Thoughts on Mark Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks summer league team

So, the big story, as everyone knows, is that Mark Cuban has shown major interest in buying the Chicago Cubs. However, that is not what I am most interested in. As a Dallas Mavericks fan, I am more interested in how my team is looking for next season. Right now, we are looking very good... but then again, I would have said that at the beginning of last season and all the way through last years regular season too.

Since I live in Dallas, I had the opportunity to go watch the Dallas Mavericks summer league team play last Tuesday. It was a lot of fun, especially since it only cost 5 dollars. They happened to be playing the Chinese National team, which included YI!!!! The #6 pick in this years NBA Draft (side note: I will be having a post, very soon, on how DISAPPOINTED I was in Yi's game!!!)... Our rookies looked like rookies, for the most park, but we did have some major bright spots.. Don't let this sound like I am getting my hopes up, I know this is called summer league for a reason.

I mainly wanted to go and see 2 of our rookies, Nick Fazekas, Reyshawn Terry, and also Maurice "Mo" Ager, Jose Juan "JJ" Barea, and Pops Mensah-Bonsu. I honestly think that Maurice Ager will get some playing time this year. During the playoffs (all ONE round of it), Mo got some playing time and showed some glimpses of greatness. He played very well, getting to the hoop at will, and is a pretty darn good defender. JJ was his regular "ball of energy" and then there was Pops. He is undersized, skinny, but MAN can he jump! He makes up for his lack of bulk by being very cut and can jump out of the gym.. He ended with 24 points and a ton of rebounds. Not to mention, he has a very good FT shot for a PF. He even stepped out and guarded some smaller guys on the perimeter (we sure could have used an athletic defender like that in the playoffs this year).

Overall it was a great time and it was exciting to see some of our younger guys get some minutes.