Five Out: The Dog Days Are Almost Over

1.) POWER RANKINGS? WHY YES, I NEEDED SOMETHING TO GET MAD ABOUT. Sports Illustrated has the Mavericks ranked 5th in the West, which makes sense considering most of the starting line up has not played a game together. I think the ceiling is much higher but with so much unknown at the moment, it makes sense to me. The only quibble I have is that Golliver loops Dallas in as having a "quiet" off season, which is inaccurate. Signing a player to an offer sheet the other team doesn't match is the opposite of quiet.

2.) TEAM USA EXPERIENCE SHOULD PROVE HELPFUL FOR PARSONS. That's a shocking opinion, I know, but Hoops Habit expounds a bit, mentioning that Cuban is probably thrilled Parsons didn't play much but had the experience of practicing against All Stars. It makes a fair amount of sense, though I'm still very concerned at how out of shape Parsons looks (he doesn't look THAT out of shape, but it's still concerning when my wife points out his love handles on Instagram.)

3.) BRANDAN WRIGHT IS GOOD. HERE IS HOW WE CONTEXTUALIZE THAT. Friend of Moneyball Bobby Karalla has an interesting look into Brandan Wright's statistics. This also looks really cool with graphics that are great. Give it a click.

4.) BREAKING DOWN THE POINT GUARD POSITION LAST YEAR FOR THE MAVS. Bleacher Report grades out the Mavericks point guard situation last year and looks ahead to this year. Kind of an odd article, given the time of year, but it's worth a read.

5.) WHAT THE HECK. So I went looking through the Mavericks youtube video channel. This really strange video mocking the Suns was uploaded in the summer of 2011. OKAY THEN. Dog days of summer, y'all.