"Luka was ours"

The Luka Doncic for AD trade has been analyzed to death already. It's one of those sports conundrums, however, that's akin on a really bad allergy- you just can't shake it.

On the surface, the exchange wasn't even as lopsided as say, the Gasol for Kwa-meh Brown and Javaris C. deal involving the Lakeshow back in 2008. Anthony Davis and Max Christie are NOT bottomfeeders. Not by a long shot. But the single draft pick? That could have been better. The CIA-ish, clandestine nature of how this deal came to be, coupled with the fact that it involved a franchise icon in Doncic, are what make this transaction head-scratching, infuriating to Mavs fans, and everyday stuff for the Lakers.

*Why deal Luka at his peak?

This is what makes things odd as heck. Out of shape? Maybe- a bit. A black hole on offense? A ball stopper? A traffic cone of D? All possible. Frightening to commit a $350 million supermax contract to the guy? Sure. No contract is devoid of risk. But what if the upsides outweighed said risks? What if you could deal with Luka's flaws just like the Lakers stuck by Kobe when he had legal troubles and Shaq when he was slacking off in the summertime, and just like (ironically) a previous Mavs ownership regime supported MVP Dirk Nowitzki after Dallas' 2006 and 2007 postseason meltdowns? Both as a Mavs fan and as longtime hoops follower, I probably would have still bet on Doncic over trading for an all-star who is older and more injury prone. $350 million is a lot of coin, but maybe then you could leverage your goodwill with Luka and work with him to build the roster further around his skills, and his paycheck.

A fellow Mavs fan once told me that star players the Mavs get rid of tend to do better during their next career stops. Exhibit 1A- Steve Nash and his stint in Arizona. I've also observed that Mavs teams of the past like to sign over-the-hill vets:

Eddie Jones

Elton Brand

Amare Stoudemire

Nick Van Exel

Jerry Stackhouse

etc.

Suffice to say, the Mavs front office has not always made the shrewdest choices- whether its been Cuban or DuMont at the helm.

No wonder fans are so upset. With Nico Harrison, we thought that things would be different, especially with auspicous moves such as the drafting on D-Live, and the acquistion of Gaff and PJ. He just threw whatever trust he had into the deep end of the ocean by dealing Luka to purportedly prioritize defense.

*So what now?

High drama all around. Luka in Hollywood will be box office. AD was amazing for three quarters in his debut. Now he's hurt and will be gone for a few weeks. Typical glassman. Typical AD. But hey, maybe Dallas ought to hire the training staff from the Phoenix Suns' Steve Nash era. Those guys took a battered, 31 year old Steve Nash (with tons of back issues) and got him to play many more seasons at a high level- and nab two MVP trophies in the process. Not bad.

As justifiably upset as they are now, Mavs fans ought to calm down just a wee bit, and channel their emotions towards supporting the city's embattled team. They have an injured list longer than the flying halfway around the world, and they're only 8th in the West. These guys need all the backup they can get.

If Davis (and Lively) can get right and maybe miss three to five regular season games after returning from his latest setback, I think Dallas cam catch the Clippers and get the 6th spot at best. At worst, I am thinking 8th or 9th. As a lower seed, I think Dallas would be best served playing Houston or Denver. Memphis and OKC will be too deep to overcome. The Lakers have a shallow bench, but a Luka out for blood would likely be able to kill Dallas in a seven game series.

The second half of the season should be a doozy.

NBA 2024 to 2025- Inconsistency plagues the Mavericks

Life is full of ironies. Girl you like loves you, but only as a friend. You own a sleek sports car with all the bells and whistles, but without a functioning engine. Your own a high-end wallet. An empty one. No cards, no cash. Nada.

This season's Mavs are another strange case. The squad finds itself in the top five in league defense as of this article's writing, despite presumably giving up perimeter D in losing Derrick Jones Jr. and Josh Green and acquiring Klay Thompson. Offensively, they've been average, with an offensive rating of around 114. That comes in spite of Luka, Ky, Klay, and the ultra-efficient Lively/Gafford duo.

So what gives?

In the few games I have seen this year, I've noticed that Doncic has actually bogged down a number of offensive sets. He is a gifted scorer, but he also tends to take bad shots. He creates opportunities for his teammates with his incredible court vision, but also tends to lose focus especially when he doesn't get calls. He chews out refs over the smallest things sometimes. Because of all this, there are instances when the other Mavs are caught ball watching. Shot clocks are run down a little more than one would like. When all else fails, the offense becomes one dimensional. Give the ball to Luka. Or Kai. Iso to death.

Then there's the injury bug. PJ Washington, DLive, and Maxi Kleber have been hurt, and this hasn't done favors for the Mavs' perimeter D. Their top five ranking is a bit of a mirage, with closer inspection showing Dallas having a tough time containing midrange forays by versatile bigs (Durant, Myles Turner) or athletic wings (Jalen Green, Bradley Beal, Tyrese Haliburton). PJ Washington - not Gafford nor Lively - leads the team in blocks at 1.6 per game. Luka's never been a lockdown defender, but his body language hasn't screamed "engaged" so far.

Now at 5 wins and 4 defeats in a ridiculously competitive Western Conference, the Mavs need an awful lot more consistency to keep their heads above water. They have depth and they have perhaps the most dynamic backcourt duo in the league, but it almost feels as if they are still feeling each other out. It's early in the season, but it's never a bad thing to get early wins in preparation for when you're black and blue during the latter parts of the regular season.

Also, I've never been the biggest fan of ultra isoball. Usage rates need to be balanced out as much as possible.

Sports is full of ironies, and with his year's Dallas Mavericks thus far, the clarity that comes with consistency has stood them up more than once. Only time will tell whether this "date" will end well, or with regret.

MC

UAAP Season 87- Of realizations and comebacks

It's been a long time since I have done any intense sportswriting. Chalk the lull up to life getting in the way- work, plus all the stuff the comes with it, along with a general sense of question why I'd write in the first place. So now I am back and I am happy to be back. 

First off, some commentary on UAAP Men's Basketball, particularly on the Ateneo Blue Eagles. 

Season 87 has been an exercise in patience for the Hail Mary squad. The team is made up mostly of role players and newbies, and whenever you have mixture of elements, what you get is a cocktail that leaves much to be desired. Shawn Tuano is a workhorse whose offensive game reminds me a little of Jeron Teng's (the part that involves barrelling to the hoop on a consistent basis) but whose ballhandling and decision-making remains suspect. Jared Bahay is a budding star that, ironically, is held back by Tab Baldwin's pass first, weave heavy, system. Andrew Bongo is a smooth perimeter sniper, and little else at this point. Victor Balogun has the athletic tools but lacks the instinct to consistently make smart defensive choices (he shows out too much). Lazaro, Quitevis, and Koon are 6th, 7th, and 8th men thrust into starting spots. Kristian Porter has promise but needs to work on his crooked jumper, and is certainly undersized as a center.

As much as I am a fan of the Blue Eagles, I know a reality check when I see it. Having watched so much UAAP hoops in the last two decades and seen Ateneo dominate a lot of the time, this stings, but I can't say I didn't see this coming.

Every time has its peaks and valleys. Chicago had to go through the ignomity that was the period from 1999 to 2003. The Golden State Warriors went through droughts after Klay got hurt and Durant skipped town for Brooklyn. Locally, the UP Fighting Maroons went nearly two decades without a UAAP Final Four appearance. Look at them now. 

Ateneo's in a deep basketball valley right now. Remaining Season 87 games should be used to develop players who will be back, pay tribute to those graduating, and playing hard no matter what the stat sheet says.

In closing, I'd like to share yet another NBA anecdote from my nerdy sports mind. 

As of October 2024, the Boston Celtics have the most number of NBA championships with 18. On March 1, 2000, then Celtics coach Rick Pitino shared his brand of "expectation setting" with the world through this impassioned speech. 

"Larry Bird is not walking through that door, fans. Kevin McHale is not walking through that door, and Robert Parish is not walking through that door. And if you expect them to walk through that door, they’re going to be gray and old. What we are is young, exciting, hardworking, and we’re going to improve." 

Talk about a striking parallelism. Ange Kouame isn't walking through that door, and neither are Thirdy and Kiefer Ravena.

Larry Fo and Enrico Villanueva's best days are behind them. The Nieto twins are doing their thing in the PBA. Long story short, there are no shortcuts to winning. Until Ateneo's day comes, all its followers can do is wait, hope, and pray.

MC

Killers!

Another hoops break...

Yes, that is Volleybelle Michelle Gumabao. 

She is grace, beauty, and then some. 

On one hand, you have one of the best Uaap Volleyballers ever. On the other hand, you have one of the best looking Uaap Volleyballers ever. 

And that's the way it is.

Credit to Fhm.Com.Ph and Toby's for this photo.

MC

Just Because.

And for our "just because" picture for the day, we have former La Salle Volleybelle Michelle Gumabao, featured here in promotional poster at Toby's Arena in Sm Aura. 

Most of Michelle's photos dressed in official La Salle UAAP Volleyball garb portray a "tweetums", "sweet pea" sort of lass. Here we see an intense, inherently gorgeous belle who, in many ways, transcends her sport. 

Beauty and grace. Period. 

It's true, it's very true.

Mc

NBA- Guarantees?

In my mind, Jason Terry- fondly known as "Jet", will always be a Dallas Maverick. Sure, he's with the Brooklyn Nets now, with fellow thirtysomethings Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Joe Johnson, and Andrei Kirilenko. He's got a Russian Billionaire-out-of-a-James-Bond-flick to help back up his bravado. "Jet" may have met his match recently, though. In a event at Chelsea Piers, Knicks guard JR Smith said that was positive that the Knicks would win the NBA Title this coming season. Back in 2010, Jason Terry, then a Mav, went so far as to tattoo an image of the Larry O'Brien trophy on his bicep to show how sure he was that Dallas would win it all. Terry was a perfect foil to Dirk Nowitzki's quiet, more unassuming leadership style in those days. Had the Mavericks had 2 vocal leaders, they might have ended up like, err, the Lakers of the early 2000s. Jason Terry has responded to Smith saying that the Knicks could maybe win the "Rucker Park title", referencing the popular Harlem, New York basketball court (155th and Frederick Douglas Boulevard) which has produced many an NBA cager (Satch Sanders, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Kenny Anderson, Rafer Alston aka "Skip 2 Ma Lou", etc). The Nets and Knicks have been going at it in the media over the past summer, sparking the reigniting a rivalry that, in recent years, has resided on the mellow side of things. Either the Nets, or the Knicks, have been downtrodden at one point or another in the NBA standings over the last few seasons, so much so that the rivalry hasn't been all that competitive. So maybe Jason Terry isn't a Maverick anymore, but to Mavs fans like myself, he'll always be the feisty guard who torched the Miami Heat in Game 6 of the 2011 NBA Finals when Dirk Nowitzki had gone cold. Pair that with DeShawn Stevenson's "You Can't See Me" waves from Game 6 and what you get is an indelible image of swagger that, unlike JR Smith's claims- has, as of now, been backed up. The Knicks certainly have the tools to win, but to "win it all"? I don't know. It seems a bit premature for that. Newsflash- The Miami Heat are still intact. And so are Terry's Brooklyn Nets. MC

UAAP: Protests, Protests, and More Protests.

I feel that every school, or any team, in any league, has the right to protest any ruling put forth which it feels is detrimental to its chances at victory. Get this, though. Recent UAAP news has become awash with reports of the UE Red Warriors' protest of the Ateneo Blue Eagles' latest 77-72 victory over the said team from Recto due to suspended Eagles' mentor Bo Perasol's purported presence in the "immediate vicinity" of the two teams playing at the Mall of Asia Arena last September 7th. While UE MIGHT have a point, lets have a look at things from another perspective. Basketball games are won on the hardwood and amongst players, not amongst suits. La Salle's forfeiture of their 2005 title to FEU due to issues revolving around the falsification of players' papers is another story, because forging documents in any arena is a downright slap-in-the-face directed towards those in authority. This recent snafu between Ateneo and UE is a little more subjective. What exactly does "immediate vicinity" mean? Does that mean the bench? The dugout? Upper Box A? Upper Box B? Why should the UAAP Board take away Ateneo's win if it didn't get involved during similar incidents involving UE's Ralf Olivares and Charles Mammie, and La Salle's Thomas Torres? I think that the ruling in and of itself is inconsistent. Write me a law that is clearer then rescind Ateneo's triumph. Every game matters to the high heavens at this point, and to yank a critical win away from any team at this point on the premise of a hazy rule would be tantamount to tarnishing the credibility of the UAAP's top brass. In a similar manner, why the Jerie Pinggoy rule? This writer realizes that the UAAP is perhaps "trying to discourage" the proliferation of players with "inadequate paperwork" through the bloodstream of its league. But would forcing a player to sit one year really deter the falsification of any sort of paperwork? Or would it just delay the development of a legit cager, or, a future "illegal"? Maybe. Or maybe not. The UAAP should move on from this incident and just play out round 2 and the Final Four. Allowing UE to get a win for Coach Perasol's purported violation would create a precedent for something that has already become way too prevalent. The integrity of the league has been compromised by the tendency of a select few to bend the rules towards their satisfying their twisted whims. Sports isn't about taking shots at one another. It's about making shots for one another. It's about a team effort, not gang warfare. It's about bringing the best out of each other- not being opportunistic and "making the best of a situation." MC