So I'm reading Art Garcia's Day 4 Notebook, and there are two comments that seemed to say something about Greg Buckner.
"We've made some nice tweaks," said Jerry Stackhouse, the key scoring threat off the bench the last three years as sixth man. "My whole thing is improving our bench and we've done that by adding a starter in Trenton Hassell. I think that was a great move for us. They've been talking about having lockdown defenders and we've finally got a guy that I think is a lockdown guy."
There were about a million quotes this time last season about Greg Buckner finally being that lockdown guy. That didn't really work out because he was probably the fourth best perimeter defender on the team last year.And here's what Mark Cuban had to say about the trade.
You might think Mark Cuban is busy - well, he is - but the Mavs haven't been put totally on the backburner. He signed off on the Hassell-Greg Buckner swap in between rehearsals for Dancing with the Stars. "I wish they were all that easy," he said.
--------------------Monta Ellis OK.
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Injury Update: Eddie Jones strained his hamstring at the fanjam. It's nothing major.
Non-roster center Jamal Sampson "tweaked an ankle" on Friday nut will probably be able to play in Tuesday's preseason opener.
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Eddie Sefko had an article yesterday about Trenton Hassell -- how he'll fit with team, embracing defense, etc...
He wrote on Friday about Avery wanting much more from the bench this season.
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Art Garcia has his first opinion piece up on Mavs.com and writes about how the Mavs need to focus on their strengths.
"Is Dirk a post-up player? Not especially, but we need his jump-shooting ability," Harris said. "Yes, he can post, but it’s about mixing things up. It’s the same thing with Diop.
"Obviously, we want to score inside, but his strength is rebounding and blocking shots. The more scoring he can give us, the better off we’ll be, but it’s something we don’t bank on, per se, because he doesn’t fit into that mold."
-----------------"Obviously, we want to score inside, but his strength is rebounding and blocking shots. The more scoring he can give us, the better off we’ll be, but it’s something we don’t bank on, per se, because he doesn’t fit into that mold."
I loved some of the things I read in this article about how Avery is trying ease into the regular season and playoffs this year.
Starting his third full season as the Mavs' head coach, Johnson is making several adjustments.
He believes the Mavs wore down at the end of last season and he hopes adjusting certain areas will help keep his team physically and mentally fresher through the 82-game grind and beyond.
He's altered the team's weight lifting and conditioning regiments and has put a restriction on himself, in terms of how hard and how quickly he puts the pedal to the metal.
-------------------He believes the Mavs wore down at the end of last season and he hopes adjusting certain areas will help keep his team physically and mentally fresher through the 82-game grind and beyond.
He's altered the team's weight lifting and conditioning regiments and has put a restriction on himself, in terms of how hard and how quickly he puts the pedal to the metal.
Mike fisher has some notes and observations from the Fan Jam.