DILEMMA: Kyrie Irving’s Comeback Gives the Dallas Mavericks Another Big Question to Answer

DILEMMA: Kyrie Irving’s Comeback Gives the Dallas Mavericks Another Big Question to Answer

On today’s show, Kyrie Irving is reportedly ahead of schedule, but the Mavericks should let him stay out as long as he wants. Today’s locked on mask. This is Cooper Flag, and you’re listening to Locked on. I think that’s a good question. Morning. All these changes, you know, I still got my dog Dwight Pal, your daily Mavericks podcast. Part of the Locked On, your team every day. I’m going to get a city like that. And welcome. You’re locked out of the Dallas Mavericks, your team every day. My name is Nick Angstead, medium member coming to the map for 10 years. Thanks for being every day, making lockup maps your first listen every day. Today’s episode is uh brought to you by FanDuel. Download the FanDuel app and you can go check out how you can get $300 in bonus bets if your first $5 bet wins. Joining me as always, the postgame prodigy from the great slightly biased YouTube channel. Um what’ you see from the Dallas Mavericks tonight, Slightly Bias? Yeah, I thought, you know, nice bounceback, get right game. I like some of the coverage from Daron Bland tonight. Obviously, good to get Pickkins and Sidi going after the Oh. Oh, the Mavericks. Oh, Dallas, not the not Arlington, the Dallas. Oh, they played. Today’s episode, we will talk we will touch on the Mavs game against the Wolves. It was an absolute blowout. We’ll tell you why it was. I want to talk about D’Angelo Russell and his play because it was not good. We’ll talk about Musa Cisce and his play. He got the start and uh does his play make you feel better about a potential Gaffford trade. I want to talk about that. But let’s start here. Mark Spears on ESPN had this report today and he said, you know, Mavs fans are kind of looking for any kind of optimism, any kind of optimism at all and I’ve got something. He’s like, I got this report. He said, Kyrie’s looking good. He’s ahead of schedule. He’s working out with the purpose of playing this season. I think optimistic wise late January all-star break, which is what we’ve been saying the whole time. Someone close to me told me if it was the playoffs he could play right now. That’s how ahead of schedule he is. But I hear he wants to be back. And so my first thought on this is well the Mav season like that they’re they’re already in a a really tough spot already for him to come back and fight back. How much will Kyrie change the Mavericks 30th offense? Probably probably a lot. But how much do you want to put on him to make them not the 30th offense but not the 25th offense but like a playoff level offense? That’s the question you have to answer is like how much of a burden do you want to put on Kyrie Irving? And so I think let Kyrie sit out as long as he needs to because the Mavs don’t need Kyrie for this season. The Mavs need Kyrie for next season if they’re going to try and compete next season because the Mavs can’t tank next season. They cannot just trot out there and say, “All right, let’s sell off all these parts. We’ll sell off Anthony Davis and Kyrie and Clay and all and you know and Gaffford and everybody. Let’s like sell Anagi and sell everybody off and just be awful next season too.” Like you cannot sell the entire farm to be bad this year and then also be bad next year because you only have your pick top two protected. And that is what like a 27% chance if you’re one of the only if you’re the bottom three teams. A 27% chance. And so I say let Kyrie get as healthy as possible. Don’t rush him back in any way, shape, or form. And then let him ease back into the the end of the season because it would be good to see Kyrie. It would be good to get him some reps with Cooper Flag on the floor and some of these guys. But hey Kyrie, just hang out man. Get get right. Get 100% right. Yeah. I mean, this is uh it depends on when he’s cleared because I mean, I’m assuming the way with how careful Dumont is reportedly being with Anthony Davis and all this, I can’t imagine he’s not also the same exact way with Kyrie. Uh so, if it does reach a point, it’s like, hey, he’s clear and he’s ready to go on December 12th. I’m just throwing a random day out there, December 12th, let’s say. that’s so early in the season that I’m not sure you could realistically be like, “Hey, just don’t come back at all.” You know, but if it’s like around the All-Star break and you’re We’ve said, we’ve talked about this like I do watch these games and obviously tonight’s just a different story, but you watch this one. Did you watch watch all of it? I did not watch all this game. No, no way in hell did I watch all this game. Um, and I don’t Do you think Cooper Flag’s mom watched all this game? Maybe. She’s probably like me and once I saw Coop once I saw a pair of New Balances walking on the bottom of the screen on the bench I was like is that Coop he’s checked out. All right. Um no like we talked about it on here. Yeah. They’re in all these clutch games and then in your brain you can be like you know if they had their closer one of the best fourth quarter players in the league out there then yeah like this team could look way different and and maybe that’s worth trying out. But if it’s if you’re at the trade deadline or the all-star break and you’re, you know, uh 20 games under 500, I don’t know how worth it it is. But then the other problem becomes if Kyrie is just like, I don’t care. I want to play this year. Then that’s when you start to get into a dilemma where it’s like, do we want to like really make him mad? Is that is that something we’re interested in? Is like would we rather tank these games? And now we have we go into the season with this drama with the Nico stuff and the fans chanting and now we’ve got internal drama and it’s just like can we find a couple stable months for Coup’s rookie year at any point? That’s kind of what I’m honestly foreseeing happen because I really struggle to imagine a world where Kyrie’s just like, “Yeah, I’m cool with it.” And yeah, I don’t think you can tell him to sit out the whole season. I keep going back and forth because I’m like, “Well, just shut him down for the whole season and just tank this year and shut Anthony Davis down, too.” And then you can tank this year and then be back next year. Can you tell Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving to do that? They’re 33, 32, and they’re towards the end of their NBA careers, and you’re like, “Hey, I don’t have it. I don’t have many years left in me. I want to I want to play. I want to get out there and prove that I can still be viable for my, you know, Anthony Davis looking at an extension potentially next next summer.” Like, that is a that that is a huge thing, too. So, I think with both of these guys, you’re asking the question, right? Well, should they play this year? Like, I I think they kind of have to. The Anthony Davis, the Anthony Davis one is an interesting one that I talked about on the bonus yesterday. We’re like, they have to play him if they want to prove that he can even be tradable. Like, you can’t just like sit him out and then be like, “All right, well, now we’re going to trade you now or we’re going to trade you next year.” Like, they kind of ha they kind of have to play him at some point this year. And so, I think for both of these guys, the Mavs are kind of stuck in this spot of like, “All right, we’ve got to play both of them if they’re going to be ready, which is wild.” Yeah, the AD one is so interesting. There’s this whole uh saga here is very interesting with the you know him having his own training staff which is not outside of the realm of normaly in the NBA. These a lot of these guys have their own training staffs. Yeah. Uh we can get into the whole like well Nico didn’t let this guy and Nico didn’t let Luca like okay like that’s Nico’s gone now so it is what it is. But uh that’s how I feel with a lot of this stuff now. It’s like okay well that guy’s gone. So, but yeah, I mean it’s uh I’m still kind of just a little at least attentive to what’s happening with the AD stuff because I do find that very interesting. But yeah, I mean, we’ll see. I just can’t imagine a world where they’re just rattling off wins without these guys. And that’s where it does get to the interesting part where they have to know behind the scenes. And anybody who comes in to be the new GM has to look at this situation from an outsider coming in’s perspective, assuming it is an external hire, and be like, “Yeah, look, the the best long-term thing for us might be to pair coupe alongside with one of these fantastic topend lottery guys. Uh, and that requires losing games, and we’ve already done that, so we might as well just make ensure that that keeps happening.” And yeah, I don’t know what that what that looks like, but yeah, if the if the end goal is like, well, we want x amount of picks for AD or we want this for AD, then yeah, you want him out there playing and playing well. So, it’s it’s an interesting it’s an interesting sort of conundrum they find themselves in. It’s like both both directions can be a choice. You can try and shut them down if you can. You can play them and I could see a scenario where the maps play him and then they don’t they still don’t win cuz he I mean it didn’t look good at the beginning of the season. But what if what if they do play and they start playing well and start like making a run? Is that I mean is that detrimental to the map season? Because we talked about a couple games ago, we were like, well actually best case scenario for the Mavericks this year would be like Anthony Davis comes back, Kyrie comes back, they kind of go on a run, Cooper Flag goes on like takes this big step forward. They actually like make the play and make the playoffs potentially because then it shows Anthony Davis’s value. It proves viability like Cooper Flag takes another leap forward. It may mess with your pick a lot and you may your pick may drop from seven to like like 15 16, right? I mean, that’s that’s a that is a pretty big drop, but at least you’ve proven a lot of things about your your team already. Yeah, I still think that that’s probably preferable, but I’m not you’re not confident that’s going to happen. No, no, I’m No, I’m I’m not. But I think the worst thing they can do is to loiter around and then end up with like the 11th best odds. like kind of similar to last year, but last year was different because you had a good first couple months of the season. I mean, the one time in franchise history they moved up. It was 1.8. That’s true. Unless you’re just really going to play the odds game. But wait, are we Hold on one second. Are we Are we sure are we sure Niku’s deal wasn’t for two picks in the top in the top five or top three or top one? You know, cuz he wanted to win this year. I mean, he started without he started without a point guard. I mean, what’s insane to me, man, is I’m Look, I’ve watching I’ve watched so many games across the league this year. This the most basketball I’ve watched started a season. I And the Mavs are so bad. They are. They aren’t even a bottom five team, I don’t think. That’s how bad some of these teams look to start the season. Yeah. They’re not catching some of these teams either, right? That’s that’s it, too. for the blow it up crowd for like the team completely just completely tank crowd like Indiana, Washington and Brooklyn. These teams are not being competed with in terms of the toiletry like they’re just not they are on their own. They are so bad. They like have a toiletry duffel bag instead of like you know you know a toiletry travel bag that you travel with. No, they have a duffel bag that they carry that stuff in. I think even if the Mavs were just like, “All right, tomorrow uh Kyrie’s not playing and we just traded Anthony Davis for nothing in return. Like we just traded him to the void for nothing. I don’t I still don’t even think you’re competing with Indiana, Brooklyn, or Washington. No. No. And that I mean and so then then what are you then then you’re just waffling between what like four to 10 or whatever. Yeah. Okay. Your odds to be fair. This some people say this is like a six six prospect deep draft. Like there’s the top three guys, but then there’s another group. Well, that’s where Flag would go, right? Flag would go sixth. Five or seven. I I I 12th today. Stop it. From who? From from a reputable draft person. Uh Jason, my neighbor. Jason Conpsion is your Yeah. Coming up, I want to talk about D’Angel Russell. What happened? What’s happening with D’Angel Russell? Because these are the games that D the Mavs need a D’Angel Russell to to get going for them to get some offense going or anything. And that whole experiment has been a disaster. We’ll talk about that and more coming up. Today’s episode of Lifetime Apps brought to you by Ripling. Ripling. If you’re a business owner, here’s the truth. SAS promised to make work easier. But now the average company is buried by hundreds of apps. You got all kinds of different things you have to keep track of and it slows down your teams and they simply don’t work. That’s SAS. 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Slightly decided to get on this show after not watching the m the maps play tonight. I wa I watched until it was no longer watchable. And I don’t blame him. Don’t miss anything excitement with sports this season. Whether it’s a different game or the uh the you know the Cowboys or whatever you got going on. It’s better time to jump in on the action. And you got to try prize picks. You can make a lineup in 60 seconds or less to make your lineup. You can play anywhere Prize operates, including Texas. So, you can play this. All you have to do is go make a lineup. So, right now, I’m just going to pick a random game. Lakers versus Utah and the exciting whites. We got Luca 31 and a half points. You can pick more or less. Let me go more on that one. Larry Markin 25 and a half points. Let me go more on that. Reeves 23 and a half points. Let me go more on that one. Boom. Oh, and LeBron has may come back for this game. 17 and a half points. Let me go less on that one. I don’t know how much he’s going to play in this one. So that final is your lineup right there. Boom. If I win with that lineup, I put down 20 bucks, I can win $200 prize picks. And use this code lockdown NBA to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That’s Lockdown NBA is the code at Prize Pix. It’s good to be right. Shut it down. Let’s go. Thanks for hanging out with us on Lockdown MS, being part of the show, part of the Raccoon Squad, listening every day. We appreciate each and every one of you for checking out the show and listening. Check the QR code links in the description for different ways to follow the show. Uh the Dallas Mavericks did play a basketball game tonight. They got destroyed by the Minnesota Timberwolves. Part of it is not surprising at all. The Mavs went in as a 14-point underdog, which we were like, “Wow, that’s insane.” But then also, I started to look at some of the travel stuff the Mavs are doing. And the Mavs, there’s a second night of a backto-back. The Mavs had played four four games in what, like like six nights, basically like seven nights basically. like just a a a wild schedule that the Mavs had to h have had to play. Uh a lot of those are at home, but still two of those games were overtime games. One of them a double overtime game. You’ve got no Anthony Davis, Kyrie Exom, Derek Lively, Daniel Gaffford, Ryan Nehar, like you’re just missing so many guys in this game and the Mavs go out there and they actually I felt like they played hard in that first half. I felt like they competed. I felt like they I was looking like I was like, “All right, this is not effective. Their offense is awful, but at least they’re playing hard and they’re like they’re trying. They’re going out there. You’ve got guys that are like these try-hards, what I used to call like the sweaties that go out there and just like uh like put the put the work in and are going to dive for loose balls and do that stuff. You had Musa Cis in the starting lineup with with Lively and Gaffford out. You had um you know PJ Washington doing some stuff early, driving right at Guri Gobear a couple times which I thought was was huge. seeing his like uh confidence in his his driving game I think has gone up a ton this season which is something that I think was great but other than that it was pretty wild. It was pretty awful. You had Cooper Flag playing like these four minute stints in the first half where he literally played four minutes each time he went in which I thought was strange. But I honestly think Kid was just like saving him from this fatigue and the second night of a backto-back deal. Yeah, I was confused at the Cooper flag rotations until I thought the same thing like this has to be a back-to-back type of uh you know, let’s let’s limit the amount of minutes he plays, especially since coming off of back-to-back overtime games, you know, uh a lot of the minutes for these guys. Yeah, it I agree. I mean, it wasn’t they didn’t go out there and and go through the motions and play terribly, but you know, without the bigs on this team, this team doesn’t have any strengths. Like that’s kind of where it’s at. Like you know, you don’t have the ball handling. We already knew that. You’re supposed to counterbalance that with like, okay, well, we’ve got all these bigs and we’re just going to be ginormous and now you’ve got to play small because you don’t have any bigs. And it’s just like you don’t do, you know, you’re just uh not a great team. Like you’re just there just not a lot of avenues for you to win games there. How about that? Uh and the turnover number was incredibly high. Um it was high for both teams. I mean, Mavs defensively played pretty well, I thought. Again, uh it is hard though to consistently, and we talked about this early in the season. It’s hard to consistently play good defense when you’re not scoring at all and you’re just constantly having to get back and constantly having to turning the ball over and, you know, long rebounds bouncing out. Like, that’s a difficult to ask for your defense. Um, and yeah, I mean, it’s just they weren’t supposed to win tonight and wouldn’t you know it, they didn’t even come close. So, Vegas was I thought I I was like, man, 14 points is crazy. But Vegas was right this time around. The uh what was it? The the Thunder were a 14 point or like a 14 15 point favorite against the Pelicans. Yeah. And they won by Vegas is pretty good at this stuff. They won by Oh, man. I’m I don’t know. Do the math. Do the math. I can They won by 15. There you go. I think it may have gotten to 17 by the end of that one, but the Pelicans covered losing by 15. There you go. D’Angelo Russell though, I do want to talk about because this is a game where you’re like, “All right, let’s get let like go ahead like go do your thing, man. Like go out there and against your former team, go out there, score some buckets, do you know do it.” And he he bogged down the offense, shot four of 11, missed all five of his threes, like missed all of his threes again, had four turnovers and only scored eight points. Only played 22 minutes, but still this he’s had like two games where you go, “All right, there you go. that that’s like a good a good D’Angel Russell game. And still in those games was like a mixed bag of decision-making and things by the end. And uh this whole thing I think has gone worse than anybody could have expected. I mean Isaac was very high on this move. I was was high on this move at least as somebody that could come in and and just play some minutes. He’s obviously not playing with the full compliment team that we expected and the Mavs offensive infrastructure has been a lot more dis disjointed and combobulated than we had expected, but I think this is kind of worse than everybody really thought. Oh yeah. I mean, I I’ll I’ll kind of defend him here in a second, but he is three for his last 30 from three. Three for 30. Three for his last 30. So, when you’re shooting that dreadfully, everything else gets amplified, right? And and this kind of goes beyond like the typical DLO where you’re just like, what shot was that? Like, what are we doing shooting that one there? Like, he’s he’s also missing his open catch and shoot threes. So, it is it is making matters much worse. And yeah, it’s it it’s been I I understood the flaws and the potential like, hey, you know what? You’re kind there’s going to be some turnovers and some questionable shots and some questionable defense. Like, that’s all good. I thought that whatever he brought to the table offensively and positively is like exactly what this team needed. But for him, it’s like who is he going to run pick and rolls with right now, you know? True. That’s part of He got in here to play a twoman game with AD and AD’s played what, two games? I don’t I don’t even know how many games AD’s played. I feel like I haven’t feel like I haven’t seen him in months, but yeah. Uh and lively has been You didn’t see him on the bench last night wearing the Packers jersey. Dude, I had to watch I bite my tongue on a tweet. I was going to say where I’m just like, dude, who cares? Who cares? If it was a Parson’s jersey, maybe that maybe that would would would get like some kind of response from me, but no. Could not. I mean, dude, can we like I know everyone hates the trade and everyone’s frustrated he’s out, but man, can we at least like tone it down a tiny bit with this guy, like I feel for him on a human level. Seriously, cuz it’s just like, hey man, I’m a Packers fan. Like, it’s NFL Sunday game day and everyone’s like, “This this clown, I cannot believe it.” It’s just like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Like, it’s okay. There’s not even a rivalry there, man. The Packers beat their ass every single time they play. That’s not a rivalry. It is. It has extended. It did multiple quarterbacks. It is kind of like iron ironically hilarious that he is a Packers fan and came from the Lakers in the in the Luca trade where like the Packers the Michael Parson’s trade like and all that. I’m sure there’s an explanation for his Packer fandom. I don’t because he’s from Chicago. Yeah. I mean, who knows? But no, the I’m sure that story has been shared a bunch and he actually did share that story during media day. I just forget what it was because I did not care about it. Sorry. Sorry, Anthony Davis. No, I mean I I don’t care what I I know sometimes it’s it’s annoying when like when Jaylen Brunsw walk into a game with an Eagles jersey on, but it’s part of the fun. That one is That one is crazier to me. Yeah, that one is crazier, right? Like that that’s an actual rivalry. That’s actual hatred. There’s actually stuff there. Like I I didn’t grow up a Cowboys fan, but I’ve lived here long enough to know that there is hatred towards the Eagles and there is just like contempt towards the C towards towards the Packers, you know? That’s really it. the the the Packers is more like self-reflection. Like you have to come to grips with the fact that this franchise is terrible and that’s what the Packers show you. So it’s more of like a you know anyway back to D’Angelo Russell. There was a possession with two minutes to around three minutes left in the second quarter where DLO dribbles the ball for 21 seconds around the perimeter that doesn’t create an advantage or anything and then hands the ball off to Naji Marshall and it goes nowhere. I’m just like literally it’s like if you play 2K, you know, there’s a year a couple years ago where one of the strategies was just run left to right and then eventually like the game would kind of force you open. Like that’s what he did along the perimeter but then nothing came of it and Naji had to shoot a a grenade three basically. Like those are the possessions where it’s like man we’ve got nothing going for us. Can we get into something please? Yeah. Coming up, please. Musa gets the start. Has his activity and his play made you feel a little bit better about a potential Daniel Gaffford trade? A little a little bit. I’ll tell you why. Come. Today’s episode of Lock Apps brought to you by Robin Hood. 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Had a great like dive on a loose ball steal where he scored after he got an offensive rebound. Had 10 rebounds, five points. Only played 25 minutes. Did have four fouls. He’s deal with, you know, some foul issues here and there. Um, you hear me? You got me? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And uh, but I think has looked really good for a for a two-way player. Better than I had expected him to play. He’s been playing these these spot minutes. He shows really good activity. I think he’s been really good. Like he’s a kind of a switchable big because he’s pretty mobile. And the Mavs have this Daniel Gaffford contract that is still tradable. Mark Stein reported the other day that Daniel Gaffford is looked at as the most tradable player on the Mavericks right now because of that of that very thing. They obviously still have Anthony Davis, still have Derrick Lively, and obviously all these changes and you know, I still got my dog Dwight Pal. He’s still on the roster. Untouchable. Does Mus’s play make you feel any better about a potential Gaffford trade or you looking at the injury is still Lively and and AD and be like, you know what, still can’t do it. Oh man. Um I really appreciate what I’ve seen from Musa, but like is has Musa Do I look at Musa and I’m like if this roster still wants to be competitive, is he playing well enough where it’s like, yeah, we can trade one of our bigs because we got Musa. I’m not entirely sure. He’s got the best. He’s got the best onoff numbers on the team. Okay. Uh he brings a ton of energy and I do agree he’s switchable and stuff. My only my only concern with like slotting Moose into a regular this guy’s going to get 15 20 minutes a game is he’s 610 and I just don’t think he’s necessarily a great uh rebounder defensive rebounder. Like I don’t I don’t know if you can build a team that’s going to consistently get stops and then grab boards with Musa. But also at the same time, I do love the energy he brings and if the Mavs were just like, “Yeah, we don’t really care the direction the season heads, honestly. Like, we we’re cool with losing games.” Um, yeah, I think he’s perfectly fine to come in after a trade and and soak up some minutes and get some get some run. I think he’s definitely played well enough to warrant that, I would say. That’s right. It’s all about It’s all about the direction. But, by the way, Gaffford is not that great of a defensive rebounder either. No. Yeah. Yeah. You’re right. You’re right. So it depends on the direction, depends on the injuries to to you know Lively has come back now but he was out because of the second night of a backto-back. Gaffford missed this game because second night of a back toback and dealing with with that ankle as well and I just think I just think C’s play has been very good. Surprising to me I expected to see Ryan Nemhard and Miles Kelly were the two-way guys for the whole summer and we were like okay those are the two guys. Ryan Nemhard was the name we kept talking about over and over again as all right he’s going to actually get some time and he’s out now with it with a knee sprain that he got working out and so he hasn’t but he wasn’t playing before that which I was actually I’m actually very surprised by that he hasn’t gotten like much run at all because the offense has been so bad. You think they just they like Jason Kidd would empty the clip and try something like let’s keep let’s just keep trying. And then Miles Kelly has not played at all. He got in tonight with nine minutes left, which was all garbage time for the for the Mavs essentially. And Moose has been the one that was the last one to make the roster basically and has surprised me the most. Man, that is really interesting that they I I kind of agree with you. I’m surprised they haven’t gone back to the Nimhard. Well, just to try it. Yeah, that makes me wonder some things. But um I mean, is he do we know how he’s playing in in with the legends? Well, he’s out right now, but yeah. Uh, man. Yeah, I I like Musa quite a bit. The other thing I worry about him with a lot of minutes is like he just strikes me as one of these guys who’s just if he’s playing uh, by the way, five minutes tonight, four fouls. If he’s playing u a good amount of minutes, 25 minutes. Yeah. Oh, ESPN moved ESPN moved their their thing again. Okay. Yeah, I was about to say like he started he played more than 5 minutes to be start. I was looking at his other stats. I was like 10 pounds at a minus 20. I was like geez that’s a lot going on and there’s a lot going on in five minutes. But yeah, um I just worry that he’s going to be like a guy who fouls a good amount. But yeah, I’ve liked his energy and for sure, you know, the the direction the Mavs take is we’re going to get some value from Gaffford and Musa, you need to be ready if your numbers called to get the spot start here or there. Yeah, sure. Can’t believe these are the conversations we’re having, man. Yeah. Why haven’t they tried the two-way guy at point yet, right? Like that’s the kind of conversation we’re having right now, which is this season has just been so weird, so backwards, and so opposite of what you’d think we’d be talking about at this point. Um, it’s also why during the offseason I was like, I don’t care about this stat that they brought back 13 guys. like they have no continuity as a team. No, they have none. These guys have never played together in any real significant way and this remains the case. Think about the guys that played tonight like Brandon Williams, Max Christie, PJ obviously Flag is new, Cay is new, Naji, Dwight Pal. Yeah, Russell is new. Like Clay, like these guys just did not play that much together. I know the Cayla Martin situation has been equally if not maybe the the worst thing. on the roster because they traded Quinn Grimes for him. I didn’t like the deal at the time because I don’t think you get rid of a of a a guy like Quinn Grimes. I think that talent was just one that you just all right, let’s roll the I’d rather roll the dice on that than just have a contract. And now they have this contract and now this contract is like not good. Like it’s not not has not good value. He can’t play. I mean, he does not look good at all. Um I’m not going to lie, I saw him warming up yesterday. I watched him shoot like like 10 of 20 from three with nobody with nobody guarding him. 50%. We’ll take that. Oh, like Dwight Pal doesn’t miss. Doesn’t miss take shot. When you watch the warm-ups, you realize these NBA guys do not ever miss really. They’re just different. It’s it it’s it’s insane. His confidence is obviously not his confidence is obviously not there. He doesn’t have any role. Well, Jason kid keeps throwing him out in these first quarters and I don’t really know what the the strategy is there just to see if if he has anything. But this has been another thing we’re like, “All right, now he’s on the roster for the next couple of years. They have this contract and the Mavs decided, all right, we’re going to lose Grimes for nothing, so we might as well get somebody that can play in this rotation.” And I’ve been high I’ve been up and down on Caleb Martin if he could play. There have been times when I’m like, “All right, his defense actually look pretty good. The Mavs could use him.” But man, I look at it now. He’s 9 and a half million this year, 10 million the next year, and 9.3 million player option the year after that. He’s picking that up because he’s not getting that anywhere else. Well, tonight he did tie a season high in field goals made with two. And it was the first time since October 29th that he’s made more than one. Uh and uh between November 1st and November 16th, he made one total field goal. Yeah, this is one that I have to admit that I was very wrong on because I I say I at least understood the logic kind of of the trade. Not that I thought it was like a great deal. Not that I thought Quinton Grimes or Kayla Martin was better than Quinton Grimes. I didn’t. But I at least kind of understood the we don’t want to do a strict free agency. We’re not going to be able to bring this guy back. Let’s at least get a contract that we can maybe use in trades or whatever the case may be. But yeah, uh man, he’s just offensively he’s got to be one of the worst big minute rotation or not necessarily big minute rotation, but like legit rotation guys in the league. He has to be one of the worst offensive guys in the NBA. I mean, it is dire. And the the three ball, he’s barely shooting them this year. He’s only taken six, but uh at least before tonight, I don’t know if he took one tonight at any point. Uh should I say what my Caleb Martin three-point shot thing is? What? That I I sent in our group chat. Caleb Martin’s three-point shot looks like it surprises him every time he every time he takes a shot. It’s like, “Oh, wait. I’m I’m taking I’m taking I’m taking a three, man. I don’t leaves his hands he leaves his hands in your and it’s like and I feel like his form changes every time he takes a three.” So interesting what happened there because that was the thing that I thought, all right, he he’ll at least come in and be like a three and D guy and his defense did look good last year and his defense at times this year has been, you know, has been okay. The confidence is obviously just like not there at all at at all, but it I mean the the three-point shot has just been so wild. Yeah, it’s it is so flat. I mean, it is genuinely a line drive that is just like you’re not going to get a single friendly bounce on anything like that. You’ve got like one sliver of a of a spot where that shot needs to go. And it is Yeah, I don’t it doesn’t seem fixable really to me. I don’t know. It’s crazy. This guy probably should have won Eastern Conference Finals MVP two years ago. Man, that is what was that? Three years ago. Like he should have won it like and and those those games he carried him just like that. I think that’s one of the big misconceptions is like Jimmy hurt his ankle in that playoff run and then like was not that great in the Boston series after he hurt his ankle and Caleb Martin was legitimately awesome. Here’s So this is the Boston series. Miami against Boston. This is in 2023. Two years ago. Less than I guess less than two years ago. 15 points, three threes made. 25 points, three threes made. 18 points, four threes made. 16 points, two threes made. 14 points, two threes made. 21 points, four threes made. 26 points, four threes made. Like in a game seven, 26 points in a game 26 points, 10 boards, three assists, no fouls, one turnover. like the the confidence from from a player there to a player where he is now. I mean, that is just such a tough injuries. The injuries are there’s injuries between then that may have affected it. But I Yeah, it’s definitely an injury related thing mostly. I would say it’s different when it’s like a guy like or like Jared Vanderbilt where it’s like this guy’s never been good offensively. So, you’re just always projecting maybe a leap forward or something. But Caleb Martin is just like, dude, this is He’s in those category that category is a guy like Jared Vanderbelt where it’s just like this guy cannot do a thing on offense. It’s just I don’t tough I don’t understand it because the moment you’re not a scoring threat in the slightest. Yeah. In any way. your playm all of that pretty much goes away cuz I do think there’s a world where it’s like if he somewhat puts pressure on the defense it’s like he’s a he’s a good playmaker like you know he’s a smart player but that’s all out the window if your team doesn’t care about you shooting threes if a team’s not even worried about you even looking to score you see him take these real quick like drives like like back and like the side to side drives like that you were talking about where it’s like he’s literally just going back and forth he’s trying to trying just trying to like get open in some way yeah I think those I think those three the Russell Caleb Martin like th those two have been that that’s been some pretty bad um bad turns for the Mavericks that that could have gone one way and like that Daniel Russell seemed like like seemed logical could have worked. Caleb Martin seemed like he could have fit a need for the Mavericks for the Mavericks and it just hasn’t worked at all. Those have been really brutal for the Mavs this season. I think too adding on to everything else that we’ve already talked about like that has been bad in every way. Go check out Sly B’s great YouTube channel. Uh Isaac will have an episode a little bit later today on this feed where he talks about the Mavs should keep Kyrie Irving and not trade him. So he talks all about that. So go check out that guys. Thanks so much for listening to Locked on Mavs. I’ll be back with Locked on NBA a little bit later today. Thanks so much for listening to Locked on Mavs. Peace out. Boom. We’ll get through this together.

The Dallas Mavericks face tough NBA questions as they navigate the absences of key players like Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis, and rookie Cooper Flagg in a challenging season. Mavs fans want answers about the team’s future, player trades, and how the performances of D’Angelo Russell, Daniel Gafford, and others shape Dallas’ direction in the NBA.

Nick Angstadt and Slightly Biased discuss the Dallas Mavericks’ latest blowout loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, giving honest insights into the Mavs roster, including the roles of Klay Thompson, Dereck Lively II, PJ Washington, Naji Marshall, and Dwight Powell. The hosts break down Kyrie Irving’s injury update, Cooper Flagg’s development, and Anthony Davis’ situation, with thoughtful conversation around Jason Kidd’s coaching, Nico Harrison’s decisions, Mark Cuban’s moves, and Patrick Dumont’s leadership. Tune in for analysis of trade rumors, NBA draft prospects, and how the Mavericks can shape the team’s future with or without key stars, while also covering tough games against teams like the Wolves, Thunder, Pelicans, Pacers, Wizards, and Nets.

Don’t miss in-depth NBA breakdowns, Mavs roster evaluations, and player-by-player reviews every episode – subscribe, rate, and join the conversation on all things Dallas Mavericks, Cooper Flagg, Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, and the NBA!

0:00 Kyrie Irving Injury Update & Mavs’ Season Outlook
13:31 Mavs Get Blown Out by Wolves
23:35 Moussa Cisse, Bigs Rotation, & Trade Options

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