Cuban Checked Out

Dallas Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban's financial flexibility mantra is a farce. He checked out once he accomplished his goal of winning a NBA Championship. After years of spending irresponsibly he decided it was time be more responsible. The lawsuit about his annual losses as owner probably helped lead in that direction as well. Not necessarily going to fault a guy for trying to make a profit after spending at all costs to win, but we must recognize that is the goal. It was not earnestly to sign a high-priced superstar. Oftentimes the Celtics are cited as an example of what the Mavs would like to avoid, which may seem logical in 2013, but this comparison to the Celtics is tiring. The so called Celtics demise keeping the old guys after winning a championship, is making it to the Finals the following year and 3 Conference Finals. After 5 years this year they lost in the 1st round. I think any Mavs fan would be happy with that outcome, when you look at what the Mavs will be the 5 years following their championship. Read more!

Good Mavs or Bad Spurs?

I make no secret I have been down on the Mavs since the day Mark Cuban fired Avery Johnson.

I will give credit to Rick Carlisle (the new Coach) with inconsistent play all season, the Mavs rolled into the playoffs on a high, and won over 50 games. Fans immediately begin to ponder maybe this coaching change was the right thing to do.....

I still maintain my initial argument and position that this was not a good change. The most recent defeat of the San Antonio Spurs in the 1st playoff series the Mavs have won since losing in the NBA finals in 2006.

At first glance this looks impressive, a few things must be considered:


1) This is a Mavs team with 1 1/2 years of playing with Jason Kidd not just 2-3 months. I will give credit where it is due. Jason Kidd is the type of leader that refuses to let his team lose. He gives them "the heart" that has been sorely missed the past few seasons. I believe he will make an excellent coach in this league some day.

2) The Mavs roster was constructed to beat one team in particular, the San Antonio Spurs. Similar to the match up for the Mavs in 2007 against Golden State, this was a bad match up for the Spurs.

3) Finally, what we actually witnessed in this series was BAD SPURS. The Spurs went into this series without the services of Manu Ginobli. This is equivalent to the Mavs coming in without Jason Terry and Josh Howard combined. In addition, Tim Duncan played with a an injury for most of the series. The shooting was horrendous, the Spurs lacked any consistent offensive production outside of Tony Parker. If a Spurs fan made this claim I would clown them for making excuses for that profound beat down they experienced, which NBA pundits coined, "The End of an Era."

The proof will be in the pudding, the Mavs will be just like the teams that beat them in the previous 2 years. An impressive 1st round series, only to get mauled in the next round where the best team generally wins, not the best match up! The Mavs are already off to a good start in preparation for Summer Vacation. Read more!

MFFL

For those of you that don't know what MFFL means it is "Mavs Fan For Life."

I will admit to being rather bandwagon fan of the Mavericks. Considering I am a Sports Nut, the NBA is way down on my list. That being said I probably go to 5-6 games a year, probably watch all or part of 20 games a year on TV, and heck I was even a ball boy for the Mavericks for several years growing up. So I may not bleed Mavericks but I am more than qualified to give a rational opinion.

Rational, which is the subject of this blog in regards to the Mavs and the firing of Avery Johnson.

If you know me you know that I am not defending Avery as the "Black" coach. If you look back to one of my earliest blogs on Ron Washington you will see an illustration of that fact. That was before he even coached a game, I am SO utterly displeased now I can't even write a blog on the Rangers and hold to my commitment to keep the blog PG!


I have 2 issues, the first is very simple:

1) Teams don't usually find success after firing coaches that win 75% of their games. The hopes that you just need the right guy to come in and give you the nudge over the the top is very much an exception. It just creates a bad vibe to fire successful coaches, particularly one that is young and on the rise. Avery's winning percentage was trending towards Red Aurebach...

2) Cuban keeps making bad decisions that are considered as "reasonable" at the time.

a) We refuse to pay Nash and he goes to PHX and becomes a 2-time MVP. As much as everyone thought it made sense to move Nash the Jason Terry-Devin Harris-Jason Kidd experiment at PG have been huge failures and we are still in search of a PG.

b)We refuse to pay Finley and he moves 5 hours away and wins a Championship. As much as everyone thought it made sense to move Finley the Doug Christie-Eddie Jones-Jerry Stackhouse experiment at SG have been huge failures and we are still in search of a SG. I mean really Doug Chrisitie is your plan? That pretty much makes my whole argument by itself!!!

Now we fire Avery.... Just to name a few, and the irony of it all is we are much farther above the salary cap than had we re-signed Nash and Finley.

All of these were considered reasonable at the time.... the problem is he (Mark Cuban) keeps making these decisions without a plan!

The latest seems to follow the same questionable pattern. The plan is to bring in a coach (in Rick Carlisle) that is also defensive minded and has been fired from his previous 2 jobs??

In regards to the state of the franchise Avery is probably fortunate. Things are looking bleak as this team is well over the salary cap, with minimal tradeable assets, and no draft picks for the next couple of years.... We may have seen the end of an era and it is likely that Carlisle will be gone and Cuban will have to remove himself from Basketball Operations before it bounces back!
Read more!

It’s NCAA Tourney Time

As a sports fan this is the most exciting time of year for me. I am one of those fanatics that take off work for the Opening Round! I tried taking off a ½ day but always got stuck at work. I tried working from home, but people always scheduled meetings during the middle of the day, so I would be on the conference call with the game on in the background (on mute of course). Of course that did not work after my outburst in the middle of the meeting because one of the teams I picked to make the Final Four had just loss on the 1st day. So I have just resolved to take the entire days as vacation…..

This year I am interrupted because I have a friend that scheduled his Service Anniversary for Thursday, and I am leaving out for a “Road Trip” to Memphis early Friday morning.

This year’s tournament has already proven to be interesting before any game has been played. For the 1st time I can remember the 4 teams that I thought should be the #1 seeds actually were selected. Mostly due to the fact that all of the Top Teams won their Conference Tournaments making it a little easier for the Selection Committee.

Other Notables:

1) A number of teams from Mid-Major conferences (like Drake, Gonzaga, George Mason) have been seeded to play against each other in the 1st round. I have to wonder if this is an effort to marginalize their impact in the tournament to keep them from knocking out schools from the Power Conferences (like Purdue, Arizona, Villanova), or if it is an effort to try and increase the opportunity for them to advance deeper into the tournament. Of course you know I believe it is the former not the latter reason. The logic does not add up to create more opportunity by ensuring that less Mid-Major teams are eligible to play in the next round.

2) The other is the relative agreement across the nation that the Selection Committee pretty much got it right. The only questionable decision was putting in Arizona over Arizona St, when they played twice this season and loss both times.

3) There has been some talk about expanding the tournament, or getting rid of the automatic bids. I have blogged on this topic before…..

So I will end putting my picks on the line. Last year for only the 2nd time ever I pocked the Final 4 perfectly, but somehow managed not to pick either of the teams that played in the Championship! This year my Final 4 is my team “KU”, Tennessee, TU (Longhorns), and UCLA. As you know if I am picking the Jayhawks to make the Final 4 I have picked them to win it all….

Rah, Rah, Jayhawk, KU! Rock Chalk Jayhawks!!! Read more!

It's the Spurs that make the horse go!

For those of you that know me well, when you read this you will be like I must be on the wrong blog; because I know D Brown is not talking NBA and it is not April. Really just an overall surprise I am talking NBA period.

I just happened to be inspired on my recent trip to SA, and seeing all of the spirit down there so I had to make a brief entry.

I pretty much hate the NBA, and of all the teams I hate the most in the NBA the Spurs are #2 on my list (Lakers are #1 of course). I have to show nothing but love to the Spurs fan though and their passion for those Spurs. They really put on a class act celebrating the most recent Championship (plus they showed love for my Cowboys too)!

I started thinking about this whole sentiment that goes on with the media and the fans that the Western Conference is dominant and the East Conference is irrelevant. To tell the truth this really all comes down to the Spurs. The Spurs are carrying the West! Yes the other teams in the West give the Spurs some decent competition, and yes the West dominates the East in the "regular" season.

When it comes to the Finals it's all about the Spurs, not the West. Since Jordan left the Bulls in 98. There have been 9 Championships, the Spurs have won 4, the Lakers (w/Shaq) won 3, the other 2 winners came from the East.

Now that the Lakers have traded Shaq and became irrelevant, it's only the Spurs. Honestly, who else is going to win a Championship form the West?

The Dallas Mavericks? Great team, but in the Finals up 2-0 playing a team they had beaten the last 6 times they played them, they proceeded to lose the next 4 games.... Do I even need to mention the meltdown against Golden State this season?

The Phoenix Suns? Really? They haven't played in a Finals since Charles Barkely was there in 93? Has a team playing the style of play Phoenix does ever won a Championship? I think they are a great team, but you can't honestly say they could win a Championship when they haven't even came close.

So who else? There isn't another team in the West that you can throw out there confidently. The Spurs swept Lebron James and the Cavs this season, they beat them so bad it was boring. In game 3, they actually tried to give Cleveland a chance to win the game, but they just couldn't play bad enough to give the game away.

So you would assume that the Mavs or the Suns could have smoked them too, they did in the regular season. Not so fast the Cavs style of ball plays to the weaknesses of both the Mavs and Suns. They play tough team defense, they penetrate the lane, and they have a "Superstar" (Lebron James) that gets all of the calls.....

Can't say they would have loss, but you are kidding yourself if you would put $100 on them to win. Believe me, I did and I lost! Read more!

Expanding March Madness

There have been suggestions to expand the tournament? Is it just me or are teams being left out a non-issue?

I have mixed emotions on this one.... I really hate that a lot of times the small conferences lose their best team in those meaningless conference tournaments. I kind of think the high seeds deserve the virtual bye they get by playing these teams. There has to be some reward for having an outstanding season so the regular season is not completely meaningless.

Including all of the conferences is a good PR move, you avoid the Boise St. situation (like you have in NCAA football), and the visibility over time can turn into some fairly well established programs see So. Ill, Creighton, Gonzaga, Butler, George Washington. 5 years ago we would have said they didn't belong....

Through the visibility in the tournament they were able to establish themselves. They never win as 16 seeds but as 15 and 14 seeds we have seen a few upsets, don't let one of them get the 12 seed!

All that being said, there is no argument you don't have the 64 best teams in the tournament, but none of the teams left out are likely to win it either.

If you are to expand the tournament, you should have 4 play in games that consist of the top eight bubble teams. These slots would 4 "at large bids." Teams who won their conference tournaments (i.e. FAMU vs. Niagra)should not be in "the play in game." The play in game (as it stands now) should consist of the top two bubble teams (i.e. Drexel vs. Syracuse). Read more!