[Julius]

found this on my atl forum:


We started from the middle… now we still here!

The 2013-2014 NBA season officially gets underway for Our Fine Feathered Friends tonight, with a tip-off in Big D. (8:30 PM EST, Fox Sports South and Fox Sports Southwest). Heat checks, commence!

Boasting beaucoup cap space, both the Dallas Mavericks and the Atlanta Hawks had lofty aspirations heading into this past offseason. Unable to lure the few big free agent fish on the market, both teams eventually settled for B-list stars to supplement their most talented veterans and the few other players they had left under contract.

Just two full seasons removed from 2011, it’s hard to believe Mark Cuban’s Mavs are still the last team not named the Miami HEAT to win it all. Yet you can excuse the über-owner if he’s not fully paying attention to the team’s goings-on this offseason. Fresh from his third appearance just this year on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, the Shark Tank star fought the law this month and actually won, beating back the Securities and Exchange Commission from seizing millions of his dollars in fines for an alleged insider-trading scheme, then boasting of his triumph to all who’ll listen.

All my ex-GMs live in Texas, and Gersson Rosas is no exception to the rule. He amicably parted ways with Cuban, Inc. yesterday, as it appears he expected much more than an advisory role (behind Cuban, Donnie Nelson, Rick Carlisle, et al.) in transforming last year’s grizzled lottery team. I’m guessing if they make a replacement hire, it won’t be a GM but someone willing to play the wonky Hollinger role full-time.

Rosas leaves behind a roster that, like Atlanta, is still feeling itself out at the season’s start. They added super-scorer Monta "Have It All" Ellis, brought bigs Brandan Wright and Bernard “Sarge” James back into the fold, wooed a reliable passing point guard who’s become a highly reliable shooter as well in Jose Calderon, and then spackeled the remaining spaces with young talent (Gal Mekel, Wayne Ellington, DeJuan Blair) and past-their-prime vets (ex-Hawk Devin Harris, Samuel Dalembert). Dallas even swapped draft picks with Atlanta, acquiring point guard Sugar Shane Larkin, who’s out indefinitely after summertime ankle surgery, in exchange for Dennis “Herr Line” Schröder and Jared Cunningham.

All of that surrounds 2011 Finals MVP Dirk Nowitizki. Still a supreme offensive option with his killer jumpshot, it is hard to gauge whether the 11-time All-Star is truly heading into the twilight of his career. Free agents in 2014, Dirk (age 35) and two other city slickers, Shawn Marion (age 35) and Vince Carter (almost 37), are out to show everyone from the jump that they are worth one more multi-season payday. Marion surprised Mavs fans (and perhaps the Mavs’ office) by not opting out of his contract this summer to explore free agency. Dirk still considers Marion to be “one of the best slashers in this league.” Carter, in particular, is apt to surprise opponents that remember buying his basketball cards as kids with explosive forays into the paint from the baseline.

What will be interesting to see is if Ellis sacrifices his volume shooting to accommodate his All-Star elders’ need to showcase themselves or if, instead, the vets defer more of their offense to accommodate the never-gun-shy Ellis, transitioning Nowitzki (17.3 PPG in 2012-13, lowest since his rookie year) from the superstar tier to that of a top-notch role player.




for more thoughts of an atlanta fan:

http://hawksquawk.net/community/topi...wks-mavericks/