incidents of bullying against Black students in Utah schools that he called “demoralizing”; a dustup between him and the state Senate president over new restrictions on how race and history could be taught; and the time Mitchell said he was pulled over and “got an attitude from the cop” until the officer saw Mitchell’s ID and realized he was the Jazz player.
“It’s no secret there’s a lot of stuff that I dealt with being in Utah, off the floor. … I took on a lot because I felt like I could do it. But at some point, it became a lot to have to deal with,” he told the ESPN publication Andscape in December.
Some see All-Star weekend as a means of elevating social justice initiatives and changing Salt Lake City’s image through showcasing oft-overlooked pockets of diversity. Sheena Meade, CEO of the Clean Slate Initiative, helped organize an expungement clinic with the NBA’s social justice arm in the lead-up to the game, a year after Cox signed legislation to clear low-level convictions from people’s criminal records. She said the NBA’s presence in places regardless of the prevailing local politics has had tangible impacts.
“They are doing more than lip service. They’re putting out a host of events,” Meade said. “What it means for the All-Star Game to come to a state like Utah is it brings an immersion of culture and diversity and lifts up what’s happening on some social issues.”
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AP sports writer Mark Anderson in Las Vegas contributed to this report.
DALLAS (AP) — Luka Doncic has his co-star, and the Dallas Mavericks are set for their season essentially to start over after trading for Kyrie Irving.
The blockbuster deal with Brooklyn sending the mercurial Irving to the Mavericks became official Monday, two days before what figures to be his Dallas debut at the Los Angeles Clippers.
Dallas also gets Markieff Morris in a trade that sent Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith, a 2029 first-round pick and two second-round choices to the Nets.
It’s unknown if Doncic will be available against the Clippers. He wasn’t with the Mavs at the start of a five-game trip out West after bruising his right heel in the final home game before the trip. He was ruled out of the second game on the trip at Utah on Monday night.
Whenever the All-Stars do get on the court together, Doncic and Irving instantly become one of the NBA’s top duos in a tightly packed Western Conference. Mavs coach Jason Kidd said that made the opportunity too good to pass up, despite the distractions Irving has caused off the court.
“To have the ability to have two starters that are going to start in the All-Star Game, for the Mavs, is probably a first,” Kidd said. “We have to be excited about this opportunity. It’s easy to look at all the talk of the negative, but let’s look at the positive of what he’s done on and off the court. That’s the way we approach it.”
The Nets hardly even said goodbye, perhaps fed up from all the drama Irving caused in just 3½ seasons.
Brooklyn’s news release on the trade barely mentioned Irving, whereas the announcement last year that they had dealt James Harden to Philadelphia included a quote from general manager Sean Marks thanking the star guard for his contributions and wishing him well in the future.
Irving’s departure was a far cry from the fanfare that followed his arrival along with Kevin Durant in 2019, when the player who was a Nets fan in New Jersey came home in hopes of leading the franchise to its first title.
But they never got close, and when Irving asked to be traded, just like he once did in Cleveland, the Nets quickly accommodated him.
Irving is set to become a free agent after the season. But negotiations will involve Dallas general manager Nico Harrison, who was a Nike executive before taking over the Mavericks in 2021.
Irving had a relationship with Nike for the entirety of his NBA career until earlier this season, when the sneaker giant dropped him and canceled the planned release of his next signature shoe just before it dropped. It was part of the massive fallout from Irving posting a link to an antisemitic film on his Twitter account.
That was one of many drama-filled sagas that marked Irving’s time with the Nets. He wouldn’t get vaccinated against COVID-19 and, because of New York City workplace rules, had to miss most of Brooklyn’s home games last season. He also took two leaves of absence during the 2020-21 season.
He has expressed no shortage of controversial opinions during his career — including repeated questioning whether the Earth was round before eventually apologizing to science teachers.
Doncic is in a dead heat for the scoring lead with fellow MVP candidate Joel Embiid of Philadelphia, and is the only one of the seven current 30-point scorers also averaging at least eight rebounds and eight assists per game. Irving is averaging 27.1 points, 5.3 assists and 5.1 rebounds.
The West has several title-contending teams beyond defending champion Golden State, which eliminated the Mavs in the conference finals last season.
Jalen Brunson was crucial to Dallas’ playoff run alongside Doncic last season, but decided he wanted his own starting role as a point guard and left for the New York Knicks in free agency.
While the Mavericks traded for a solid No. 2 scorer in Christian Wood in the offseason, they haven’t been able to win without Doncic this season.
Dallas was 0-7 without Doncic going into the game against the Jazz, when Wood was expected to return after missing eight games with a fractured left thumb.
A year ago, the Mavericks were right around .500 when their surge started just as the calendar turned to 2022. The arrival of 2023 hasn’t had the same effect — the high point so far is six games over .500 — but the Mavs hope the arrival of Irving will.
Dallas beat Utah twice in the first three games of a first-round series last season when Doncic was out with a calf injury, and Brunson was the biggest reason. Now Doncic has higher-profile help.
“Just being able to give Luka an opportunity to come down the court without having to dribble or run every play,” Kidd said. “We look back when we had (Brunson) and being able to have a playmaker like that. When you look at Ky, nothing against (Brunson), but Ky is at a different level.”
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A deadly storm system lashed a large swath of the southern U.S. with bands of sleet and snow for a third day on Wednesday, grounding an additional 2,300 flights, leaving hundreds of thousands without power, forcing school closures and making already treacherous driving conditions worse.
Watches and warnings about wintry conditions were issued for an area stretching West Texas’ border with Mexico through Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana, and into western Tennessee and northern Mississippi. Several rounds of mixed precipitation, including freezing rain and sleet, were in store for many areas throughout the day, meaning some places could get hit multiple times, forecasters said.
“It actually looks like it’s going to be getting worse again across Texas, it is already a pretty big area of freezing rain across western and southwestern Texas,” said Bob Oravec, a lead National Weather Service forecaster based in Camp Springs, Maryland.
Oravec said the icy weather is expected to move northeastward across parts of Oklahoma and Arkansas into western Tennessee and northern Mississippi before it starts to dissipate.
“By later in the day on Thursday it should be pretty much done, and all the … precipitation will be well downstream across parts of the South and where it will be mostly heavy rain,” Oravec said.
By late Wednesday morning, 2,300 U.S. flights had been canceled, including three-quarters of the flights at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and more than two-thirds at Dallas Love Field, according to the flight tracking service FlightAware.com. Dallas-Forth Worth International is American Airlines’ biggest hub, and Love Field is a major base for Southwest Airlines.
Many flights were also canceled at other airports, including in San Antonio, the Texas capital of Austin, and Nashville, Tennessee, compounding frustrations caused by the nearly 2,000 cancellations on Tuesday and roughly 1,100 on Monday.
Because of the storm, the Detroit Pistons were unable to fly home following their game Monday against the Dallas Mavericks, and the NBA postponed the Pistons’ Wednesday night home game against the Washington Wizards.
Many schools throughout Arkansas have announced they would be closed on Thursday. School systems in Dallas; Austin, Texas; and Memphis, Tennessee, also canceled classes for Thursday.
In Texas, more than 350,000 customers were without power Wednesday afternoon as trees — heavy with ice — buckled onto power lines, according to PowerOutage, a website that tracks utility reports.
More than half of those outages were in Austin, where the city’s utility warned residents who had been without electricity for 10 hours or longer that lights and heat may not come back on until Thursday. Overnight low temperatures were expected to fall to 33 degrees in Austin, with more chances for freezing rain, according to the National Weather Service. Austin Energy asked customers to prepare emergency plans and relocate before dusk if needed.
Pablo Vegas, who heads the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, vowed that the state’s electrical grid and natural gas supply would be reliable and that there wouldn’t be a repeat of the February 2021 blackouts, when the grid was on the brink of total failure.
As the ice and sleet enveloped Memphis, Tennessee, Memphis-Shelby County Schools announced it would cancel classes Wednesday due to freezing rain and hazardous road conditions. The school system serves about 100,000 students. The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis also closed due to the weather.
Also in Memphis, the icy weather delayed the funeral service for Tyre Nichols, who died following a brutal beating by police during a traffic stop. But more icy weather was moving in from the southwest just ahead of the funeral, which was pushed back a few hours to Wednesday afternoon.
“The third and FINAL round of freezing rain and/or sleet will start this afternoon,” the National Weather Service’s Memphis office posted on social media Wednesday morning. The leading edge of a wintry mix of precipitation was about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Memphis late Wednesday morning, radar showed.
The Dallas school district, which serves about 145,000 students, also canceled classes Wednesday.
Emergency responders rushed to hundreds of auto collisions across Texas on Tuesday and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott urged people not to drive. At least six people have died on slick Texas roads since Monday, including a triple fatality crash Tuesday near Brownfield, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southwest of Lubbock.
Two Texas law officers, including a state trooper who was struck by a vehicle while investigating a crash on Interstate 45 southeast of Dallas, were seriously injured, authorities said.
In Arkansas, Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency Tuesday because of icy conditions. Her declaration cited the “likelihood of numerous downed power lines” and said road conditions have created a backlog of deliveries by commercial drivers.
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Martin reported from Atlanta. Associated Press journalists David Koenig in Dallas; Paul J. Weber in Austin, Texas; and Donna Warder in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
Luka Dončić put up a historic triple-double in the Dallas Mavericks’ thrilling 126-121 overtime win over the New York Knicks on Tuesday.
The 23-year-old recorded a career-high 60 points and a career-high 21 rebounds to go with 10 assists, helping the Mavericks come from nine points down with just 33 seconds of regulation time remaining.
It is the first time in NBA history that a player has reached that stat line.
“I’m tired as hell,” Dončić said after the game. “I need a recovery beer.”
In the past 20 seasons, all 13,884 NBA teams that have trailed by at least nine points with 35 seconds or fewer remaining have gone on to lose the game, according to ESPN.
However, in a dramatic final play, Dončić intentionally missed a free throw and then secured the rebound, before scoring the putback to tie the game and force overtime.
The Slovenian star scored 10 points in the final minute of regulation time and added seven more in overtime to pull off the most improbable of wins.
Dončić also joins James Harden as the only other player in NBA history to score a 60-point triple-double, and also becomes just the sixth player to record six or more 40-point triple-doubles after Oscar Robertson, Harden, Russell Westbrook, Wilt Chamberlain and LeBron James.
“We just saw it on the screen right now,” Dončić said of his scoring feat. “We were watching NBA TV. I mean, it’s just incredible to be in those comparisons and just to be with those guys, at any stage. It’s amazing for me.”
Dončić’s 60 points also set a new franchise scoring record for Dallas, overtaking the 53 points scored by Dirk Nowitzki against Houston in 2004.
“Just with age, he has a birthday coming up here in the new year, I think he’s seen it all at the age of 23,” Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd said of Dončić becoming a leader. “But just his competitiveness to win is at a very high level – and you saw that displayed tonight.
“Things weren’t going well. Give the Knicks credit, they were making a lot of threes that we didn’t think were possible. They were playing harder. We were down 10. We’ve been in this position earlier in the season, when you talk about giving up a lead or giving up a game like this.
“Just to be able to stay together and trust, Luka had a big part in that. He never was discouraged that the game was over. As you can see, he’s picking up full-court, we had a big jump ball. There’s a lot of things we’ve learned from our losses in close games like this.”
The Mavericks improve to 19-16 on the season and climb to sixth in the Western Conference, while the Knicks have now lost four straight to sit sixth in the East.
DALLAS, TX – OCTOBER 29: Luka Doncic #77 of the Dallas Mavericks reacts after a collision against … [+] the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first half of the game at American Airlines Center on October 29, 2022 in Dallas, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images)
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The Dallas Mavericks can’t close games. Most recently, Dallas saw a 16-point lead over the Oklahoma City Thunder with 5:41 to play in the fourth quarter evaporate before their eyes. The Mavericks lost in overtime, 117-111
This season, a similar scenario has played out in Dallas’s three losses. They build a lead, take their foot off the gas and find a way to cough up games. If the Mavericks cannot develop a closing instinct soon, they will continue to squander away opportunities.
“You just look at [how] we got great opportunities, but we’re just missing shots,” Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd said after the Thunder loss. “We’re not playing any defense, and that’s a big part of our problem. No matter who is closing the game, if you don’t get stops or if you just let the ball drive, and if you don’t protect the paint, it’s hard in this league.”
Kidd went with a lineup of Luka Doncic, Spencer Dinwiddie, Reggie Bullock, Dorian Finney-Smith and Christian Wood for the final 3:42 of the fourth quarter. Coming into the game, Wood, who Kidd is determined to keep in a Sixth Man role, had only played eight minutes with this group.
Despite a small sample size, in those eight minutes, the lineup had an offensive rating of 138.9 and a defensive rating of 100. Those numbers didn’t translate against Oklahoma City as the Thunder closed the final minutes of the fourth quarter on a 17-2. Kidd wasn’t impressed with the outcome.
“We didn’t go with Timmy [Hardaway Jr.] tonight. We left C-Wood out there with that group, and it didn’t go well on either end, and that’s something we got to be better at. I think we worry about offense, but we took command of that game, and with six minutes left, it started to go the other way. We just didn’t finish.”
The lineup that closed the game has now played 12 minutes together this season and has an offensive rating of 103.8 and a defensive rating of 134.8. Kidd quickly pointed out that playing Wood in the losing lineup didn’t work, but Wood wasn’t the only problem for Dallas.
Despite stuffing the box score with his second consecutive triple-double, notching 31 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists, Luka Doncic played poorly. After turning in some quality defensive performances this season, Doncic appeared checked out on that side of the ball.
However, he still had an opportunity to win the game in regulation but missed the 17-foot fadeaway jumper. He finished the night, fouling out in overtime, with a plus-minus of minus-25. He was on the floor for the entire Thunder run to tie the game in the fourth and take the lead in overtime.
“It’s on me,” Doncic said. “I didn’t lead the team. I didn’t make shots. That game’s on me. I didn’t do what [was] needed to do to win.”
Losing close games this early is becoming a disturbing trend. The Thunder aren’t pushovers, having beaten the Los Angeles Clippers twice a week, but they aren’t contenders. Neither are the New Orleans Pelicans when Zion Williamson, Brandon Ingram and Herb Jones. Still, the undermanned Pelicans similarly knocked off the Mavericks.
Even the loss to open the season against the Phoenix Suns was terrible. While the Suns look primed to return to the postseason, the Mavericks led for 41 minutes and choked up a 22-point lead.
If there is one late-game success Dallas can look to, it’s their 129-125 overtime win against the Brooklyn Nets. While the Mavericks shouldn’t have let the game get to overtime, they were able to assert themselves in the extra frame and find a way to win.
The season is still young, and it’s clear that Kidd is still tinkering with the lineups, working from his script to see what does and doesn’t work. But sooner rather than later, he will have to put together a product on the floor that can build and hold leads rather than consistently throw them away.
“When you look at early in the season, we have had leads in the fourth, and we give them away,” Kidd said. “It’s something we got to look at. We look at a different lineup closing the game; it just didn’t go well.”
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – OCTOBER 27: Luka Doncic #77 of the Dallas Mavericks looks to pass as Kyrie … [+] Irving #11 of the Brooklyn Nets defends during the second half at Barclays Center on October 27, 2022 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. The Mavericks won 129-125. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
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Before the start of the 2022-2023 NBA season, Luka Dončić was widely regarded as a strong candidate to walk away with the annual MVP award.
The only potential hiccup, which remains an unknown for now, was team success and whether or not the Dallas Mavericks could find their way to 50 wins.
While the Mavericks are just four games into their season, sitting at 2-2, the play of Dončić has been undeniable. The 23-year-old superstar is looking fitter than ever, and has thus been capable of handling an even bigger load of the offense, which almost defies logic considering how much he usually carries.
Dončić is netting 36.3 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 9.3 assists per game. While some may be inclined to call those numbers unsustainable, it’s at worst a modest decline we can expect – if any at all – given how often he’s been close to a 30-9-9 line.
Dončić is sporting a few outlier numbers in the efficiency department, which we’ll have to wait to see if they even out. He’s hitting 50% of his shots, having hit roughly 45% in every season besides his first.
His two-point percentage sits at a ridiculous 63.6% efficiency, despite the fact he’s never even cracked 58% there before. And it does so while sitting on an incredible volume of 16.5 attempts per game.
(In fairness, he’s struggling from three-point territory, hitting just 26.3% on over nine attempts per game, far below that of years past.)
It’s difficult to identify what is just a streak, and what looks like a new norm.
One area where he looks much improved is the free throw line, and fans are assuredly hoping his current 86.1% free throw percentage is a sign of newfound confidence from the charity stripe. Dončić has an unfortunate history from the line, having often bricked key trips to the foul line for varying reasons. He sat at 73.7% for his career coming into this season, it seemed a conundrum how something with that good of a touch couldn’t excel at that area of the game.
Well, for now he is.
More important than the numbers is his on-court growth, and how it relates to his long-term potential.
Dončić has always been formidable in his ability to decelerate on the fast break, and he’s arguably the most patient player in the game, as he will squeeze every single second out of a shot clock, looking for the best opportunity. Yet, somehow, he’s successfully sharpened those skills even more, refining himself to a point where the game looks almost like it runs in slow-motion for him, when he’s reading angles, and is determining the next course of action.
It further underlines how players with high levels of understanding of the game will more often than not realize their potential, even if their athletic prowess aren’t top-shelf.
(Dončić does have elite side-to-side movement due to his impeccable footwork, but he’ll never be among the fastest or highest jumping players in the association.)
The Slovenian does look slimmed down, and thus faster than usual, but he remains a half-court magician who’ll mostly utilize his skills in slower settings, which was on full display in Brooklyn, when he put up 41 points, 11 rebounds, 14 assists, and three steals against the Nets, leading Dallas to a tough overtime win.
He routinely maneuvered around several defenders, often overcoming help from the weak side, and using his wide frame to absorb contact while planning his next move.
Dončić appears to have reached the point in his career where his experience level, his skill set, and his confidence have come together, and the result is the perception of a game that’s slowed down to his eyes, affording him more time to scan the floor, and more time to react to changing defenses.
Will Dončić win MVP? It’s tough to say, as the award is often tied closely to team success. If we disregard that however, Dončić would have plenty of arguments to look like the favorite.
PHOENIX — The first half of Wednesday night’s season opener conjured up the still-fresh painful feelings from last spring’s embarrassing playoff exit for the Phoenix Suns. Once again, the Suns were being dominated by Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks at home.
That made the rally from a 22-point deficit for a 107-105 win at the Footprint Center that much sweeter for the Suns.
“If you get your asses kicked, you want to get your get-back,” Devin Booker told ESPN’s Jorge Sedano during the postgame on-court interview, acknowledging the humiliation from a 33-point blowout loss in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals. “That’s just life.
“We still have 81 games to go. I said that before the game. It’s a good start. I think it’s a good start to show our team if we’re down early that we can come back in games.”
The Suns earned the top overall seed last season in large part because of their closing ability, as they were an NBA-best 33-9 in clutch games, as defined by the score being within five points in the final five minutes. In that sense, this was kind of a characteristic performance for Phoenix.
But this comeback had deeper meaning for the Suns, whose chaotic offseason that started with that awful loss to the Mavs included owner Robert Sarver putting the team up for sale under pressure in the wake of an investigation into the team’s workplace culture, tense contract negotiations with center Deandre Ayton that ultimately ended with the Suns matching a maximum offer sheet he signed with the Indiana Pacers and former starting forward Jae Crowder mutually agreeing with management not to report for the final season of his contract, among other things. And, of course, the NBA scheduled the Mavs to return to Phoenix for the opener, a made-for-TV rematch of that memorable playoff series.
“I think any time you win in the NBA, it’s cool,” Suns coach Monty Williams said. “But to beat the team that knocked you out, it doesn’t erase that feeling, that hurt, but it does help you grow.”
The Mavs led by 15 with 8:31 remaining after a scoring flurry by Dallas sixth man Christian Wood, who was acquired in a summer trade with the Houston Rockets. Wood scored 16 consecutive points for the Mavs in a 4-minute, 35-second span that bridged the third and fourth quarters, a run that began after Phoenix pulled within a point.
“We relaxed a little bit,” said Doncic, who finished with 35 points, nine rebounds and six assists but missed a 34-footer at the buzzer. “We think, not that the game was done, but we just relaxed. ‘It’s a lot of points, we’re going to get there, we’re going to win.’ Like I said, we just can’t relax. It’s happened a lot of times. We can’t be blowing leads. This is a thing we have to work on, and we will for sure.”
Booker checked back into the game with the Suns down 15 and then had seven of his 28 points and six of his nine assists in the fourth quarter. However, it was an unlikely hero who starred for the Suns down the stretch. Damion Lee scored all 11 of his points in the fourth quarter — when he played the entire frame in part because Cameron Johnson exited because of cramping — and hit the winning shot on a 10-foot fadeaway with 9.7 seconds remaining.
That game winner by Lee, who signed for the veterans minimum after serving as a reserve for the champion Golden State Warriors, came on the possession immediately after he gave up a tying and-1 drive by Doncic. He received a brief pep talk from Williams in the ensuing timeout.
“Coach just looks at me and he said: ‘Hey, go make a play. Go make a play,”‘ said Lee, who is now 2-of-9 on tying or go-ahead field goals in the final minute during his career, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. “That’s what you want — a coach that’s always going to instill that confidence in you, no matter what happens.”
Another surprising element of the Suns’ fourth-quarter rally: Chris Paul, who has earned a reputation as one of the NBA’s premier regular-season closers, watched the final 6:41 from the bench.
The Suns trailed by 12 when Paul checked out, and Williams’ plan was to rest the 37-year-old point guard for a few minutes before putting Paul back in to finish the game. However, Williams decided not to disrupt the rhythm the Suns established with Cameron Payne at point guard down the stretch.
“I’m always open-minded in those situations,” Williams said. “As much as you want to have Chris out there, I know Chris wants to win. When I took him out, my plan was to get him back in there at three [minutes]. Then the game was just going in a good way and Cam was playing well, so I didn’t want to take him out. I didn’t think it was that big of a decision, but I guess it is because it’s Chris.”
DALLAS, TEXAS – SEPTEMBER 26: McKinley Wright IV #23 of the Dallas Mavericks poses for a portrait … [+] during the Dallas Mavericks Media Day at American Airlines Center on September 26, 2022 in Dallas, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
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Dallas Mavericks training camp invitee McKinley Wright IV earned a roster spot. The Mavericks announced Saturday that they converted the guard to a two-way contract. The signing fills the open two-way contract that the team was carrying.
For the 2022-23 NBA season, two-way players are eligible to be active for up to 50 of their team’s 82 regular season games. Their salaries are no longer determined by how many days they spend in the NBA. Instead, they will receive flat salaries of $508,891, half the rookie minimum.
Wright joined the Mavericks on August 15 and appeared in all three games for Dallas during the preseason. He averaged 3.3 points, 3.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists in 13.8 minutes per game.
The five-foot-eleven guard immediately made an impact. In his first exhibition game, he had eight points, a game-high 10 assists, zero turnovers and a game-high plus-11 rating in a 98-96 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Before joining the Mavericks, Wright bounced around before finding his way to training camp. He played for the Phoenix Suns during Summer League and then joined Team TISI USA for their FIBA World Cup qualifying games in August.
Team USA head coach Jim Boylen spoke highly of Wright after his stint with the national team, saying, “He has an NBA style of play and skills. He can defend the ball. He can play with pace. He has great acceleration with the ball and great speed. He’s a good shooter. I was impressed by how good a shooter he was. He has the physical attributes to play an 82-game season.”
This is the second time Wright will be on an NBA two-way contract. He signed one with the Minnesota Timberwolves for the 2021-22 season. He spent most of the season with the Iowa Wolves of the G League. However, he did appear in five games with the Timberwolves.
Here we go: The top 10 in our 2022-2023 League Pass Rankings! We revealed Nos. 30-11 on Tuesday, and you can read about the rankings formula there.
10. DALLAS MAVERICKS (35)
Look at this soul-snatcher:
That is the smile of someone who knows he has you. The Mavs’ offense is one-dimensional — Luka Doncic walks ball up, runs two-man game — but that dimension contains multitudes. The typical spread pick-and-roll pairs ball handler and rim-runner; Doncic can do that with any of Dallas’ bigs. He can make all the passes blindfolded.
Doncic’s size and comfort in the middle of the paint — the dead zone for some ball handlers — open up endless possibilities. He’s at his most predatory dragging smaller defenders into pick-and-rolls. Switch, and he mashes them in the post with smirking cruelty. (He took sadistic pleasure brutalizing Patrick Beverley in the 2021 playoffs.) Send help, and he picks you apart.
Even against like-sized defenders and traditional coverages, Doncic is a three-steps-ahead genius burrowing inside. His high-arching step-back is borderline unblockable, and he has hit 50% from floater range over the past two seasons — and a LeBron James-esque 73% at the rim last season.
The threat of those shots unlocks Doncic’s generational passing. He understands how every up-fake, pivot, and half-spin freaks help defenders into thinking they should swarm — and which passes any slight rotation might expose. Last season, he even started throwing straight backward overhead passes to pick-and-pop bigs. Maxi Kleber and Christian Wood must be ready at all times.
This is my favorite piece of Mavs art in ages:
The navy sings against the new white-washed floor.
The Lakers ranked No. 2 last season, but the idea of them — How will Russell Westbrook fit? — turned out to be way more interesting than the experience.
The Lakers played fast, but they were boring — unorganized, dispirited, lacking any cohesive identity. LeBron James remains the ultimate chessmaster, but there’s little reason to suspect the overall product will be much different. (Darvin Ham said this week he’s considering starting Anthony Davis at center, and leaning there would boost L.A.’s watchability. You can’t play Westbrook, LeBron, Anthony Davis, and a traditional center — even one with decent range like Thomas Bryant or Damian Jones. Don’t sleep on Jones’ passing!)
They scored this high only because of their art — including the league’s prettiest court — and the comedy category. Are Beverley and Westbrook really friends? Like, really? Or will latent tension boil over? Comedy can become pathos, and we reached that point with Westbrook last season when the Sacramento Kings’ blared “Cold as Ice!” on every bonked jumper and layup.
Will James engage pout mode once he breaks the scoring record if the Lakers are toast? James achieved peak eye-rolling sulkiness ahead of the 2018 trade deadline, when he realized the Cavs were dead barring a roster shake-up. It was bizarrely enthralling.
Thumbs up to these white throwbacks — replicas of the jerseys the team wore in their first-ever game, per league officials. They even have faux belt loops! Powder blue is always welcome.
The Wolves ranked first in pace and second in scoring efficiency after Jan. 1 last season. They have one blockbuster young star in Anthony Edwards, fast becoming a three-level scorer as his confidence soars on pull-ups and step-backs.
Edwards wants to dunk people into oblivion — the bigger, the better. He flies at the rim as if he thinks he can dunk through humans — that they will disintegrate beneath him.
One of the league’s keenest offensive tinkerers — Chris Finch — must figure out how to mesh Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert in an unusual double-center look that has to work given the Wolves traded everything short of the old Metrodome baggie for Gobert.
Finch will get creative on defense, too. On some nights, the Wolves might flip-flop matchups — slotting Towns onto centers, and stashing Gobert elsewhere so he can act as roving shot-blocker. We might see glimpses of last season’s blitzing defense as a surprise adjustment.
Kyle Anderson weaponizes his slowness; defenders stumble ahead of his elongated moves, allowing Slow-Mo to saunter through creases. He snatches some of the league’s cleanest live-dribble steals. Jaden McDaniels still seems like a blank canvas, and looms as Minnesota’s swing factor. Jaylen Nowell jacks and struts with a gunslinger’s bravado. How will D’Angelo Russell — on an expiring contract — respond if Finch yanks him for Jordan McLaughlin in crunch time again?
The Wolves relegated their gaudy neon green to the trimmings on this pristine new jersey:
Standing ovation for the fangs extending down off the “M” and “V.”
PSST: Towns’ averages in 11 postseason games: 19 points, 12 rebounds, 2 assists, 3.5 turnovers (gag!), and many, many silly fouls. He has three single-digit scoring games, plus a dud in last season’s play-in. It’s time.
Giannis Antetokounmpo is one-of-one. He evolves each season — more floaters, more screening in the pick-and-roll, snappier passing. He supplies highlights both preposterous and of the most visceral basketball violence. Antetokounmpo rising from underneath the rim, off two feet, and cramming on someone’s head is perhaps the rudest act in the sport.
I loved his recent speech about the importance of will over skill. It was once fashionable to compare Antetokounmpo and Ben Simmons — enormous, turbocharged ball handlers with rickety strokes. What might Simmons accomplish if the Philadelphia 76ers surrounded him with shooters — as the Bucks have done for Antetokounmpo?
Even five years ago, before Antetokounmpo cracked the top five in MVP voting, the comparison failed the smell test. Antetokounmpo was bigger, faster, longer — better. Most of all, he was tougher. While Simmons’ struggles at the line turned into something of a phobia, Antetokounmpo kept coming — kept drawing contact, kept risking failure, kept improving. That’s will.
The Bucks are a fast-break machine — Four Steps or Less — but their half-court offense finished dead last in points per possession in the playoffs. Even with Khris Middleton out, that raised alarms internally. I suspect the Bucks will spend the regular season honing anti-switch devices on offense and experimenting with new looks on defense — including snuffing 3s after spending years living with above-the-break triples.
Who emerges as trustworthy playoff guys among George Hill, Jevon Carter, Joe Ingles, Jordan Nwora, and Serge Ibaka? If the answer is “no one,” the Bucks could face critical depth issues. How much Antetokounmpo at center will we see?
Once every few games, an opposing player annoys Jrue Holiday — and draws out Holiday’s playoff-level defense as punishment. What a nightmare.
Marques Johnson was a five-time All-Star, nailed a supporting role in “White Men Can’t Jump,” and is now one of the best analysts in any sport. Not fair.
Boston’s stars offer different stylistic ingredients, but they don’t always synthesize on offense. The defense … holy hell. They are huge, mean, smart — a switching forcefield. (Marcus Smart and Blake Griffin have to wager on who takes the most charges, right?)
They are also strategically quirky. The Celtics clicked into place when they shifted their center — Robert Williams III — onto nonthreatening wings, unleashing him as a free safety.
Time Lord didn’t just reject shots. He obliterated them. He spiked some before they even left shooters’ hands — before they really became shots at all. Others, he smashed against the backboard with such force you almost expected them to become impaled in the glass. From mid-January on, Boston allowed 105.4 points per 100 possessions — four points stingier than the league’s No. 2 defense.
The Celtics became one of the greatest defenses of all time, even as smart opponents began exploring counters to Boston’s scheme — running Williams around off-ball screens, using more false actions. Expect more of that cat-and-mouse game now that opponents have had an offseason to study.
Boston found its flow on offense too. Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Smart cooperated in more two-man actions — forcing switches Tatum and Brown could exploit. Tatum’s liquid grace and Brown’s straight-line power make for a perfect contrast. Derrick White added Spursian quick decision-making. (Update: He should be part of the Griffin-Smart charge-taking wager too!)
The Celtics’ green uniforms are maybe the best in sports, and they improved their historic court by removing the chunky white circle from underneath the leprechaun:
The tribute to Bill Russell is understated and noble.
Grant Williams never shuts up. Mike Gorman and Brian Scalabrine are tremendous. Boston is under championship pressure, with a coach — Joe Mazzulla — thrust into the spotlight under bad circumstances. What is Mazzulla about? How do the players respond?
5. NEW ORLEANS PELICANS (37)
You have to be good and watchable to rise here; the algorithm sees 50-win upside.
I don’t care if these guys shoot a single 3-pointer. I just want to see Zion Williamson pinballing to the rim, bodies flying everywhere after making even glancing contact with this linebacker phenom. He gets from arc to rim faster than a camera flash, out of every action: pick-and-rolls as screener or ball handler; post-ups in which he plows through victims like shorter Shaquille O’Neal, or spins around them like wider James Worthy; end-to-end rampages you almost feel through your screen. (The Pelicans with Williamson have played at ludicrous speed.)
The roster isn’t really built for it, but please, Willie Green, give us some Williamson at center!
Forget second jumps. Williamson has the league’s quickest third and fourth jumps. Pity the fools who box out Williamson and Jonas Valanciunas. Reserve them extra time in the cold tub, maybe the hospital.
CJ McCollum might put a defender on his butt at any moment. He connects complex dribbles — hesitation, crossover, pull-back — with unusual fluidity, and cans all variety of floaters with either hand. Brandon Ingram’s midrange arsenal is simpler, but almost as effective.
Larry Nance Jr. is all flare screens and twirling handoffs, and he’ll play tons of crunch-time center. Herbert Jones’ arms actually typed this column from New Orleans; instead of shooting 3s, should he just reach all the way from the arc and plop the ball in?
Jose Alvarado’s crouching, hide-and-seek backcourt steals are incredible theater. He’ll have ball handlers looking over their shoulders even when he’s not in the game. He is Keyser Soze.
The Pelicans are due some fresh art. The bench overflows with interesting players. Here’s hoping Dyson Daniels earns run.
4. DENVER NUGGETS (38)
Nikola Jokic might be the most inventive passer in basketball history, and is for sure No. 1 all time among bigs. He dares passes everyone else is scared to try — slips to cutters where the passing window is no bigger than the basketball itself.
Jokic imagines passes no one else sees — and then makes them. As he’s gotten in better shape, he’s added occasional dunks and tornado baseline spins.
The regular season is about finding the right balance of defensive schemes for Jokic. This is perhaps the biggest season in Nuggets history; they need everything in place for the playoffs.
Jokic has his pick-and-roll mind-meld partner back in Jamal Murray. Murray’s role in their two-man devastation has long been underrated. He’s an ace pull-up shooter with a knack for slick pocket passes that lead Jokic into open space.
They have the league’s prettiest and most varied give-and-go partnership. We see the classic — Murray bolting away from handoffs, and Jokic lofting him buttery goodness:
But they also turn routine pick-and-rolls into give-and-gos within that tricky midpaint area:
That is a mini masterpiece. In terms of both shot selection and process, Denver is a nice antidote to 3s-and-dunks spread-pick-and-roll hegemony. Murray’s Blue Arrow celebration is cool.
Michael Porter Jr. is perhaps the X factor of the season. Will he accept third-banana status? Kentavious Caldwell-Pope locks the starting five into place. Bruce Brown does the same for the bench, and gives Denver crunch-time lineup flexibility. Once every 10 games and out of absolutely nowhere, Jeff Green posterizes someone.
Are you worried about Denver’s bench offense? Bones Hyland isn’t.
3. MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES (39)
Ja Morant is the new League Pass superstar. He is a hellacious rim-attacker, cocking it back and hammering pain onto larger humans; he jumped over and through Malik Beasley for the highlight of last season.
Morant’s sneering swagger set the tone for the team from day one. There is nothing fake about the Grizzlies’ puffed-chest arrogance. They do not conceive of themselves as the little guy challenging Goliaths. Trash-talking LeBron James is not, for them, unearned pluck. They believe they are Goliath, now.
Morant could chase points, dominate the ball, hunt the spectacular. Instead, he brings teammates with him — empowers them, uses the attention he draws to create shots for them. Morant is a whip-smart cutter, willing to cut as a decoy (or to catch lobs above the square). He slows down in transition, knowing trailers come open in his wake.
Memphis defends with ferocity — Dillon Brooks going chest to chest with all comers, everyone swiping at the ball. The Grizz forced heaps of turnovers, and blazed at the league’s second-fastest pace. Do not look away from the Memphis alley-oop machine.
Desmond Bane has borderline Ray Allen-level precision in his jumper. Remember when Steven Adams carried Tony Bradley — 6-10, 250 pounds — away from an altercation as if he were about to take Bradley to Suplex City? What a legend.
The young guys will get chances filling in for Jaren Jackson Jr. and departed veterans. I give it two games before an opposing announcer expresses shock at John Konchar’s leaping ability
Can you spot the subtle upgrade from last season’s court …
… to their new one?
They eliminated that silver-blue racing stripe along the baseline that always confused me.
2. GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS (40)
The Warriors came so close to reclaiming their No. 1 perch, with Draymond Green providing a new, unfortunate reason to tune in to Golden State’s basketball symphony.
Green’s punch might have been one hot-tempered man going through personal issues losing control, and slugging his trash-talking foil. It became more because we saw it, yes, but also because of the deeply human and almost literary arcs one could project onto it.
Green, in the final year of his contract, might be aging out of the dynasty he helped build. Jordan Poole, on the verge of his first massive deal, is a keystone in extending that dynasty beyond Green’s NBA lifespan. A decade ago, when this all started, Green was the low draft pick who roared — trash-talking his elders, challenging them, refusing to show deference. That is how Poole relates to Green now.
To win a title, there can be no fissures. There will be lingering tension over what happened last week. How will it manifest? How long will it last?
The potential basketball tragedy of all this — of contract realities and personality conflicts intruding upon this Bay Area basketball idyll — is that Green, Klay Thompson, and Stephen Curry should finish their careers together as Warriors. That is how it’s supposed to be. What they share is why we follow sports — an understanding of one another’s tendencies, strengths, and weaknesses so deep, they barely have to talk on the court. Every simple action between them contains a dozen counters, and they choose them in the moment, in sync, in step, always connected.
It is a bond of winks and nods that cannot form unless you share tens of thousands of reps at the highest level. And it is, still, beautiful to watch.
Andre Iguodala is part of their fabric too, and he gets another chance at a proper swan song. The army of lottery picks is in position to seize roles. Whether they are ready will go a long way to determining Golden State’s repeat chances. Jonathan Kuminga is at eye level with the rim before you even realize what’s happening.
Golden State is a top-five art team. Curry, Green, and Thompson will wear captain “Cs” on throwback jerseys — rare in the NBA.
These new alternates are nice:
The Warriors deal in bright yellow and blue. This clean navy look is a pleasing change, even it is eerily similar to the University of California, Berkeley color scheme. I like how the shorts echo the team’s bridge-wiring motif.
1. BROOKLYN NETS (41)
I considered invoking the Ian Eagle Corollary, which dates to the Joe Johnson “It’s not that bad here!” era and allows me to reduce the Nets score if the light-hearted categories — art, comedy — lift them higher than they deserve. I opted against it, and so the Nets three-peat as League Pass champions — which has really worked out for them in the Kevin Durant–Kyrie Irving era.
This team could be gone in 30 games — boring, bad, an entire era demolished. Irving could find new reasons to be the basketball player who doesn’t play basketball. Ben Simmons could melt — flinching at the threat of contact, wilting under Hack-a-Ben, holding a prolonged missed free throw contest with Nic Claxton. (Claxton is 6-of-25 from the line in the postseason.) All that could push Kevin Durant to renew his allegedly dormant trade request, at which point the Barclays Center may as well collapse into a sinkhole.
That’s the severe downside. The more likely downside is the Nets are run-of-the-mill good — a playoff team, but not strong enough to lift the stench of self-inflicted misery.
The journey to either of those bad places is disaster-movie riveting. Simmons hasn’t played a real game in 16 months; there is justified interest in every move he makes. Even that functional downside scenario features plenty of Irving and Durant, two flashbulb attractions.
Whatever your feelings about Irving, he is a show — a Maravichian dribbling magician with a bottomless bag of soft floaters and twisting layups. His lefty runner takes your breath away. Two seasons ago, when the Nets were quasi-functional, Irving was the one who got them running in transition.
Durant is one of the dozen greatest players ever, and perhaps the most well-rounded offensive force the game has ever seen. He is elite at literally every subsection of offense. He can assume any role, at any time. Even when Durant is raining pull-up fire, it might not be the classical beauty of his gangly game that draws you in. What really hits you in the gut — what mesmerizes — is the sheer invincibility of it, the way Durant exercises total dominion over everything from every place on the floor.
And that’s the upside. The soul-sapping melodrama can make you forget: This might work. They might be happy. They could be redeemed. They might be unstoppable on offense, Simmons tapping into his inner Draymond Green with endless shooting around him. They will take risks and innovate to survive on defense, and there is night-to-night joy in watching a team sink its teeth into that challenge.
The broadcast is as good as it gets, and the art is solid — including this alternate court, first revealed here, that matches the ABA-era stars-and-stripes uniforms the Nets are bringing back:
The differently colored painted areas — one blue, one red — are a gamble, but they work here.
PORTLAND, OREGON – FEBRUARY 27: Facundo Campazzo #7 of the Denver Nuggets works towards the basket … [+] against Keon Johnson #6 of the Portland Trail Blazers during the fourth quarter at Moda Center on February 27, 2022 in Portland, Oregon. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement (Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images)
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The Dallas Mavericks are finally filling their vacant roster position. The team is signing free agent guard Facundo Campazzo to a one-year deal, according to Eurohoops and Marka.
NBA correspondent Marc Stein previously reported that the Mavericks were in advanced talks to sign Campazzo as of Tuesday, saying, “Campazzo appears increasingly poised to seize it barring an unforeseen Mavs move before Opening Night rosters lock.”
Campazzo, who is from Argentina, played the last two seasons in NBA with the Denver Nuggets. He appeared in 130 games with Denver and has averages of 5.6 points, 1.9 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.1 steals in 20.1 minutes per game.
In joining the Mavericks, Campazzo reunites with former Real Madrid teammate Luka Doncic. The two played together during the 2017-18 season when Real Madrid won the EuroLeague and ACB championship titles.
Since losing guard Jalen Brunson in free agency last summer, the Mavericks have needed an additional ball handler on the roster. Campazzo, Dallas believes, can help fill some of those responsibilities behind Doncic and Spencer Dinwiddie.
The Mavericks roster now stands at 17, with Campazzo filling the fifteenth regular roster spot. Dallas also carries two-way player Tyler Dorsey and training camp invitee McKinley Wright IV.
Dallas Mavericks guard Josh Green in action against the Minnesota Timberwolves during the second … [+] half of an NBA basketball game Friday, March 25, 2022, in Minneapolis. The Timberwolves won 116-95. (AP Photo/Craig Lassig)
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
The Dallas Mavericks announced Tuesday that the team exercised its fourth-year team option on Josh Green. Doing so keeps Green under contract with the Mavericks through the 2023-24 NBA season.
Dallas drafted Green with the No. 18 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. Green signed a fully guaranteed four-year, $13.6 million contract with the Mavericks after being drafted. He will earn $4.7 million in his fourth season.
The Mavericks had until October 31 to exercise their team option on Green.
In his two NBA seasons, Green averaged 4.0 points, 2.3 rebounds, 1.0 assists and 14 minutes in 106 career games while shooting 49.4% from the field. He is also a career 31.1% three-point shooter.
Green saw a significant increase in his playing time under head coach Jason Kidd during his second season. He appeared in 67 regular season games with averages of 4.8 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 15.5 minutes. His field goal percentage also improved to .508.
He also played 17 playoff games during the Mavericks’ run to the Western Conference Finals in 2022. However, his statistical output was negligible, averaging 1.4 points on 28.6% shooting overall.
Green becomes a restricted free agent in 2024. The Mavericks must offer him a qualifying offer worth $6.7 million to gain the right of first refusal.
