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Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win's basketball newsletter. Have feedback for the Layup Lines Crew? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Now, here's Prince J. Grimes.
What's up hoops fans. Welcome back to Layup Lines. Thanks for tapping back in with us after a fun night of play-in tournament hoops. We get two more games tonight that involve a few teams with lesser expectations, but that doesn't mean they won't be worth the watch. In fact, I can guarantee at least one person will be locked in more than anyone. That's Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison.
On Tuesday, for the first time since Harrison made the head-scratching decision to trade Luka Doncic to the Lakers, he answered some questions. It was a closed-door session with limited members of the media, and based on everything that has trickled out since the session, Harrison did the unimaginable and somehow made things worse than they already were.
PAGING PAIGE:Bueckers has arrived to save Dallas from its misery
And make no mistake about it, things were already bad. "Fire Nico" chants have been raining down from fans at American Airlines Center since the trade went down on Feb. 1. Doncic's emotional return with the Lakers last week only reopened a fresh wound. Harrison's inability to provide any satisfying answers Tuesday for how the trade made sense did not go over well.
To be clear, there wasn't any answer he could give that would have satisfied people, short of saying Doncic personally requested to be traded. There was no way Harrison was going to admit to a mistake before seeing how the Anthony Davis-led Mavericks fare over the next few years. But what Harrison couldn't do is be unprepared to answer simple questions about more intricate details of the roster's construction, like how it made sense to shrink the championship window of a team with no future assets by moving a 26-year-old star for a 32-year-old.
Rather than providing plans for beyond what Harrison described as a three-to-four year window to contend (which also happens to line up with Harrison's contract), the GM defaulted to a line he apparently repeated a lot in the session, according to the transcript: "Defense wins championships."
On top of having little in the way of answers, Harrison may have also lost the support of the greatest player in franchise history, if he ever had it. ESPN's Tim McMahon, who was in the session, reported Wednesday that Dirk Nowitzki is "completely turned off by this franchise." Yikes. If there was one person Harrison couldn't alienate it was Nowitzki.
If we could poll Harrison's popularity in Dallas right now, it would be at an all time low. Which is why he really needs the Mavs to win Wednesday night. They're 4.5-point underdogs, but if defense truly wins championships like he says, Kyrie Irving's absence shouldn't prevent them from at least giving the Sacramento Kings a game. That would go a long way towards making people forget about Harrison for a second -- and make no mistake about it, it'd only be a second. Even if the Mavs beat Sacramento, they'll likely lose to the Memphis Grizzlies in the 8-seed game. And if they beat Memphis to qualify for the playoffs, they'll get swept by the Oklahoma City Thunder. But the more they win, the more they validate Harrison's decision. And that's the only thing that can help him at this point, because him talking only made things worse.
PREDICTIONS:Staff picks for the NBA play-in tournament
The Golden State Warriors took care of business last night, knocking off the Memphis Grizzlies -- with help from a five-second violation -- to clinch the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference playoffs and a first-round meeting with the Houston Rockets.
With the way the Warriors have been playing since trading for Jimmy Butler, it wasn't necessarily a surprise to see them beat Memphis. What is somewhat surprising is the odds for their series with Houston. The Warriors are actually favored to win.
Why is that so surprising? Because oddsmakers almost never give 7-seeds an edge over a 2-seed. In fact, Golden State is just the second in almost 40 years. And that might be a bad omen for the Warriors, as FTW's Robert Zeglinski wrote:
"If you're a Warriors fan comfortable with your team's position, I wouldn't exactly get too comfortable here. The only other No. 7 seed first-round favorite in recent NBA history was the 2021 Los Angeles Lakers. Those overmatched and older Lakers got, more or less, pasted by the Phoenix Suns, who went on to represent the West in that year's NBA Finals. I think a similar thought process unfolded where an older squad led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis got the benefit of the doubt over a talented but unproven Suns squad."
I'm siding with the odds and taking the Warriors in six games, but Robert is right, it's not going to be an easy series by any stretch.
That's it for today folks. Enjoy those games tonight.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Nico Harrison could really use a Mavericks play-in tournament win
Continue reading...
What's up hoops fans. Welcome back to Layup Lines. Thanks for tapping back in with us after a fun night of play-in tournament hoops. We get two more games tonight that involve a few teams with lesser expectations, but that doesn't mean they won't be worth the watch. In fact, I can guarantee at least one person will be locked in more than anyone. That's Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison.
On Tuesday, for the first time since Harrison made the head-scratching decision to trade Luka Doncic to the Lakers, he answered some questions. It was a closed-door session with limited members of the media, and based on everything that has trickled out since the session, Harrison did the unimaginable and somehow made things worse than they already were.
PAGING PAIGE:Bueckers has arrived to save Dallas from its misery
And make no mistake about it, things were already bad. "Fire Nico" chants have been raining down from fans at American Airlines Center since the trade went down on Feb. 1. Doncic's emotional return with the Lakers last week only reopened a fresh wound. Harrison's inability to provide any satisfying answers Tuesday for how the trade made sense did not go over well.
To be clear, there wasn't any answer he could give that would have satisfied people, short of saying Doncic personally requested to be traded. There was no way Harrison was going to admit to a mistake before seeing how the Anthony Davis-led Mavericks fare over the next few years. But what Harrison couldn't do is be unprepared to answer simple questions about more intricate details of the roster's construction, like how it made sense to shrink the championship window of a team with no future assets by moving a 26-year-old star for a 32-year-old.
Rather than providing plans for beyond what Harrison described as a three-to-four year window to contend (which also happens to line up with Harrison's contract), the GM defaulted to a line he apparently repeated a lot in the session, according to the transcript: "Defense wins championships."
On top of having little in the way of answers, Harrison may have also lost the support of the greatest player in franchise history, if he ever had it. ESPN's Tim McMahon, who was in the session, reported Wednesday that Dirk Nowitzki is "completely turned off by this franchise." Yikes. If there was one person Harrison couldn't alienate it was Nowitzki.
If we could poll Harrison's popularity in Dallas right now, it would be at an all time low. Which is why he really needs the Mavs to win Wednesday night. They're 4.5-point underdogs, but if defense truly wins championships like he says, Kyrie Irving's absence shouldn't prevent them from at least giving the Sacramento Kings a game. That would go a long way towards making people forget about Harrison for a second -- and make no mistake about it, it'd only be a second. Even if the Mavs beat Sacramento, they'll likely lose to the Memphis Grizzlies in the 8-seed game. And if they beat Memphis to qualify for the playoffs, they'll get swept by the Oklahoma City Thunder. But the more they win, the more they validate Harrison's decision. And that's the only thing that can help him at this point, because him talking only made things worse.
PREDICTIONS:Staff picks for the NBA play-in tournament
The Warriors are favored over the Rockets. Is that a bad omen?
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The Golden State Warriors took care of business last night, knocking off the Memphis Grizzlies -- with help from a five-second violation -- to clinch the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference playoffs and a first-round meeting with the Houston Rockets.
With the way the Warriors have been playing since trading for Jimmy Butler, it wasn't necessarily a surprise to see them beat Memphis. What is somewhat surprising is the odds for their series with Houston. The Warriors are actually favored to win.
Why is that so surprising? Because oddsmakers almost never give 7-seeds an edge over a 2-seed. In fact, Golden State is just the second in almost 40 years. And that might be a bad omen for the Warriors, as FTW's Robert Zeglinski wrote:
"If you're a Warriors fan comfortable with your team's position, I wouldn't exactly get too comfortable here. The only other No. 7 seed first-round favorite in recent NBA history was the 2021 Los Angeles Lakers. Those overmatched and older Lakers got, more or less, pasted by the Phoenix Suns, who went on to represent the West in that year's NBA Finals. I think a similar thought process unfolded where an older squad led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis got the benefit of the doubt over a talented but unproven Suns squad."
I'm siding with the odds and taking the Warriors in six games, but Robert is right, it's not going to be an easy series by any stretch.
Shootaround
- Orlando played the Curb Your Enthusiasm theme for Trae Young's ejection
- Bradley Beal was upset Mike Budenholzer asked him to be like Jrue Holiday
- Eastern Conference first-round playoff odds and predictions
- Western Conference first-round playoff odds and predictions
That's it for today folks. Enjoy those games tonight.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Nico Harrison could really use a Mavericks play-in tournament win
Continue reading...
