Mark Cuban’s role with the Mavericks, the Spurs’ injuries and MORE 👀 | Howdy Partners

Mark Cuban’s role with the Mavericks, the Spurs’ injuries and MORE 👀 | Howdy Partners

Howdy partners. Welcome to the weekly show where we take a look at the league through the lens of the lone star state. Ban McMahon here with my compadre Michael C. Right. Mike, how you doing? Great. How are you, man? You saw some rough stuff last night. Listen, uh the the the Mavericks season continues to limp. We’re about 20 20% of the way in. There’s a a lot going on off the court in Dallas and we are going to get to that uh in a little bit. Unfortunately, Mike, there’s a lot going on right now in the trainers room in San Antonio. We’re also going to get to the red hot Houston Rockets, but let’s start out with the Pack trainers room in San Antonio. Um, you know, give us a brief breakdown and and let’s discuss how the Spurs kind of get through this period. Okay. Well, the big one obviously is Victor Womenyama. He’s got the strained left calf. But I’m telling you, man, I’ve seen him. I’ve talked to him. He seems fine to me. From what I understand, just talking to people with the Spurs and, you know, just people in the organization, they are just being overly cautious here. Um, you know, they just don’t want to take any chances. And you know how like around this time of year, people start saying, “Well, nobody’s 100%.” Well, they are not letting Victor play. until he’s back to 100%. That’s just what they’re gonna do with him. And with the calf Yes. Yes. Especially with with the calf, just, you know, because we’ve seen those things turn into something worse later on. Uh with Steph Castle, he’s got a hip flexor and I’m told that for him, some of it is going to be pain tolerance. I don’t know if you’ve ever had one as a former hooper. I have had one. I’m not a former hooper, but I’ve had one. It’s a painful thing. Yeah. call it a hip flexor, but you kind of feel it more in your groin. And so, yeah, it’s a weird thing. And it is just one of those things. It hurts like crazy. It’s a sharp pain, but again, a minor injury. They’re going to re-evaluate him him in like a week, maybe two weeks, and then go from there. So, De’Aran Fox has got to be the guy. Yeah, he’s more than equipped to do. So, Castle week to week, Wimy’s two to three weeks. Uh, look, they took advantage of a soft little spot in the schedule and it, you know, they beat the Kings and it wasn’t easy, but they got a win over the Grizzlies. You know, Harrison Barnes reminded me of some of the some of his better moments in a Dallas uniform where he’s the go-to guy down the stretch. Um, you know, hey, nice win. Any any win without uh your two young stars is a good one. Three young stars because Dylan Harper’s still out to me. Obviously, the one big bummer here is just look, you don’t get to watch Wimby play. I certainly hope Wimby gets to 65 games for award reasons, all NBA defensive player of the year, maybe even MVP. To me, the biggest bummer from a team perspective here isn’t that you might take a loss, you know, a few losses, but Victor Wimmanyama and D’Aren have barely been able to play together. I mean, how many? It was five games last year, four this year. Yeah. So, nine games total. They they’ve yet to be able to establish any kind of chemistry. Um, and hopefully, you know, Victor can get healthy and we can start getting a a feel for what that duo can be and what kind of that dynamic looks like, right? And you saw him in just the four games that they the the duo you saw them like in the just the four games they played together, the timing was off. they were out of sync because they didn’t get any summer work together because De’aran Fox had that hamstring injury that kept him out of the early portion of the season. So, yeah, that’s a it’s that’s a big deal. And it’s not just them, too. It’s the the group as a whole. Miss Johnson always talks about how like how hard it is to get cohesion. You know, Oklahoma City, that’s one of the few teams that is, you know, 100% cohesive. And so they like to get that kind of chemistry and cohesion, but you can’t when those guys aren’t on the floor. Yeah. And Oklahoma City basically brought the entire roster back this season. Um certainly everybody in the rotation. The one guy didn’t come back was a rookie last year who barely played. And then the year before that, they did make a couple of pretty significant additions, but they were role players. you know, Caruso, you he’s going to come in, he’s going to cause havoc defensively, and he’s gonna, you know, take open shots and and move the ball offensively. You know, Hartinstein’s kind of a glue guy offensively. He’s a screener, you know, a passing big man, you know, scores a little bit where De’Arren Fox is a a focal point, you know, so it’s a it’s a much bigger uh I I would say learning curve or for a guy who’s going to have the ball in his hands as much as he does to be able to come in and and establish chemistry with the face of the franchise as well as every other guy on the roster. That’s right. And you got to learn, you know, he’s going to have to learn, okay, when do I defer to Vic? When do I take over? You know, those are all things that take place when you spend time on the court together in actual games. So, you know, there’s that. There’s, like you said, Dylan Harper earlier, like he’s going to be a focal point of this team, too, at some point. And so, he’s got to play, though. And, you know, I think the Spurs are fine. Like you said, they’re winning and they’re without their guys. And that’s, you know, that was another thing that they wanted to do over the summer when they were sort of building this roster is because last year whenever Victor was off the floor, the Spurs just went off a cliff offensively and defensively. You go get Luke Cornet and now you’re looking a lot better without Vic on the floor, you know, and you know, Harrison Barnes, he’s doing his thing. The old man can hoop, man. And he’s he’s got he’s developed a really good old man game, too. He’s so good with that D cell. It’s not even a D cell. It’s just he’ll just do this style. It’s almost like you can hear it creeping. He’s strong too, man. Like he’s a strong dude. Like the way he was sort of he was sort of manhandling Jiren Jackson on occasion the other night against the Grizzlies. And you know they were missing John Mar who has what a calf. That’s what everybody has these days. It’s like they’re contagious. Yeah. It’s crazy man. Y’all got Cavs in Dallas going on right now? Uh I don’t think Well, yeah, AD duh. Yeah, that’s the big the biggest one. Yeah, AD’s got one and and Dan says he ain’t ready no matter what he thinks. So, Dumont based on medical uh feedback from the Mad staff, by the way. Yes. Yes. But that’s a weird one. What you got going on in Dallas, man? um before like I was in bed last night watching the end of the Mavericks game and bro I pulled up your story and I read the first sentence and I was like yeah I’mma wait till after the game to read this thing like the first sentence told me everything I need to know. I was like okay this is one of those kinds of stories and that thing man we could talk for two hours about that. Well let’s get into it. So, the story I had on ESPN.com yesterday, it was basically about the uh I’m not going to call it a love triangle, but the Mark Cuban, Nico Harrison, uh Patrick Dumont triangle, right? The the the power triangle. And you know, Cuban famously uh blurted out to everybody who had listened when he sold the team, sold the majority share of the team that he was still going to be in charge of basketball operations. He told the players and coaches and and front office staff the same thing. It was never true. Breaking news. Just because Mark Cuban says something does not make it true. Did he believe it? I think he believed it. I It’s honestly, it is so hard to tell what Cuban actually thinks is true and when he’s just completely full of manure. Um, I think he was trying to speak it into existence. I think he was trying to almost do like power of personality bully Dumont into, “Hey, I know you sold me the house. I got a little share of it. That includes the primary bedroom.” You know, the billionaire uh Jedi mind trick, I guess. Yeah. But it it it didn’t work. And then Nico Harrison took advantage of what was a power vacuum. And look, they went to the Niko makes a couple trade deadline moves. They go to the finals. Patrick Dubont doesn’t know much about basketball or, you know, especially the NBA, the way the NBA business works. And oh, he’s convinced. Oh my goodness, this guy is a basketball genius. Like, whatever Nico says, we’re rolling with, you know, his infamous line after the Luca trade in Luca or I’m sorry, it should have been in Luka we trust. In Nico, we trust. And obviously that’s blown up in Deont’s face. It ended up blown up in Nico’s face. He got fired and there’s really no justification to keep him as a general manager uh after 11 games this season. I would to say even even in the summer. Um and it it blew, you know, the whole thing’s blown up in Cuban’s face, right? And so now you’ve got another power vacuum. And Cuban was the dialogue between Cuban and Dumont at one point was minimal. It really picked up after the Cooper flag uh lottery, right? The Mavs win the lottery. Cuban Cuban’s one who called Dumont and told him calls him yelling, screaming. Dialogue between them picks up. Cuban all summer long was lobbying. We got to fire Nico. We got to fire Nico. and he gained a little bit of credibility because he told him, and this is like, you know, basketball 101 stuff, but he told Dant like, “Hey, this roster is terribly constructed. We’re going to be a bad offensive team. We we don’t have any shot creation. We don’t have shooting.” And lo and behold, you know, the Mavericks are have either been last or second last uh in in offensive rating for all those reasons. So, at this point, there’s a GM by committee and there’s, you know, I would say there’s a little Dumont’s got a little inner circle basketball advisory committee. Yeah. The co-g on an interim basis, Michael Finley and Matt Ricardi. Jason Kidd who has the most juice in the room and Mark Cuban is in the room. He’s back in the room now. back in the room and back in power. That’s a Hey, we those are different neighborhoods, you know, that that that is a coast to coast uh through traffic transition type of deal there. Um the way it was it was put to me is uh he’s a consultant, not a decision maker, but he’s back at the table. and how long he’s at the table and how much influence he has is going to be a decision made by whoever Dumont ends up hiring or promoting to that top basketball decision maker spot. That was a cold line to end that story, too, man. So, here’s a funny one for you. Probably the quote that most people hit me up about. Um, and I’m I’m paraphrasing, but you know, like I said, Cuban was working hard to get Nico fired along with, you know, thousands and thousands of Mavericks fans. It’s not like Cubans was the one, hey, maybe we should do that. And it was like, oh, hold on, but good idea. But Cuban was pretty relentless in his lobbying behind the scenes. And, you know, with Nico out, like there’s a chance for Cuban to get a little bit of juice back, you know, to go from at least zero to something. And so, uh, I I was told, you know, he’s he’s walking around on air right now. Cuban’s floating in his sketchers. Like I can Yeah, I can see it. Like I visualize that. The one thing the one thing Cuban said to me yesterday, he didn’t hit me at all about the story. Yeah. I was, you know, anytime you write anything that can is maybe not the most flattering about him. Like there’s been plenty of times where my email or my phone’s blown up uh from Cuba. He didn’t hit me at all. But on his way to his seat before the game, you know where we sit where I’m like the second row of those media seats, you know, and then there’s a little uh area where he walks by. So he stops and he says, “Tim,” and he’s he’s yelling at me and it’s so it’s loud, you know, all the music and so I can’t really hear and he’s yelling, “Sketchers, Sketchers.” And I couldn’t but I was like, “What?” I thought he was I I thought he was saying dentures and I was like, “What the hell are you talking about?” But he was mad that somebody implied that he uh that he wore Sketchers. The The reason it was a funny line is he he used to have a Sketchers endorsement deal back in the day. Mhm. So that was his that apparently was his biggest beef in the story. Although he also he told other people this was a funny thing. He told the Athletic and then the morning news because there is a line in the story that says, “Hey, team sources say they’re going to explore the trade market for AD, which right, you know, like, bro, look at the situation. You got a chance to pivot and build around Cooper flag, you better.” Like, come on. Anyways, uh, so people are email Cuban says, “We’re not trading AD. We’re going to try to win or we want to win or something, whatever it is, which is hilarious on multiple fronts. one this coming to you from the guy who among many lies said he was still in charge of basketball operations when he wasn’t. And by the way, he’s still not. So track record of of uh honesty, not his call. And Mark Cuban, the man who over the last seven years has twice paid large six-f figureure fines for either tanking so blatantly was embarrassing in the league or bragging about tanking thinks this is the year that the Mavericks should win, the one year they’ve got a pick between now and 2031, right? And a good draft, too. Yeah. And a loaded draft. Yeah. Oh, it’s uh Cuban does. He He He always manages to to provide content. I’ll give him that. I feel I just feel terrible for those players though. Like they are just stuck in the middle of this. Well, it’s just like come on man. Like you know you at the free throw line, they screaming fire Nico. But but listen, Nico’s been fired. That stuff has been eliminated. And this was this story was like my last kind of bow on the on the Nico era, right? Or error, whatever you want to call it. Error. Is that what you’re saying? Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So, that part’s gone. They’ve got to And there’s going to be, I’m told, a comprehensive search. It’ll include some internal candidates. There’s going to be external candidates. I don’t know exactly who it’s going to be in the shot caller position in the front office. you know, Cuban’s pushed Dennis Lindsay. There’s who, by the way, would be a very good candidate. Um, you know, there’s they’re going to interview several people. Um, and we’ll see how that plays out. But so for the players, it’s just like hopefully they can not worry about the front office that that’s a Deont thing. He got to figure that out. What they are is stuck in this weird phase for the rest of the season where the two there are two timelines and you got now it’s got to be about one timeline. 18-year-old Cooper flag you got a second chance to build around a generational talent. It’s a gift. Don’t screw that up. Got to get that right, you know. So AD is going to be in trade rumors. They’ve got to get him healthy back on the floor. You know, show teams, okay, hey, he’s healthy. he’s still AD and then you know see what uh what the market looks like. The other the other big question here is with Kyrie. Kyrie is working to get healthy. I am told in very very clear terms Kyrie wants to play. He he wants to come back. He’s preparing for that. I don’t I I you know, I’m pretty certain that the Mavericks are going to kind of try to gently say, “Hey, let’s make sure you’re you’re really right. Let’s uh no need to rush here, you know, cuz like but they don’t want they want Kyrie back next season.” They want him to be the voice in that locker room, the mentor, the point guard, the leader, all those things. So, um you know, I I I don’t know how things are going to play out with Kyrie for the rest of the season. And that’s going to be an very interesting thing to watch for sure. And I think that they’re doing they’re doing themselves a disservice if I don’t know. I I just think you got to you got to make that man sit down some some some way. You got to convince him, you know, convince him of, you know, a brighter future or something. But just I don’t know. I just wouldn’t want to risk hurting getting that guy hurt again in what’s sort of a lost season here. Well, there the that and frankly the worst thing that can happen for the Mavericks is they squeeze into the 10 seed or something like that. You know, they they’ve got one chance to get a high lottery pick to pair with Cooper Flag because as we’ve talked about many times, they don’t control the draft picks from 27 to 30, right? This is their one shot in what is supposed to be at least through the top six a loaded draft. You know, it competitive losses ain’t a bad thing for the Mavericks this year. They last night like last night that was the strangest thing. They couldn’t make free throws, couldn’t miss free throws, and then at the end the offensive foul. I’m like, come on, man. They just could not catch a break. They draw like a microcosm of this team season so far. Yeah, they draw up a you know, Jay Kid draws up a great play. They executed perfectly until Brandon and it was a full it was a full chicken wing. The argument would be did Shammit foul that happened before those but yeah whatever again those down to the wire losses in the long run might be the best thing for this franchise because you do the one thing you know Cooper Flag was sick last night but you want him in competitive situations. You don’t want games like, you know, they went to Minnesota on a back to back after playing overtime and double overtime the previous two games and just had no gas and got blown out. Nobody benefits from playing in blowouts. You want him with a chance to, you know, either succeed or fail. You want him with a chance to learn in close games down the stretch. And then if you look up at the end of the season and you’re, you know, 27 and whatever that number, 55, and you end up with the, you know, the fifth uh fifth slot in the lottery, sixth slot in the lottery, that, you know, ultimately that long view, that’s what you really want. Yeah. And then and then they, you know, they’ve got to try to be as good as possible next year because they no longer benefit from being bad. And you want to have Cooper Flag feeling like, hey, we’re growing something here. We’ve got a chance. You know, this is a a place where I can be part of a sustainable contender, but they they’ve got to get a lot of things right and it’s going to be um you know, it’s going to be this year’s pick is going to be crucial and then from there they’re going to kind of have to build from the middle. Um, so yeah, we’ll see. It’s fascinating, man. It’s just the the rise and fall like it just all happening so fast. It it’s it’s just amazing, man. I don’t know how like like right now, if I were you, I’d probably be in bed. It’s just too much. It’s just too much. It’s too high, too low. It’s been a lot. And and honestly, the the the thing is, you know, how our jobs work like we roam around. I haven’t been able to get out and do a whole lot outside of Dallas so far this season because it’s just been such chaos and you know so high profile like the Mavericks are one of the worst teams in the league but also one of the highest interest teams in the league so far this season. So that’s not a good place to be. And again, you know, Durk said it on Amazon Prime. They really should have just gone ahead and and moved on from Nico this summer. They didn’t. Now that they’ve done that, you know, it’s they’re they’re in limbo in the front office and I don’t know how long it’s going to last. This is very well could be like this through the trade deadline. So, you’ve kind of got this uh temporary advisory council, I would say, that might be making a massive decision for your franchise in terms of an AD trade. Yeah, I was just thinking about that like how many teams are actively calling the Mavs right now. Uh again, it’s it’s November. It’s not January. The trade deadline is not till early February. A healthy I will say this, a healthy AD, and I’ve talked to people around the league about this. A healthy AD might just be able to tilt the balance of power in the Eastern Conference. I’m in and it’s pretty wide open. You know, put him on a a a Detroit, put him on an Atlanta just to spitball a couple of teams here. You know, if that guy’s healthy, he might be the guy that kind of pushes a team over the top in terms of of being able to make a run through the East. He’s got to get healthy. He’s got to get in shape. Um but, you know, It’s AD will always be looked at in Dallas as that’s the face of what we got back for the worst trade ever. Right. He’s a top 75 alltime player. He’s still a hell of a player. Yeah. He just doesn’t he doesn’t fit in what they’ve got to prioritize in Dallas, which is building around an 18y old. Yeah. Well, but that’s what I meant when I was like, you just feel for the players like AD, you know, it’s not like he campaigned to get traded there. You didn’t ask for that. Yeah. It’s just what happened and he has to deal with the fallout and that’s terrible, man. Like I don’t know. Like I I we don’t I don’t know lend enough credence to, you know, just the disruptions and how they just affect a player’s overall well-being, his performance, everything, man. Yeah, and we haven’t had a chance to talk to AD since he was injured. Um, you know, there’s obviously a lot going on right now. Nico was fired. He’s he’s hurt. Dumont’s, you know, basically not letting him get back on the court. Uh, overruling AD’s personal medical staff. Now, there’s the the the trade uh talks and and by talks, I mean media report, my reporting, John’s reporting. um when we get a chance to talk to him, one thing I’m going to ask is like, hey, it’s been a rough rough go for you here in Dallas. Like, would you prefer to be moved at this point? And I don’t know. I don’t know what his answer will be. If if I’m in his Nikes, I would I would be like, you know what? Yeah, I I think he I think a fresh start would probably be best for everybody. I don’t know how he feels. So either but I mean that I would imagine that’s how he feels though because he’s like you said he’s like the he’s the face of you know you trading a generational talent and like it’s just and and you know to be clear I’ve never sensed any animosity from fans in his direction here in Dallas but there there’s he’s not embraced for the reasons you just said you know Um, hey, we keep doing this to the Rockets. All they do is win and we like squeeze. All they do, we are going to lead his show soon with discussion of the Houston Rockets. Uh, last night a really good win on the road in Cleveland. And I thought it, you know, the thing about the Rockets, they are the number one team in the league, but this is still an EODA team. And last night it was classic. They went with that big lineup. Yep. It was big on big bully ball. Our bigs are meaner and bigger and batter than your bigs and just killed them on the glass. You know, KD overall has been, you know, ridiculously efficient Hall of Famer KD. last night though, another game where, you know, he he had an off shooting night and they’re still able to pull out a win because the Rockets are such a dominant offensive rebound team that missed shots aren’t necessarily a bad thing for them. They just go they just bludgeoning you on the glass, man. It’s just it’s it’s amazing. And then and then Stephen Adams, I mean, like I was, you know, we’ve talked about this like, you know, can he play this many minutes? He’s averaging 21 minutes, almost 20 minutes. I know they’ll throw Capella out there. And by the way, Capella is killing it on the offensive glass. The only the only better boxing out I’ve seen in the NBA than Stephen Adams does on a regular basis was what Nico Harrison was doing to Mark Cuban for a while there when Cuban had no say. But but back to the Rockets. I mean seriously they are the addition of KD was that massive uh influx of skill that they desperately needed you know but dude just an upgrade over Jaylen Green and that’s not no knock on Jaylen I mean no he’s a Katie is a Hall of Famer in year 19 there’s not been drop off it’s insane and Alpie keeps getting better and better and more skilled and stronger confident the it’s a team that has become a great offense team and we’re 20% of the way in the season. They’re still leading the league in offense, but the DNA is still toughness. Yes. And but you know what I’m like like when I’m watching like Reed Shepard, he’s starting to walk around with that Houston Rocket swagger. Oh yeah. That’s what I’m you’re starting to see. And that’s all EA. That’s all EA, man. And and that jumper is pretty. It is, man. And like I said, it just hits the bottom of the net and it’s like quiet when it goes through. you. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, Amnen Thompson is one of my favorite players to watch and I just, you know, in talking I know you’ve talked to him. He did a great story on on the the Thompson Twins last year. His personality off the floor versus his personality on the floor are such polar opposites. He’s a very kid, he’s a very quiet, you know, polite kid, mildmannered, and then on the floor he like it’s like the the EA takes over. He’s a ruthless competitor. You know, he’s he’s out there awesome title hero around last year. You know, he’s he’s getting in the mix of stuff. But man, like when we talk about their offensive rebound, hey, don’t forget the fact that the point guard is a 6 foot7 dude who looks like a freaking pass rusher and can jump through the roof and will go in there and stick his nose in there. And I just they’re so different, but like him bringing the ball up either get them in their offense and then relocating to the dunker spot and just wreaking havoc as an offensive rebounder and as a finisher. It it’s almost 90s basketball almost like the way they play. It’s it’s just it the physicality, you know, because you know, obviously they play pretty pretty fast. But yeah, Amen is and he’s just getting better and better. Yeah. You know, like I I always thought that if he got a little better at finishing at the rim, well, he’s there now. He’s there now. And so, you know, like throughout this season, he’s just going to keep on improving little elements of his game and, you know, just he’s an elite athlete. He He’s maybe the most athletic guy in the league tied with his brother, but like he’s up there. He, you know, he’s a top 1% athlete in the league. No question about it. And that’s saying a lot. Yeah. It’s saying a lot when you talk about all the talent in the NBA. Like, but I agree with you. He is probably top 1% athletic. And you know, they’re still kind of getting to know KD, but again, KD’s empowered them. say, “Dude, this ain’t just about like getting the ball to me and getting out of the way. I’m going to let you know when I want the rock. I’m going to get my my points.” But but you know, hey, how many times has Alpie made big shots down the stretch, you know, or and and uh but like such a hub offensively though. It’s just like I I was telling you the other day, I’m like you’re watching them play and Alpie’s down on the block operating on the block and you see the guy that’s on KD. He’s tempted to go help. He wants to go help and I’m sitting there like don’t do it. Don’t do it. Takes a step over there. Alie throws it out to the wing. Bam. Three-pointer KD. And you’re just like try to tell you don’t do it. or or you know get the little lob to uh to aid or you know a men will get for in the corner like don’t turn your head cuz he will cut to the basket and and when he when there’s a little bit of space that uh chemistry between Shingun and Thompson is is big time. Yeah, it is. And I mean he’ll hit that three from the corner too. like, you know, he’s got to get better as a three-point shooter, but you can tell he’s a lot more confident in that corner than he used to be. So, yeah. And look, if he becomes league average as a three-point shooter, even just if he’s a 35% three-point shooter, if he gets to that point, trouble, trouble. Oh, we got to give Josh Kogi his props, too. Yes. that dude like um I think you know I was talking to Do a couple weeks ago uh Dorian Finny Smith and he was like that’s a wild child right there and he is man he defensively he is he’s so good on ball man and I did not expect that from him I didn’t see that from him in Phoenix I don’t well and and the thing about uh him is it does allow them to at times give a man a little bit of a break from chasing around the other team’s best player. That’s still his primary responsibility, but he doesn’t have to do it every single possession that he’s on the court. And then the question with the cooji is like, okay, is he going to offensively, you know, are they going to have to guard him on the perimeter? Is he is he going to junk everything up? Well, they’re the number one offense in the league and he’s been starting. And, you know, sometimes these minimum signings make a massive difference and that’s been the case. and and you know honestly like they knew D was going to miss some time to start the season. It’s it’s been a little bit longer than they anticipated. It hasn’t bit him because Akoji’s has has been able to play such a significant role. Yeah, I was surprised when they played the Spurs they put him on Vic and Well, because that’s the thing like the guys who have had the most success against Vic are the are the widebody guys who can get underneath him. Get under him, pester him. Yeah, for sure. That like they would put Dylan Brooks on them, you know, when he was still in Houston. So, yeah, it’s Houston is a fascinating team to watch. I enjoy watching them. And by the way, um sources tell me that you are not missed in Houston. Just Oh, well, I know who your sources are and I’d say as is the case with Cuban, just because they say it doesn’t make it so. All right, we’re gonna wrap it up. You know what, Mike? I’m I’m much more of like a uh you know like a banging big man than I am a point guard. So I do screw up on like the the hosting stuff in this show. No, you got it, baby. I know. But here’s the thing. I have yet to publicly acknowledge much less thank our producer Nate Craft who is doing amazing work on the show. So I apologize for that. He sets the tone. He says sets the tone in the morning. Yeah. But he he always comes on with these god awful ugly shirts. Kind of if we’re tired, it kind of wakes us up. But he’s he’s he’s making this thing go. He’s the man, you know, putting all the highlights together and all that kind of stuff. Doing a phenomenal job. So definitely thank you to Nate. Thank you to you, Michael Country, right? We will be back next week every Thursday. Got a lot going on in the state of Texas in the NBA. Some real good, some not so much, but it’s all pretty interesting. It’s always fun to watch, man. Always. H not fun to watch. Maybe fun to follow if if it’s Dallas for the time being. But we will back next Thursday. Thanks for watching. Adios, amigos.

Today on Howdy Partners, Tim MacMahon and Michael C. Wright hit on the San Antonio Spurs’ current injury issues, Mark Cuban being “back in the room” for the Dallas Mavericks and the Houston Rockets’ success to kick off the 2025-26 NBA season.

0:00 Howdy Partners
0:40 Spurs’ injury issues
5:30 San Antonio winning despite injuries
6:30 Mark Cuban’s involvement with the Mavs
13:30 AD & Kyrie’s future in Dallas
24:53 All the Rockets do is win
32:47 Adios amigos!

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