Top 11 Reasons to be Excited About the Mav’s Season
Yes, our list goes to 11.
11. It is not baseball.
Okay, so the Rangers didn’t totally suck. But when two of your biggest in-season stories are complaints about in-the-stands interviews during broadcasts/rambling announcers and your born-again-slugger’s dead-again behavior during training camp… well, your not dealing with contender and you are not going to play interesting (i.e. October) baseball.
As they might have said on Arrested Development, your team was upgraded from “Sell” to “Don’t Buy”.
Break out the bubbly. But be sure to have a bottle of sparkling cider for Hamilton. You don’t want to see him drunk, do you?
10. Wade Phillips is not the coach.
Maybe Jerry was confused and thought he was hiring Wade’s daddy, Bum Phillips. The only thing interesting about Wade’s term as Cowboys head coach is speculating about who the next coach will be and when the next coach will get here. If Tony Romo is “Oh-No-Romo,” then Wade is simply “Ho-hum Not Bum.”
09. French Cuffs
Rodrigue “Roddy” Beaubois is the latest import to join the Mavericks. And while it is way too early to get excited about a late first round pick for France (waaaay too early), fans should be excited about what this young man could bring to the team. In the new, hand-check free NBA, guys with speed and tenacity can carve out successful careers.
And if nothing else, we can have fun finding a nick-name for him this first season. Mike Fisher put early support behind the name French Cuffs. It doesn’t exactly roll of the tongue but it is a little bit colorful.
08. Drew Gooden
A quality front-court player voluntarily joins the Mavericks and is immediately penciled in to play 20-30 minutes a game most nights. Last year’s front court signing was Diop. Drew may or may not be a lot of things, but it is a pretty safe bet he gets more playing time than Diop did and that he scores more points this season as Maverick than Diop did in his two tours with the team combined.
And if that isn’t enough, Drew is a bit of a character. So, if you are tired of the boring Dirk interviews maybe you can get a few headlines out of the wacky things Gooden will say during the course of the season.
07. Mavericks on Twitter
Dirk, Jet and Josh have twitter accounts. But don’t count on those three guys to start spilling their lives on Twitter or anywhere else. Jet will do the official spokesperson stuff, hosting his own radio shows etc. but after all these years on the Mavericks what do you really know about Terry other than that he shoots really well and he is so positive that he could get Eeyore pepped up? These three guys are key to the team’s season but you aren’t likely to get much out of them on Twitter.
Meanwhile, new faces such as Drew Gooden (http://twitter.com/DrewGooden) and Shawn Marion (http://twitter.com/matrix31) are active on Twitter. Admittedly, you might not understand a lot of what they say. Inside jokes, 140 character limits and typo’s galore make translating player tweets a challenging task. But their online activity is fun for the Mavs fan. Especially if you get your kicks by suggesting dining options to Marion.
And of course Mark Cuban (http://twitter.com/mcuban) was a trend setter and got fined for a Tweet last season. So you know that during the course of 82+ games he will have something interesting to tweet. Or you might accidentally learn something interesting about the business world.
If you are tired of the boring Bull Duhram’ish quotes you get from half-time interviews and post-game interviews then you need to check out what is being said by Mavericks on Twitter. They are not going to give you deep secrets about the playbook or anything like that, but you will get a little bit closer to the players and that is one of the biggest keys to becoming a fan of a team.
If you have some connection with the players, you will care more about each and every game and have more insight into the ups and downs of the regular season marathon.
06. The media and pseudo-media on Twitter
The list of local media members using Twitter is a collection of names that Mavs fans should know like the back of their hand: Mike Fisher, Gina Miller and Mark Followill among others. Throw in some national media names like Bill Simmons and Marc Stein and all of the local bloggers and fans that you will meet on Twitter and there is a lot to like about the Mavericks Twitter coverage.
For the modern, obsessed Mavs fan, Twitter is the new Bob Ortegal. Your game-time, color commentary and inside source.
Worst case, even if you don’t learn anything else about the game, you will learn more about the people covering the game for you.
05. Shawn Marion
Everyone is gaga over the Spurs grabbing what’s-his-name in the second round and Jefferson via free agency. But when the season is done, Marion’s arrival in Dallas could be considered as the steal of the summer. I’m excited to have the Matrix in a Mavs uniform at long last and you should be excited too.
The Matrix is a Maverick! And sure, at 34 or 35 he might be more of a liability than an asset. And I stress *might* in that sentence. But people act like he is already 35. Guys, Marion is 31 and just 2 years removed from the all-star game.
At the very least, Marion is a more steady version of Josh Howard. More likely, he is unlike any player we’ve seen in a Mavs uniform before and he does it without dominating the ball.
If the Mavs can play Josh, Marion and Dirk together then the opposing teams are going to be hard pressed to create matchup nightmares for the Mavericks. That is a lot of length, talent and athleticism on the court at one time. Shawn Marion can change everything for the Mavs.
04. Healthy/Happy Josh Howard
I was done with Josh last season. Done. Josh seemed high maintenance and overly injury prone. And that may all still be true, but the first round of the playoffs gave me hope and reminded me of his true talent.
I finally believe he can get his head on straight. The first round series was probably as important for Josh as it was for the Mavs as a team. Now if he can be healthy, this season could be something special.
3. 1st Round Monkey
Dismiss their victory over the Spurs if you wish. But they got the job done (*cough* Romo *cough*). And the 2006 Finals collapse and the 2007 Warriors debacle feel a long way away now. This is a team that can get it done. Of course, every team needs some breaks. Not every team can get it done even when they get the breaks (*cough* C-Webb *cough*).
For the last several seasons, nothing the Mavs could do in the regular season could make up for the preceding post-season problems. But at last, the Mavs are not being haunted by the previous post-season. Last year’s team wasn’t good enough to win it all, but they lived up to their potential.
02. Underdog
The playoff monkey is dead. Now the Mavs move from being the jinxed to the underdog. No longer is the story about not living up to potential. Now the story of this season is overcoming the ridiculousness that is the Lakers. That’s the stuff of legends. I’m happy to see the Mavericks take on that challenge.
01. Dirk
If you watched the Denver series last season, and still don’t believe in Dirk then you are a fool. There, I said it.
If his coach doesn’t let him down (*cough* Avery *cough*), Dirk will get his team into the second or third round of the playoffs and from there anything can happen. Why do I know that? Because historically Dirk’s teams have done better than just make the playoffs. They have won playoff series. And that, my friends, is something to get excited about.
Playoff depth with Dirk:
2001 – 2nd round
2002 – 2nd round
2003 – 3rd round
2004 – 1st round
2005 – 2nd round
2006 – 4th round
2007 – 1st round
2008 – 1st round
2009 – 2nd roundFor the math impaired, that’s an average of 2 playoff rounds per season.
If you are a basketball fan in Dallas and don’t root for Dirk, then I’m sad for you because you are missing out on one of the great ones and he is playing right in front of you.
