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All right, let us now speak of the Dallas Mavericks with one

Tim Kato of the Athletic. Tim, we were talking briefly here just before the show. You're not

used to having this long of an off season and certainly not with the Mavericks

envisioned either at the start of a season that had previously seen them in the West Finals.

Yeah, after COVID, after the shortened seasons and the ones that were delayed,

and then a very unexpected run to the conference finals, this summer has been a bit longer.

I'll take it. The Mavericks did me a favor. Let me get some good time off,

but yeah, that last season, completely missing the playoffs. I'll say this,

I think both of us were very wrong in our in our pot around this time last year

about how that possibly could have gone. But I don't really blame us because there's almost no way.

There's just absolutely no way that a season that that could have been predicted.

But yeah, it was it was not good. So we probably don't need to rehash what took place

over the first two-thirds or so of the season before the trade deadline, but suffice it to say

it went badly enough that they had to make the deal for Kyrie Irving sending out

Dorian Finney Smith, who had been such a stalwart. Reggie Balakit is no longer here either.

They've really remade this team to quite a degree. And before we start talking about that,

though, I do want to hit on the what took place when Kyrie and Luca played together. That probably

has the greatest applicability to what's going to happen this season. So when those guys are

actually on the floor together, they're injuries for Luca and then obviously they famously

shut it down to the tune of $750,000 fine at the end and well worth it to keep the pick.

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