Rick Carlisle - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
First-round NBA Draft grades on a pass/fail system
If you’re like most underachievers and procrastinators, the letter grade doesn’t matter as long as you pass. I’ve lived most of my life by the mantra that “C’s are for degrees” and look where it’s gotten me: Writing about sports for living, and passing judgment upon others without retaliation....
Joel Embiid has overtaken Nikola Jokić for MVP
Don’t count MVPs before they hatch. Nikola Jokić’s third consecutive MVP has seemed like an inevitability during the first three-quarters of the season. Jokić’s triple-double averages, improved offensive efficiency, advanced statistics, and Denver’s No. 1 seed in the Western Conference all appeared ...
Kyrie trade losers are the real winners
Kyrie Irving is a basketball monkey paw. His hardwood alchemy can grant your ephemeral wishes on the court, but with dire side effects on your long-term team chemistry. Stick with him long enough and he’ll deliver a plague to your franchise and refuse to get vaccinated afterward. If basketball were ...
Was Dallas’ Kyrie Irving pickup a troll job, or do they actually expect results?
During a season in which league-wide parity has been the overarching theme, the drama-free Dallas Mavericks dove headfirst into unknown depths by acquiring team arsonist Kyrie Irving from the Brooklyn Nets. All it took was Dorian Finney-Smith, point guard Spencer Dinwiddie, some second-round picks, ...
Luka Dončić is just a more clutch James Harden
By the way Luka Dončić has been talked about this year, you’d think the Dallas Mavericks would be undefeated — or at least near the top of the Western Conference standings. The Slovenian superstar is the first player since Wilt Chamberlain to start a season with seven straight 30-point games — which...
The Second Coming of Dennis Smith Jr.
Maybe all he needed was to come home. Smith is from Fayetteville, North Carolina, and is now playing with the Charlotte Hornets, just a mere three hours from his hometown. The Hornets are Smith’s fifth team in six seasons. Last year, he split time between three teams, including the Hornets. So why h...
We're seeing an NBA coaching reformation
If the success of Boston’s Ime Udoka and New Orleans’ Willie Green has taught NBA ownership anything, when it comes to hiring coaches, it should be out with the old, in with the new. These two rising coaching stars stepped into dysfunctional messes, with Udoka trying to bring together a team that wa...
NBA Power Tankings: Who's No. 1 (No. 30)?
Oh goodie, misery. The last portion of the NBA season kicked off Thursday, and that means Cancun is in sight for at least 10 franchises. With their seasons already in the blender, they might as well add ice, Cointreau, Casamigos, agave, and an FT of lime juice before kicking back in the training poo...
Report: Rick Carlisle’s treatment of others bothered Luka, led to coach leaving Dallas
The details from the report corroborating the rumor that Rick Carlisle can be an asshole are juicy, for sure. Apparently, he belittled FODs (Friends of Luka Dončić) Dennis Smith Jr. and Salah Mejri, accusing Smith of being jealous of Dončić before trading him; saw former assistant coach Jamahl Mosel...
So, about that pandemic…
The Detroit Lions, finally in the win column after beating the Vikings last week, head into their game on Sunday without 19 percent of their roster due to injuries and coronavirus....
Ex-exec offers peek inside the high school nightmare that is the Mavericks’ front office
You always have to take the word of a former/disgruntled employee with a few grains of a salt and a shot of tequila (and a lime if that’s your thing), so when former Mavs front office exec Haralabos Voulgaris compares your franchise’s dysfunction to “high school drama,” it’s fair to be skeptical. Ye...
2021 NBA Central Division Preview: Woe is the Cleveland Cavaliers
This is a hard division to diagnose. But I believe of all the possible letdowns in the Central, the Cavaliers are most likely to disappoint....