Why a Healthy Dallas Mavericks Team is Too Good to Tank with Anthony Davis & Cooper Flagg | POSTGAME

Why a Healthy Dallas Mavericks Team is Too Good to Tank with Anthony Davis & Cooper Flagg | POSTGAME

On today’s show, when decently healthy, the Dallas Mavericks are probably too good to tank and more from their win against the Rockets. Today’s locked on Maps. This is Cooper Flag and you’re listening to Locked on. I think that’s a good question. All these changes, you know, I still got my dog Dwight Pal Mavericks podcasted on podcast network. Your team every day. I want to get a city right back. And welcome. You locked on to the Dallas Mavericks where we let it ride your team every day. My name is Nick Angston, medium member coming for 10 years. Thanks for being here every day. Making locks, your first listen each and every day. Making lockdown podcast network, the number one sports podcast network. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. If you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit fanol.com and place your live bets in the NFL all season long. Joining me as always, the postgame prodigy from the great slightly biased YouTube channel. What did you see from the Dallas Mavericks tonight? Slightly biased. I saw good basketball um from this team again who are now on a four-ame win streak and are really playing well. Don’t look at the schedule. Four game win streak for the Dallas Mavericks. Yeah. Well, I mean, there’s like a new rule or something like that where if the other team has only lost one game, then it doesn’t really count for you. It’s like like four game win streak asterisk. Yeah, OKC games do not count. Yes, besides Thunder. You may be eligible for compensation if you had to play the Thunder recently cuz good lord. But today’s episode, we’ll talk about the Mavs win against the Rockets. We’ll talk about PJ Washington’s return. We’ll talk about uh Brandon Williams and Ryan Nemhard. We’ll talk about Cooper Flag making some strides in this game. But let’s start here. Anthony Davis, big bounceback for the Dallas Mavericks. 29 points in this one. Eight boards, two assists, had two steals, and a block. 14 of 19 from the field. Came out, I thought, really aggressive and really bounced back from that game against the the Thunder where we were just saying, “What is going on with this guy?” Only two points for him in that game. But now against Clink Capella, no Alfred Chingon, no Steven Adams. This is a game where you go, “All right, Anthony Davis, if you’re going to play in this one,” and we were saying yesterday, “All right, if he’s going to play, let’s see what he looks like.” He looked great in this in a game like this. And the Mavericks had a clear advantage when he was in there. He was a plus 11 in this game. And in the first half, he probably even had a higher one if I could look it up real quick. But when he checked out, it was like a clear and obvious, oh dang, like he is making a huge impact on this game. Yeah. I mean, we talked about a little bit last night. The Thunder make a lot of people look not very good and the specific coverage there coverage there thrown at AD made his life difficult. He didn’t play good last night. Like, let’s not sugar. But yeah, tonight I mean, look, he was awesome tonight. The team needed him. Second night back to back, he played he played 30 minutes, 14 of 19 from the field. Anytime the offense felt like it was stalling or anything like that, get the ball to AD in the high post and he would go and get a bucket. Defensively, I thought he was awesome as well tonight. Look, I mean, he’s he’s a guy who gets widely discussed by the Mavs and and widely criticized more than anything else for almost anything he does. And I just only think it’s fair if that’s how you’re going to operate. If you’re still going to be lingering around and still getting takes off about this team all the time, you know, it’s only right that you give the guy flowers when he plays good. And he’s been playing very good basketball since he’s come back uh the over the last week or so. And it’s a big reason why the Mavericks are winners of four of their last five games. You know, he has been a player in the past, especially with the Lakers. Lakers fans had a lot of frustrations with him because there would be up and down moments like this. There would be a game like there was against the Thunder and then there would be a game like this where you go, man, well, look at this guy. If they had this game, this guy every single game, then they’d be one of the best teams in the West, right? Like like that’s a thing that happens with Anthony Davis. And so we we’re seeing it again here. And I thought it was interesting what Ryan Nhard said after the game. We recorded before he said this, but he said after the game against the Thunder, “We spent too much time focused on trying to get AD the ball yesterday and not just like trying to get trying to get the offense going.” I thought it was a fascinating thing for a two-way rookie to say about Anthony Davis and how everybody’s very aware of trying to get AD the ball and trying to make things happen and it was just too much last night that it actually did them more harm than good. I love that quote from uh from Nimi because it just kind of shows he might have he I think he’s play he plays with a lot of confidence like you can just tell and if you’re a point guard with that type of play style you got to have this command of the team in a way even if you’re a rookie like you got to have the confidence of all the players in the locker room and you got to be you got to have sort of that Chris Paul and not get released from the team obviously but that Chris Paul sort of like Yeah. Call out the coach. You got Yeah. Just just like, “Yeah, this is how we need to play.” Talking about the coach’s girl. You know, if the ball’s going to be Yeah, that was wild. That was a weird video. Well, I mean, the Kim the Kim Kardashian ones. That was that was also a crazy time back in the day. But, uh, if you’re if you’re going to have the ball in your hands that much and the offense is going to kind of run through you. Yeah, I love that. I love that quote. But, yeah, it was it was obvious last night and part of it felt like in the fourth quarter they’re like, “All right, we can’t let AD go to zero points, so we got to feed him a lot.” Oh, absolutely. That’s what we were talking about yesterday. What a weird fourth quarter it was yesterday. But today, huge bounceback game. It was the second item back toback for the Mavs. Also second item back toback for the Rockets. The Mavs. I think this was their fifth or sixth back to back. This is the Rockets second back toback. So that’s kind of that just kind of weird to me that their schedule is going to get weird down the stretch. But the Mavs a really good game for them. They in that third quarter I thought was where they really pulled away. They had that 14 to0 run which was massive. They had four steals in that run and PJ Washington was part of that whole thing. He had he finished with five steals, 14 points, seven boards. He was plus 24. So the Mavs outscored the Rockets by 24 points when he was in. That’s the highest on the Mavericks for sure. And he just creates so many advantages when you have Anthony Davis playing well. when you have Cooper Flag playing well like he has recently and and PJ Washington back that’s just a line that makes you so much bigger so much more versatile so much more like so much more ball handling so much more advantages than when you don’t have PJ Washington like it’s just so it’s a very different line yeah and I mean there’s been some discussion as of late as to whether or not you know who who should be starting and coming off like who’s better playing alongside uh you know uh Coupe is it Nagi is it PJ regardless you know if PJ comes off the bench, whatever. He He is such an impactful player that impacts winning in such a a noticeable way out there. I didn’t even know he’s going to play tonight. Like I I don’t go on Twitters much anymore, so I don’t know the lineups, who’s idiot, who’s not playing until I watch. Subscribe to the to the lockdown maps text line where I’ll tell you every single time who’s going to play before before the game. Yeah, I should have. And I and that’s on me, guys. Well, I actually No, let me I am subscribed. They I must not have had service. There you go. Just like I watch all of your playbacks. There you go. There you go. I was in there. I just was my chat wasn’t working. That chat chat was just broken for me. You must have turned it off. But no, I thought that that was a that was a massive advantage for him. PJ was was questionable and then he was probable and then he was available to play. Gaffford turned turned doubtful before the game. But good to have PJ back and it just creates an advantage when you have those three guys together. I look at this team now though and when they’re healthy, they got PJ back. Anthony Davis is playing. Cooper flag is playing. Well, they’re healthy. Like, they’ve now beaten the Rockets. They’ve beaten the Nuggets. They’ve beaten the the Heat in this last stretch. They look terrible against the Thunder, right? But everybody has. I I think they might be too good to tank if they’re if they’re healthy like this. Yeah, they’re not t like the whole tanking thing, and I’ve been saying this would have to require some shutdowns, some trades. Like, they’re too good to tank. And I don’t think they want to tank. And honestly, I’m okay. Like I I I see the arguments. Obviously, I understand the whole like, yeah, for the long-term future of this team, it probably makes sense to try and get a high lottery guy, but I mean, when when you’re winning games and Coup’s playing really well and Ryan Nimhard’s stepped in and and been playing really well and AD’s coming back from injury and has been playing the five and looks like one of the best players in basketball, kind of like we all thought. I don’t know. I I don’t know how you could not watch them the way I like truthfully if you’re watching the games it’s it’s fun to watch it’s fun to watch Coupe go out there and get these high-flying dunks late in games. It’s fun to watch Ryan Nimhard operating in the pick and roll and dance all over KD. That was crazy. Ryan Nimhard went to work like that shot he that shot he missed. Yeah, I thought there was Oh, I’m thinking of Bwell. I’m thinking my bad. I’m thinking of Bwell because Bwell was hooping. B was too. Nemo had that one where he just like stood right in front of Kevin Durant and I was like oh my gosh oh my gosh the the cross the other cross the back and then he he did the the pull up fadeway and I was like there’s no way that shot is going in cuz he had to arc it high up and it I mean almost went in but that’s I mean that’s just confidence right there cuz Kevin Rand is just so long and so tall. Yeah I mean okay so what what why did KD not play at all in the fourth quarter of this game? He didn’t play at all in the fourth quarter. second out of a back to back. He ended up playing 31 minutes and he he had a pretty big load in the in that in that, you know, in the game. Played all 12 minutes in the third quarter. Maybe it was just an EMA thing like, hey, Kevin Durant’s 30 like 37. He’s older than Klay Thompson. I mean, there so there’s you have to take precautions with him and it was a 20point game. So maybe he was like, well, this isn’t this isn’t going our way. Let’s just sit this guy and see if these young guys can can get it going. But it’s kind of a kind of a schedule loss without without Shingun. They didn’t want they don’t want to play Stephen Adams in backto-backs either. So it’s kind of strange but yeah no Shane and no Stephen Adams it should be mentioned but still I think an impressive win on the they were seven point underdogs or whatever it was. It was eight and a half and then it moved to six and a half after all the injury stuff came out which I thought was was interesting and then the Mavs ended up winning so they covered that for sure. Crazy disrespectful. The Mavs lines may be different going forward because they’re looking really good recently. Had some good wins. I think they’re they may be too good to tank if they’re going to stay healthy like this. But that’s the question. Are they going to stay healthy and what’s the team going to look like? Coming up, let’s talk about Cooper Flags impact on the game. I thought he had a good game and a different game from the first half to the second half. Braden Williams deserves some credit. A lot of credit going and the starting lineup difference. Max Christie not in the starting lineup. Talk about that more coming up today’s episode of Lock Time ABS. Speaking of, brought to you by FanDuel. NFL Sundays move fast. One big play and suddenly everything feels different. That’s what makes live betting with FanDuel so exciting. You’re not just watching the game, you’re reacting to it live in real time. There’s all kinds of live stuff you can do during games and there’s all kinds of stuff you can do throughout the uh throughout the season as well. Conference odds for the for for the West. Thunder minus 125. Doesn’t feel like that’s those are low enough odds. That 125 is still decent that you could actually get some money off that. Nuggets plus 460. Rockets plus 650. Lakers plus a,000. That one seems low. Lakers usually get uh weird odds. Warriors plus 1500. Timberwolves plus 1,800. Spurs plus 2200. Clippers plus 4,000. Mavericks plus 15,000 to win the West. And so if you feel confident about on any kind of thing like that or if you just want to bet live, go and head out to FanDuel.com and place your live NFL bets all season long. FanDuel the game moves fast and so can you. Also brought to you by Door Dash. This season’s heating up. And with Door Dash the has a way to keep fans in their bag the whole way through. Whether you’re watching the highlights, the tunnel fits, or just watching your favorite player, especially if it’s Dwight Powell. Door Dash makes the entire season more fun because every player has their bag with Door Dash. Fans have one, too. Door Dash keeps your snacks stocked, your gear fresh, and your watch party vibes absolutely on point. I hope you had a watch party for this game and not the thunder game. That would have been a very terrible watch party. If the group chat says, “Pull up, Door Dash. Make sure that you show up prepared. Snacks, cups, even a phone charger for the friend who’s always at 2%. I forgot my laptop charger today. I could have Door Dashed one.” Maybe from the Apple store. I don’t know. From tip off to overtime, stay in your bag and order on Door Dash. Get snacks, drinks, gear, whatever gets you through the season delivered right to your door. Door Dash in your bag all season long. Shut it down. Let’s go home. Thanks for hanging out on the Unlock apps, being part of the show, part of what we call the raccoon squad. Our listeners listening every single day. Appreciate each and every one of you for checking out the show and listening. We have a text line that I mentioned earlier. You get all kinds of news, rumors. Every single rumor that I ever see or hear, I’ll send to you in a text. I’ll send you my thoughts about it. And uh maybe if Mark Snyder drops another piece about Dirk Nitzky, we’ll talk about that too because we saw we had a Dirk sighting here at the arena. I got a text from from somebody on our text line. Shout out to Angie who I met tonight. And uh she had she’s like, “Dirk, here Durk is here.” And it was like it was she took the photo and he was walking by and so it was in it was a little bit blurry because he was walking it in motion and it kind of looked like he was Bigfoot like she had spotted Bigfoot from like a distance away. And so it was cool to see Dirk and then they had him in a suite and he was there with his son and his son held up his jersey. And did you think it was a Luca Donic jersey? I didn’t see this. Everybody thought it was a Luca Dodge jersey because you could only see the tops of the numbers, but it was indeed a Cooper flag jersey. I I went back and watched it like a Bruter film over and over again and he was wearing a flag jersey. How hilarious would it be if Dirk’s son was wearing a Luca jersey? Uh kind of funny, I guess. I think it would have been hilarious. But yeah, it was good to see Dirk there. And the crowd just loved, they ate up seeing Dirk there. They obviously do all the time. But recently, there’s been some questions about, all right, is Dirk still around? He’s doing his Amazon thing, but he hasn’t been around the franchise a lot. Now Nico’s gone. Is he going to come back? And now Dirk’s here, and our friend Mark Stein was in was in the suite with him, so I’m sure we’re going to hear something about it. Yeah, I’m I’m interested to see what I mean. It could just be that he’s in town and visiting or whatever, but in the midst of a GM search, I’m a little interested. I would like to speculate wildly. I think he may be back for some kind of some kind of thing. Like, wouldn’t they want Durk to have some kind of say in what’s happening? Yes, I I I agree. Yeah, but this could also be just step one of the process where it’s like I said if if I were a consultant for the team, which I should be. I still stand on that. I agree with that. Literally, one of the first things I would say is you need to make right with them. Give them your number. Give them your number. Right on the right on the All right, I’ll just I’ll just say it right now. All right, guys. My number 214 972 972 555. Don’t call that number, please. Hire slightly biased as a consultant. But no, it was great. It was great. Great to see Durk. Mads fans ate it up. They also ate up this win. Mas fans were very excited about this win. Wait, wait, wait. We We just We didn’t We didn’t finish our our train of thought there. That was very me ADHD braid. Like I do think that Durk could be here for a potential GM thing. Not that he would be getting it, but that they could be maybe progressing. Yes, we’re ve we’re speculating very wildly right now. And I don’t even have I don’t even have any inside info on on if they are or not. But this is that’s the next big decision the Mavs need to make and to see Derk around the team is like, “All right, well, let’s I mean, let’s see. Does he have any ties like Dennis Lindsay? Does he have any ties here to Dennis Lindsay?” I mean, yeah. I mean, I’m sure Dennis Lindsay was here for like a like a season, not even like a full season early. So, I bet but Dirk was kind of around the team when it was there when he was there, but also Nico was still here, so that was true. What? That was what it was. We don’t have to hash and rehash that again. Did you finish your thought? Yes, that was it. Well, I didn’t think we got there when we were just saying, “Yeah, we think Durk’s there for” and then we just kind of tailed off. I think classic. It’s classic us. Cooper Flag 19 points, five boards, three assists, two blocks, two steals, hit a three. Big, that’s big. Cooper flag. He was plus nine in the game, seven of 15 from the field. And in the first half, he got blocked three times. Once by Aaron Holidayiday, twice by Clint Capella, who just had his timing down. And I thought Cooper Flag adjusted from first half to second half. And he shot in the second half three of three of four. And I thought he made that adjustment. And man, it was just a really good game against a really good defense, like the number two defense in the NBA. In any other season, the Rockets would be the number one defense in the in the NBA right now, but because the Thunder are who they are, they’re not even close. But I thought it was a really good game from Cooper Flag. Yeah. And I mean, getting to the rim and one thing that I’ve just found impressive all year long and really the last couple games because it’s two nights in a row playing really good defenses like you said and no Shane Goon in this one, no Stephen Adams. Shane Goon’s a better defensive player than probably you would think and maybe some previous reputation things have have maybe led you to believe. Uh but they still have I mean Thompson and Josh Kogi plays for them like these guys who can really pressure the ball and make life really difficult for ball handlers and again last night playing Wallace and no Dord or Cruso in that game but still guys who can get on you and pressure the ball like feels like he just feels so comfortable against this stuff you know it’s not I I feel like we could easily be seeing and knock on wood they don’t come but I feel like we could easily be seeing six turnover games, five turnover games and we’ve seen a few here and there but they’re just pretty infrequent. I think some of that’s cuz he comes off the ball pretty easily in situations where I’d rather see him be a little bit aggressive. But yeah, I mean, he was really good tonight. It was It wasn’t like a dominant game. He didn’t He wasn’t super involved, which could be frustrating at times, but I just thought he made all the right plays. It was good defensively, even though Jabari Smith Jr. got some buckets on him, but he just had a good game in general. Jabari Smith Jr. did and you know, there’s some rebounding stuff. I don’t think the Mavs rebounded well at all tonight. And that’s kind of a team effort thing. And I know this Rockets team bludgeons you offensive rebounds, but that’s without their two best offensive rebounders. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Imagine if imagine if Capella or imagine if Adams and Shangon played. Yeah. I mean, the thing is is even even without those guys, they got so many long athletes and they just crash the boards relentlessly. So, it’s a team effort to rebound and I thought the Mavs could have done better and I think Coupe falls in there. But other than that, yeah, I mean, just rock solid game, but give the Mavs credit. So, 16 offensive rebounds for the Rockets. They only scored 17 second chance points. I mean, it’s not like they were really converting those. The Mavs defense was was standing them up. And the Mavs, the big thing for them was the points off turnovers. They had 34 points off turnovers compared to 14 for the Rockets. And uh the 20 turnovers that the Rockets had, they turned into a bunch of points. That that was a big difference in this game is that the one advantage the Rockets were getting, the offensive rebounds, they weren’t converting. The Mavs were converting their transition buckets because that was a really big thing for them. Yeah, their their defense was awesome tonight. It was flying around, getting in passing lanes, poking the ball loose. It was a very impressive defensive show. Are the Rockets still the number one offense in the league, by the way? They’re three right now, but they they’ve been number one for a while. Yeah. And again, this is without Shenun tonight, so you do have to sort of preface it all, but this is a game where they missed Fredman Bleet. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. 100%. Well, this game does kind of showcase too like Shangon really is KD’s really good and we know that, but this KD forever has never really been a here. I I’ll just be the like cog of the offense tonight and and everything will go through me. That’s just never really been who he’s been a lot saying Ben a lot. Any Benz in the NBA? Uh Ben Shepard. Oh yeah, Ben Shepard. There you go. That was a random Ben that I thought of. Ben McLemore. Didn’t something Ben Ben McLemore is a I don’t think I don’t think we should go there though. Ben Simmons. I think so. There you go. Um, God, what was I saying? This is like this little classic. Oh, no. But Kevin Durant being a cog. Yeah, it just goes to show how important Shenun is for them. And you could definitely make arguments and he probably is their best player right now just because he’s so important to everything that they do. Yeah, he creates he creates advantages for them. Obviously the offensive rebounding obviously the scoring in the post. He’s been scoring from drives too which has been huge for them. Like you have your center that can drive all of a sudden that just changes the geometry of your game. But Kevin Durant 27 points. He was hitting he was hitting buckets and hitting jumpers but but that was it. I mean that that’s that was their offense. Jabari Smith hitting buckets. Aaron Holidayiday had a had a really good game. He’s been pretty good for them. And then Reed Reed Shepard who has been kind of this bench scorer that the Rockets have needed this season. He had five fouls and that was that was I think a little limiting for him. Yeah, they were they were going at him quite a bit. That was like Williams saw him and it was just go time. Let’s get in the paint. Yeah, and that’s not a size advantage. That’s a speed advantage, which I think is a different a different thing that the Rockets may need to be worried about if they’re going to play him big minutes. Yeah, he’s he’s been Rayon Williams tonight was very good for the Mavs. 20 points. He was a plus 18, five assists, eight of 12. the jump shot was going. He hit a three and had a couple other jump shots, but just going to the rim. I mean, he he had some crafty finishes, too, where you just go, man, like this guy when he’s on and it and it’s going, I mean, he’s just a for sure like great backup point guard that any team could use. Yeah. when it’s two feet in the paint and he can do that consistently and he’s not, you know, kind of picking up his dribble in in bad spots on the floor or trying to pass out of these drives. Paint touches are just so valuable. I mean, they are so valuable. It’s like the most important thing you can do as a as a perimeter player is get to the paint and cloud the defense. That was the second half of the Nehard quote I said earlier where you talked about it’s we spent too much time trying to get trying to force AD the ball. We could have done better things, he said, like touch the paint. Exactly. It’s exactly what what they needed to do and they I thought they did that in this game. Yeah, for sure. I mean, this was a really good game. I mean, they played I know the second half of back to back for the Rockets, but the Maps on the second half of back toback, too. And they were without one of their best players recently, Klay Thompson, who you know, if I’m a contender, I’m giving at least two first round picks for. And they um there you go. That Dallas Mavericks consultant slightly biased. I mean, they’ve been they’ve played good this last week or so. like legit good. They have been. They really have been. Yeah. I mean, like they’ve beat the Nuggets in Denver, the Heat, the the Rockets. Like this was a week where you looked at the schedule after their some of their losses, you’re like, “Oh, man.” But this this was the team that I expected to see at the beginning of the season and then they just dug themselves such a hole that I was like, “All right, well, maybe this is what the team is.” But now, if this stretch is is what the Mavericks are actually going to be, then maybe you just adjust everything. Like, all right, we’re back to who we thought they were at the beginning. It just took them a month and a half to get there. Well, let’s see. You’re You got the Jazz and the Nets coming up next two. Nice. Jazz are a little bit better than you than you think. That’s not like a guaranteed win, but still. The Jazz are in their December, November Jazz phase where all their fans are like, are we gonna tank games? Like, what is happening here? They have lost three out of their last what uh six or they’ve only won they’re only three and six in their last nine is what I meant to say. Yeah, they are the the Jazz always do this every year and then by March they’re playing guys that you didn’t are from countries that you didn’t even know existed. But uh what’s a country you didn’t know they existed? I’m pretty well verssed. Finland you knew. If I say if you didn’t know Finland existed, you didn’t watch Spongebob growing up. Go to bed. You got school in the morning. Pay attention to geography. But no, uh I mean you win those two games and you’re 11 and 16. Like that’s still bad. But Nets are Nets are are three and one in their last four games. Yeah, the the Nets are kind of similar to the they’re like the the Eastern Conference Jazz where early season sometimes it’s like, okay, were we going to be taking or are we a little too good for that? But Nets three wins though. Charlotte, Chicago, New Orleans. Dude, Chicago, man. Oh, they you know what they need is they need a big that can score and defend and wears goggles and just be Yeah. Well, after watching them this past few weeks, I don’t want a single soul on their team. After that really fun start where they were six and one. Yeah, they’re back to who we thought they were. They’re nine and 13. Yeah, they’re back to who we thought they were. Three and 12 in their last whatever 15 games. Wild. Brooklyn, Utah, then then Detroit, that one is a tough one. Philadelphia, another tough one. And then New Orleans. So, three out of the next five are are the Mavs will probably be favored in those games. Every single one of those games is winnable. Detroit and Philly, too. Philly Philly has been Phillyy’s been up and down. Philly’s up and down. I think you could beat Detroit. Yeah, they they’ve been a little down lately. I mean, even then, they’re not like a powerhouse. They’re they’re one of the better teams in the East, but it felt like they were a powerhouse at the beginning of the season where you’re just like, “Oh my gosh, they’re good.” I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to poo poo them, but now you look back at this stretch where we go, “Oh my gosh, what a murderer row.” This this Lakers Clippers second back toback at Nuggets, Miami, Oklahoma City, Houston. The Mavs went the Mavs went four and three in those games. That is not what I expected from this team. And that is now now has me adjusting what I think about this team. Even that my the LA game I thought they looked pretty good. Like they looked kind of competitive in that game even though that was by 10. That was just a Luca and Reeves at the end. We’re just like, “All right, we’re just going to pull we’re just going to pull ahead.” But the Mavs were competitive and and the played the Thunder in the first half at least pretty good. Yeah, I was I don’t know if you take any solace from that at all, but I was about to say the only game that they weren’t recently that they haven’t really been competitive in was that one Minnesota game where the second back toback and then I forgot. Oh, yeah. that uh that Thunder game did happen last night. The Thunder game, the Minnesota game, and the Memphis game are like the only ones where they just got smoked and you just go, there’s just no redeemable qualities to this game. Their first Memphis game cuz Yeah, the first one. Yeah. Yeah. The first one where you and Isaac came on and said, “Fire Nico while I was gone one day.” Yeah. They they haven’t looked I mean, they haven’t looked bad for a while now. They’ve looked like a good competent team that was clearly injured. and you’re you’re starting to see the pieces kind of fall into place. And how Okay, so we have a week off. When do you think we get our next Kyrie update about anything? I think he’s coming back in January from from just like the little hints that people have just w like just been like he’s coming back. Are we sure? Are we sure Christmas is off the table? That’s the three weeks. No, I mean that Janu 5 days away from January is is Christmas, you know, six days or whatever. So, that’s possible because what Christmas or Christmas is in what? I should know this. I don’t have like an advent calendar or anything. I should know when Christmas is. Yeah, you need to get an advent calendar, too. Basically, Christmas is like 3 weeks away. Yeah. 19 days. I’m feeling jolly, so I’m counting down the days. Would that be wild? Christmas Day, Mavs at Warriors, Kyrie returns. I sort of feel like we Thompson back in the Bay. But I I honestly, so I’ve been sort of up and down like, yeah, whatever. If you if you’re a team tank, I understand it. I do really want to see what this team looks like with Kyrie. I really really do. just like as a basketball watcher. Hey, and also you and I and everybody that covers the Mavs that have had to watch this team and watch like everything. Can we just at least see what this team looks like? We talked about it all off season. Well, I thought Kyrie’s going to do wonders for Coupe. Like I think it’s going to be incredible those two together. Well, that when he’s on the when Kyrie’s on the ball or when when Coop’s on the ball, Kyrie’s just a great offball player, too, that the Mavs could really use because one of the things that that’s hard about a team that doesn’t have as many like doesn’t have a lot of ball handlers like the Mavs, is then all of a sudden your offball players, we don’t really know how to play off this guy, but Kyrie can play off of anybody. And so that just immediately boosts any single onball player. When Kyrie plays, he boosts all of those guys. Yeah, he’s one of the best offball players in the history of the game. They have what? Five games. One, two, three, four, five, six. Six games between now and then. They could be like 15 and 16 if they win all of them. That’d be nice. That’d be wild. But they could be getting close to 500 by Christmas. Kyrie comes back, they go on a little run. This team would have had to have had like a I don’t know a Pelican style, oh my god, we only have three wins type of run here to be like really thinking about tanking at this point. Well, that’s what I’m saying. This this stretch changed it. This three this this three out of four has been massive. And I think they’ve been fun to watch, too. Like that was kind of one of my things earlier where even in some of their wins like this is hor this is not a good team. They’re boring. like Coupe figuring it out, Nimhard being in the starting five, Dave AD looking as good as he does. Like this has been an enjoyable team. So, you know, I get it for the sake of the future of the franchise, but I don’t know. The future of the franchise is out there right now getting 19 points against one of the best defenses in the league. Yeah, it’s one of those like you know what’s best for the team longterm going forward, but this is also good, too. Like, go for it. This is what you are. trying to be competitive is good for Cooper as well versus, you know, Musa Cis, God bless him, but like Musa Cisi and, you know, Ryan Kelly getting in there and getting Miles Kelly getting in there and getting run. Miles Kelly. I love Miles Kelly. I wish he would get run. But in three years from now, we’ll be going, man, I wish they would have tanked that year and got a better draft pick. It would have been cool to have somebody. But but they’re, like I said at the beginning of the show, they’re too good to tank right now. You just I don’t think that you can play these guys and expect them to lose enough games to actually be competitive in the tank AON. That’s really it. I don’t know how you can watch like what the Pacers send out or the Wizards and it’s like, “Yeah, we can get there.” I It’s like I don’t Some of those teams might not win nine games. Like honest to God, the Wizards might not win nine games. The Wizards are so The Wizards had a players only meeting. Really? Yes. What gets said at that players only meeting? our our lockdown wizards guy messages all the lockdown hosts and goes hey can anybody that’s covered a team like what is a players only meeting like like walk me through just like because they’ve never had one because they’ve never been good enough to warrant one but now they’re so bad they actually had a players only meeting because they have Chris Middleton and CJ McCollum they actually have vets that will call one interesting I feel bad for them honestly I the lockdown wizards guys or the the players on the wizard ones Everybody involved. Everybody involved. I feel for. Shout out to Ben and Abdullah doing a great job on lockdown wizards, by the way. Well, and it’s also this is one of the worst places to be at as a team where when you win a game, DC. Well, no. DC’s a little over hated. I I will say uh but one of the worst places to be as a team is whenever you beat a team and then immediately that team is in like a complete and total crisis panic mode. Like they they beat the Bucks a few nights ago and it’s like Giannis has deleted all Bucks stuff off his social media and he wants to trade. Like that’s literally you’re it’s like the Grim Reaper meme, but but it’s just like for crisises for each team. And guess And guess who one of their three wins was. Hey, we had a crisis we had a crisis moment in the very beginning of the season. And it was crisis time. It was that was that was uh game number two. Oh, we had a crisis moment for them. And they didn’t win another game for uh over a month, I think. Looking at their schedule and we were on here like this this team. How many in a row is that? They won They won against the Mavericks and then they lost 14 straight games. 14 straight games. Yep. Yep. Oh, the And then they beat they beat Atlanta. Crisis moment. Beat the Bucks. Crisis moment. Atlanta was like in a good play like Milwaukee that was hilarious where it was like Yeah. Yiannis they was going to be like I’m done. I’ve seen all I’ve needed to see. Call Call Winhorse. Call Call Shams. Call all of them. Yeah. Let’s get this thing in motion. Oh man. Uh speaking of the Hawks, Jaylen Johnson, his numbers have been insane. If you’re a slightly biased truther, you know, all summer long I said that’s who that’s who I think Cooper Flag is like that’s one of his best comps. That is a good one. That’s a good one. That guy’s good. He’s springy and his assist numbers are just have just been insane. And like Flag, he’s also so nonchalant when he plays, too. You’re just like, “This guy already has a a triple double.” I was watching the Nuggets game with with them the other day, and I was like, “Oh my gosh, he has a triple double at halftime, and it doesn’t look like he’s breaking a sweat.” Yep. He’s very good. He’s their best player. And uh over Trey or that’s playing right now. No, he’s better than Trey. I don’t think that’s that crazy. say it’s not it’s not now. Well, that’s also just a testament to like I think he’s been a top 15 or so player in the league and I don’t like Trey’s not that. He’s like I think he’s like 25th in points, top 15 in rebounds, and top 15 in assists. You’re just like no, that’s got to be one of the top 30 players in the NBA. So, if we’re going to follow that sort of road map for Coupe, the one thing I hope cuz Jaylen Johnson because of his athleticism and size and stuff had always been like an okay defender, like pretty good defender. I think Coupe profiles as a much better defender than he is. But with this like added, and we see this all the time, it’s so incredibly rare, which is why when you do have these big high usage guys that are still great defenders, it is very rare fight air. I just hope that as time progresses and C gets better offensively and inevitably he gets more of a burden offensively, that the defense still kind of is there cuz we see like Jayen Johnson is horrible defensively now. Like he’s down. You also see like a Jason Tatum who’s also one of Coup’s comps that was like a really good defender at first and now you’re like, “Okay, he’s good.” Like he’s solid team defender, but he’s not one of the best defenders on the team. Yeah. Like it it’s I’m just trying to think off the top of my head like Kawaii is this rare. I mean Jaylen Williams for the Thunder, but that’s not that’s much not as much of an offensive load as you hope. And I’m thinking like Coupe is your number one guy. But you’d have to go to like LeBron, Kobe Bryant. Like you’d have to go to some of those. Kevin Kevin Garnett has guys that had that big of a load that were still that good defensively and those I mean those are man those are maniacs. KG could be somewhat similar and I’m not comparing their games really but just in the sense like KG wasn’t necessarily initiating all of your offense. He’s more of like a play finisher and stuff that could create for himself. That that probably is Coupe ceiling offensively. Yeah, cuz like a reliable number one guy. He’s one of the best players in the history of the game. Yeah. And and most importantly, he’s not better than Dirk. Oh, I mean, yeah, KG I agree 100%. KG is not Well, Coop is not I was old enough to watch those playoff battles. I saw it with my own two eyes what happened. You can’t you can’t hide the truth. I was old enough to see all the Lakers photoshops for Kevin Kevin Garnett. That was the first time I ever saw like a a jersey swap was was on the Lakers Kevin Garnett photo swap like shops. If you’re honestly if you’re a player, here’s a good lipus test. If you don’t have a Photoshop view of a Lakers jersey, you’re terrible. But then there was a season where it was just like everybody got one. LiAngelo Ball had one. There’s that year. I mean, what they had some funky teams towards the end of the Kobe era like in between LeBron. I watched a lot of those too cuz if you if you don’t know, I grew up a Lakers fan. I was born in LA and so I watch Really? No one ever brings that up. I watch every time the Mavs with the Lakers. Who do you want to win? Do you win either way? It’s a kind of Well, my favorite ones last night were people who said, “Is this lock on thunder?” It’s like, “Well, no, but we just played them, so we talked about the That is hilarious to me.” Oh, I love when people are like, “Locked on Cooper Flag.” kind of. Yeah. Yeah, a little bit. It’s fine with me. Is that an insult? It’s not an insult to me. Locked on talking about the number one pick. Sick. What were you going to say before I cut you off about the the Lakers? Oh, just some of those Lakers teams were wild with like Jeremy Lynn, Swaggy P. Yeah. Jordan Hill. Yeah, Jordan Hill. Ronnie Ronny Turaf. Sakre. Oh, Robert Sakre. Robert Sakray is some of the funniest where if you you like go back and watch you’re like how and God bless this guy, but how on earth was he in the NBA? Just literally the greatest like Theo Pinson aside, potentially the best bench guy I’ve ever seen in my life. Robert Sakre. Oh, there you go. That’s how just like like he was the Dwight Pal of their team. You want to know who the funniest Dwight Pal in the league is? Because Dwight Pal is like you watch Dwight Pal will go out there from time to time. It’s like this guy is like a legitimately like the fourth the best fourth string center in game. Like just because of his Gortat screens though. Yes. Like like he legitimately is very good. Anthony Gil to me is the funniest. Just like how is this guy? He’s always on. Is he still on the Wizards? I thought he was but I just pulled up their tea and I don’t think he is anymore. Actually, there’s a girl doing like a photo shoot. He’s on there. He’s on the Wizards. There’s a there’s a girl doing a photo shoot like 20 yards to my right. What’s crazy is Anthony Gill is not even he’s in year six of his career. So I guess he is kind of a vet for game in his career. Anthony Gil. Yeah. Some of these guys are just such good vets that like teams just like keep them around. But he just came into the league. It was like I’m a vet. And it’s like well no you got to be like a you got to like play a lot. He’s like, “No, I’m just going to be a vet guy immediately.” Since Robert Zakray is from Gonzaga, I was thinking about Nemhar today. Who’s the last Gonzaga player to ever play for the for the Mavericks. I’m terrible with colleges. I can’t even think of one. Terrible with colleges. Couldn’t tell you. Turf also went to Gonzaga. You’re good with colleges with these players? I’m so bad at it. Well, I’m looking at basketball reference right now. All right, that that’s it. We’re done talking about Ronnie Terry, guys. Thanks so much for hanging out with us. Lock the map. Check out Slightly Bias. It’s random stuff like this all throughout his stream all the time. You got to love it. And we’ll be here with another G show tomorrow. And guys, thanks for listening to Locked on Mass. Peace out. Boom. Speaking of colleges, wreck them, baby. Let’s go.

The Dallas Mavericks beat the Houston Rockets and continue their good stretch of play behind Anthony Davis’ return, Cooper Flagg’s rise, Ryan Nembhard’s emergence, and more.

Nick Angstadt & Slightly Biased break down the Mavs win, AD’s bounce back, Flagg’s progression, Kidd’s changes, PJ Washington’s return and more from the Mavs win.

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