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Archive for the ‘Brandon Bass’ Category

We’re in the preseason here, too, and we’re trying out different Mavs bloggers and features to entertain you during the season. Right now Zac and I are trying to figure out what our regular after-game analysis will look like. Until the season starts, it feels like you’ll want no more than five observations/opinions/ramblings from the night before. That might not allow me to get all my notes in (examples: “Dirk going more to the up-and-under move after his baseline spin … McHale’s influence?” or “Bob Sturm and Drew Gooden … separated at birth?), but that’s okay. Let’s call it Five on Five, because I can’t think of anything else right now.

1. Seeing Matt Carroll start last night was a bit of a shock, mainly because I had just finished reading John Hollinger’s take on him as I was perusing his 2010 player predictions: “If Carroll wasn’t the worst player in the league last season, he was certainly on the short list.” And if this was an audition for someone other team looking to add a sharpshooter who can’t defend, can’t rebound, and has no handle, mission accomplished. Although Carroll did get frisky with Matt Barnes at one point. What’s the over-under on Barnes dropping Carroll if it came to blows? Six seconds? Four?

2. Speaking of guys who are what we thought they were, Quinton Ross is as advertised: outstanding perimeter defender who can’t shoot. He threw up at least three ridiculous wide-open shots that had not a prayer of going in. But he has incredible lateral movement and can stay in front of quick wings, something no one on this team can do. In one sequence in the second quarter, Ross made tremendous play to get in front of Vince Carter, who was trying to drive to the right baseline. This frustrated Carter, who, Jerry Stackhouse-like, decided he wasn’t going to give up without a fight. So he allowed Ross to funnel him to the lane, where Carter was double-teamed, which led to two more passes late in the shot clock, and Mickael Pietrus ended up having to take a 25-foot heave at the buzzer. This is why Ross was such a nice pickup: late in close games, don’t be surprised if you see Ross on the other team’s best player, trying to prevent what happens so often to the Mavs: one guy beating them in crunch time (see: Denver, JSmith). This is Ross’s value.

3. Kris Humphries is freaking hot.

4. Everybody talks about how smart Orlando was this off-season. Really? Okay, signing Brandon Bass for $18 million was very smart. The Mavs are going to miss him. Trust me. He works hard, he’s a great teammate, and he is a warrior in crunch time. (The team’s recurring flaw in its approach is that it overpays for people who aren’t stars — the list is too long; see the Internet for details — and tries to get too cute by squeezing “value” out of people they underrate, like Nash, Raja Bell, Bass). But that move aside for Orlando — what’s so great about letting one of the game’s great glue guys walk (Hedo) so you can acquire the ghost of Michael Finley (Vince Carter, now hoisting threes at an arena near you) and an athletic center who will get 15 minutes a game and no looks from your three-point-happy team (Gortat)? I know they’re trying to replicate the Hakeem-Rockets model (a dominant big man, surrounded by three-point shooters), but Dwight Howard, beastly as he is, isn’t the low-post offensive force that Hakeem was. That team will live and die by the three, and haven’t we all seen how that turns out?

5. For one night anyway, the knock on Drew Gooden (space cadet, forgets assignments, frustrates coaches and teammates) seemed not applicable. Late in the game, he showed on a high screen, making Carter go around him so that Ross could catch up, another possession that ended in an Orlando miss. (BTW: Skin pointed this out on TV. He’s a good. Second only in game analysis to my daughter Madcat, who noted “Dirk looks like a hippie German,” and “Why do women want to become sportscasters? Unless it’s to marry an athlete. I would do that.”) And Gooden’s low-post offense, always solid, seemed a revelation on this team. Damp, consider yourself a crunch-time cheerleader, please. Thank you.

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