Double Dribble Previews: Southwest Division

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Mo Dakhil (0:35)

Welcome to the Double Dribble podcast with Dubin and Daquil. That's Jared Dubin, author of the great newsletter Last Night in Basketball. Make sure you're a subscriber. Make sure you're helping our guy out there. I'm Mo DeKeele, former NBA video coordinator, right for Bleacher Report. I will probably be back on NBA TV this year with all that fun stuff and make sure you guys are rate, reviewing and subscribing to the RealGM Network. If you're new here, you're going to love us. We're just going to have fun talking hoops and occasionally some college football.

But you're going to enjoy us. It's going to be fun. We're going to have a good time.

We are continuing our season preview and we are moving on to the Southwest Division. More importantly, Jared does all the homework. Jared has a list of questions. We've done this before. We've been listening, you know the questions we're going to ask and how we're going to go through this. I think it's a fun way to do it. But before we get started, Jared, how are you doing?

Jared Dubin (1:34)

I'm doing great, man. I'm excited to talk about this Southwest Division. How are you doing? More importantly.

Mo Dakhil (1:40)

I'm doing well.

We are about to have one of the hottest days ever in Los Angeles with maybe the nastiest humidity. So I'm trying to limit my exposure to the outdoors today.

Jared Dubin (1:56)

It's not that hot here, but I like the hot weather, so I'm jealous when it gets pretty hot out there.

Mo Dakhil (2:02)

It's not about it being hot. We're not built for this humidity.

We get hot, but we don't get the humidity.

Jared Dubin (2:11)

Now, someone who lived in Miami for four years, I'm used to that humidity.

Mo Dakhil (2:15)

Yeah, I did live in Miami for four years, and the humidity doesn't work for me in the sense of I'm already kind of a sweaty dude, so it makes it way worse when I just go walk the dog. This could be a two or three t-shirt day type of scenario for me, because I don't have to change shirts right away after that. Nobody cares.

SPEAKER_1 (2:38)

Let's get to the Southwest Division.

Jared Dubin (2:39)

They're all here for the weather talk. Right.

Mo Dakhil (2:42)

And how many shirts I go through in a day. Let's get to the Southwest Division.

Jared Dubin (2:46)

Yeah, we'll talk about the Southwest Division. We are going to start alphabetically as we always do, but before we do that, just in case you are listening to these for the first time, we go through all of the major moves that a team made during the off season. Then we talk about one thing we're excited about, one thing we're worried or concerned about, and we make one prediction about the season that can be an over-under, or their playoff positioning, or literally anything about the team that's going to happen this season. And we will start with the Dallas Mavericks. Hired Dusty May as their head coach, drafted Mares Johnson, Sergio De La Raya, traded Prisanti Aldama, Marcus Sasser, and Zachary Risace, matched an offer sheet for Moussa Cisse, and extended Najee Marshall. Their over-under is 33.5 wins.

Mo, what are you most excited about when it comes to the Dallas Mavericks this coming season? I would be shocked if we don't have the exact same thing here.

Mo Dakhil (3:39)

We might have something different.

Jared Dubin (3:41)

Oh, okay.

Mo Dakhil (3:43)

I don't know. I'm actually excited for the return of Kyrie Irving.

Jared Dubin (3:48)

Oh, okay. So, we do have something different.

Mo Dakhil (3:50)

Because of what I think that does for the overall team and offense. You know, I thought, you know, we talked about it last season. I hated, let's experiment and make Cooper Flag a point guard.

Not to say he doesn't have skills and things in playmaking ability, but I felt like his rookie year, like let him explore the space more and kind of see what's what. And I think having Kyrie there has another playmaker, can put him in good spots in positions where he can get the ball in different ways. Kyrie can break down the defense, suck him in and then find kickouts and then open opportunities for Flag to be able to attack on the second side and have a little bit more of an easier lifespan than he's had in the NBA so far. And I think that's kind of the thing I'm most excited about. It's not just watching Kyrie, who I think is one of the best ball handlers of all time, but I think it's the effect Kyrie will have on the team and mainly Cooper Flag going forward. So I'm pretty excited for them with this. And I think that's kind of what I'm excited to look for, or that's what I'm looking forward to for the Mavs.