Whether or not you're willing to admit it, marketing can have a massive effect on your daily life. How many times do you find yourself whistling along to a commercial jingle and then using that company because of their great campaign? (Seriously, if you're also guilty of this please tell me because sometimes I feel insane for knowing the words to the Empire Today song...) Also I realize there's a difference between marketing and advertising. I just couldn't actually tell you what it is.

Aaaanyhoo, SBNation's resident snark expert Jon Bois has been doing a series on the worst slogans in sports. Today, he addressed the NBA's sublime marketing skills. And by sublime I mean a little bit on the sad side. Do any of us actually really latch on to those seasonal catch-phrases? For example... can you name this year's slogan for the Mavs?

Go ahead, think about it for a minute. I'll post the answer after the jump.

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Editor's Note: Front-paged for impressive, in-depth analysis!

There was some good discussion and feedback after my post on the center market, so I thought I'd move on and look at the free agency picture for the Mavs when it comes to point guards.

There are many options for the Mavs here, with Jason Kidd and Delonte West entering unrestricted free agency this summer (and potentially not returning), so there will inevitably be some interesting moves here, unlike at center, where the Mavs could conceivably return the same rotation (if they keep Haywood and Mahinmi).

There are 5 starting point guard options that I see (I will address backups briefly at the end).

Starters

1. Deron Williams. The big kahuna. Obviously, Williams is the lone superstar and gem of the 2012 free agent class, and for good reason. People forget, but it was only a couple years ago that D-Will was considered the best point guard in the game, even ahead of Chris Paul (mainly due to Paul's injury concerns at the time). In fact, you could argue that even as soon as last April, Williams had a decent grip on that title, but Paul's impressive play against the Lakers in the first round catapulted him into the top slot in people's minds.

In any case, Williams is an elite all-around point guard. He is an exceptional ball-handler, with a tight handle and solid control of the ball at all times. He's not as quick as Ty Lawson and Tony Parker, but much like Chris Paul, he has a devastating crossover (YouTube has plenty of clips) and has the ability to get in the lane for lay-ups and floaters. The long-range shot is there, and he can often times be very streaky, as evidenced by his 57-point outburst this year, and similar scoring feats in the past. He's also just a really big, strong body at point guard, in the mold of a young Jason Kidd.

More after the jump...

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As I watched the Spurs sail through their second-round opener, making it five relatively comfortable playoff wins in a row in a tough-as-ever Western Conference, two thoughts competed in the red angry mass that is my basketball field of vision.

The first was: They’re even older than us.

That's not 100% true, of course. Sure, Tim Duncan is 36, and injuries have diminished him considerably. Manu is 34. But the real MVP of the Spurs this year has been Tony Parker who, while a Spur forever, is just 29. And, of course, key to their success is the fact that they’ve added guys like the 27 year old Gary Neal, the 23 year old DeJuan Blair, the 24 year old Danny Green and the 20 year old Kawhi Leonard.

Still, what if we’ve been worrying about age three thousand times more than we need to---does anyone think Duncan and Manu, two players older than anybody the Mavs have outside of Kidd and Vince, are done? Duncan’s diminished, sure, but that’s more because of injury than age---and his 26-10-2-2-2 last night wasn’t too shabby. Does anyone think it's time for the Spurs to turn the keys over? Do the Jazz think that?

Is this the team that was done last year, despite winning the most games in the NBA? Could have fooled me.

The second was: When was the last time the Spurs made a big free agent splash?

The answer is, they haven’t. Parker, Duncan, and Manu are all Spurs draft picks. As are Blair and Leonard, and Neal was signed as an undrafted free agent. Does this mean we should fire our own incredibly putrid draft team and hire the Spurs’ by any means possible? Obviously.

But does it cast Mark Cuban’s decisions after last year’s championships in new light? Obviously.

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The Dallas Mavericks announced today they have signed Head Coach Rick Carlisle for four more Years. Per team policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed just yet. Technically, it's a contract extension, because his current deal was set to expire by July, 1st.

(Cue Cuban, Mark) "We are excited that Rick will be back with the Mavericks for at least the next four years. He is a proven winner, a great teacher and a coach that will help the Mavericks improve as a team and as an organization."

After two 1st Round blanks and a 2nd Roundcall gone Wright, Carlisle last season finally got the Mavericks over the Trading of Hump and became the 11th Man to win an NBA Championship both as a Player and a Coach.

Rick Carlisle is scheduled to talk about his new Contract, the Mavs, French Fries and, among other things, how to shanghai NBA Players from 4:30 - 5:00 pm on GAC at 103.3 FM Espn.

His former Contract was 4 Years, $ 17.5 Million.

In Order to disguise the Timing Factor in the Race for Deron and not to question if the Contract was done already before, just not announced publically and what Cuban's hard stance on "not doing extensions during running contracts for People not named Dirk" tripped on, here's a poll.

The Mavericks and the Bobcats both tanked this year. That’s by nearly any definition. Each could have been better, possibly significantly better and chose not to be for the same reasons—long-term improvement. For the Bobcats, that entailed trading Stephen Jackson for the 7^th pick and nothing, then trading Gerald Wallace for nothing and two draft picks.

For the Mavericks that meant not picking up the tab on a franchise center who, while an injury risk, may after two healthy seasons be no more so than the next guy, and who could have made the Dallas D respectable for the next half decade.

The results, of course, were markedly different. The Mavericks still had two hall-of-famers, though one has aged to the ­­_­­point that even your old college roommate might think twice about whether it passed the sniff test. The Bobcats had a relatively thin college team and lost more games than you lost beer pong games to your old college roommate.

Ah, memories.

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