DB.com's Thursday Morning Donuts
When is Roddy Beaubois going to get in there!?.... ..If the Mavs, at this point, are relying on a rookie from a second-division pro team in France to immediately step in and give them the energy and quality play that is lacking from the nine-to-13 people who are ahead of him on the depth chart.... the Mavs are in awful shape.
Mike Fisher has some post practice bullet points.
"The most tickets we have left for any game is 3,600,'' Cuban said.. The Mavs want to keep alive their streak of 318 straight sellouts. Cuban is willing to do anything to accomplish that, from $2 tickets (he sold 648 via his Twitter account yesterday) to grabbing a megaphone and running around on the streets. The only thing I haven't tried is getting a megaphone and going outside and screaming, Cuban said.
JJT, of all people, preaches patience.
My suspicion is that Carlisle believes Howard is such an integral part of the Mavs' long-term success this season that the coach doesn't want to yank him in and out of the lineup. He'd rather wait until Howard is 100 percent. Frankly, you're really never going to see the Mavs' full potential until Howard and Shawn Marion play a few games together and Carlisle can get a feel for how they complement each other offensively and defensively. You shouldn't be shocked if the Mavs are 1-4, though 2-3 is more likely. Whatever the record, it still won't be time to panic.
Expect more lineup experiments this season.
Tolerance from the masses also will be required because of frequent mixing and matching of players, something that will be ongoing out of necessity until Josh Howard returns from an ankle injury. "We're going to have some funky lineups out there at times," Jason Kidd said.