Slightly Biased On The WILDEST Mavs Season In Franchise History

Slightly Biased On The WILDEST Mavs Season In Franchise History

Dog days of summer are here and now we just talk about the same five things over and over again. Pretty much you could just do what ESPN and Shams does where it’s just all right. Uh do the yianis trade thing. Did you see the Milwaukee Bucks official ex account? Yeah, I just saw that just like a couple minutes ago. They put up they just had a yawning emoji in response to Sean’s reporting about uh Jonathan his decision. Let’s talk about the video that you just did recently. Um, great video, by the way, detailing the craziness that was the 24-25 season. And one of the things I enjoyed most about it slightly was that it really not only took us down memory lane of what happened throughout the course of the year, but there were several things I had forgotten about that happened, including, and I texted you about this, the whole plague that swept the team for a good portion of the season there where Naji Marshall was like in and out, you know, sick. He was like, “What the hell is going on with this team and what’s paying pass?” What What was the most enjoyable part about this project for you? I mean, was there anything enjoyable about the project for you? Well, it was funny looking back at the the plague thing because I was reminded like that was the biggest story of the season for a lot of the season was this reoccurring illness that was going around. But no, I mean, I thought it was funny. I found there was a video I made on my channel um in like January where it was it was titled this is what a season from hell looks like. So, it was just funny looking back at how bad the season was going up until the trade where it just progressively got worse and worse that you almost forget how bad it was up until the trade that it was outside of a few good weeks in December. Like there was not a lot going on for the team at any point during the season and it was pretty funny to look back on. The video is called the craziest season in history of full timeline of the 2024 2025 Dallas Mavericks by Slightly Biased of course who is joining us now. Was there any joy? What was what was name one good thing that happened that I have forgotten about? The best thing I mean for me Brandon Williams probably was the best part of the season. Like a two-way guy that turned into an actual NBA player. That’s pretty rare and always exciting. Um, you didn’t you didn’t go back to uh the the Derek Lively Giannis comparisons in the preseason. Oh god, no. Because that was I was I was like, “Please guys, please quit.” Like this is this is this is what this is where things go wrong for these young guys. Even with like shooting Derrick Lively shooting, I’m like, “Guys, please stop because you’re just going to disappoint yourself when he’s not taking five threes like you’re hoping he does a game and it’s more maybe three over the course of the whole season.” I just I just think Giannis is like it’s it’s too low of a comparison. like he’s going to be better than that. Should be more the Hakee Kareem type of jump hooks. Like basically the way I view Derrick Lively, imagine if Steph Curry was tall. Be him in a few seasons. You know, every NBA player can shoot in an empty gym, but Dererick Lively is different. Yeah, he does it in a way that’s just Damn, you just tell it’s different than everybody else. Are we still doing the Is he going to shoot threes this year? We literally did a whole segment last week about it. I I was about to say, was that y’all that said that he only shot one time? Shot one jumper last season. Yeah, that was that was my stat that I that I went and pulled. It was the fewest in the league by any player with at least 800 minutes. One jump shot. And and that jump shot was very clearly a floater. But I’m just going by Second Spectrum’s classifications of what shots are. I’d like to see what Steven Adams two jump shots are. He shot two. How about he looking up? He look all up. pull them up and and and send them to you. They are probably late shot clock kind of one-handed floater type stuff that got defined as jumpers as well. I say cuz I saw Stephen Steven Adams had two and then I was thinking to myself like I cannot imagine a Steven Adams jump shot. It’s it is I mean everybody shoots free throws so I guess the idea is like if you’re standing at the free throw line and nobody’s guarding you just kind of use that form again. Noted good free throw shooter Derek Lively. That’s right. Yeah, that’s right. What’s your big picture thoughts on the season on the offseason? The summer this summer, sorry. Uh, I mean, I consider it a huge successful off seasonason for the Mavericks only because they got Cooper flag, but you know, I think they’re a good solid team. That’s kind of where I’m at with them. I don’t think they’re a contender. Um, they would have had to have done something crazy, I think. And I I do wonder if getting Cooper Flag maybe just toned down how aggressive they were maybe going to be where now it’s like all right maybe we hold on to some picks or maybe we hold on to some future assets uh versus making a play for like a Kobe wide or something and we just see what we have in flag and then uh do what we need to do beyond that. But I think they’ll be good. I just I just think you know nobody wants to hear it. Everybody hates me for it when I talk about the Thunder cuz uh I think they’re incredible and I think they’re going to continue to be incredible and much better than the Mavericks and uh I think the Nuggets and Rockets are probably much better. But then outside of those three, I think, you know, the Mavs could be the four seed. Like that wouldn’t shock me that much. Yeah. I’ve described it as like kicking the can down the road where it’s like eventually there are there has to be trades that happen. Like just you can’t look at the roster and not assume that they’re going to consolidate in some way somehow. Yeah. But I mean the Gaffford the second that’s fine. I thought for sure Gaffford was going to get traded. Like I thought for sure that was like locked set in stone. So him signing was surprising to me. But you know would I be shocked if he finished that contract with the Mavs? Absolutely. That would be stunning to me if he finished that contract. So um we’ll see that definitely they’ll make something. They’re the most aggressive team at the deadline. We know that for sure. You know, Luca was out here thirst trapping last week and you had some interesting thoughts about the whole thing uh with him, you know, appearing on Menzo. What have you made about, you know, Luca getting all I modeled up, hanging out with the Backstreet Boys and all this other stuff, uh, with his boy Rob Pelinka? What have you made of all of all of this? Yeah, it’s kind of weird because that’s not really who Luca’s always been, but I think if I just had to guess, I think Jordan Brand sees a real legit pathway for him to become the face of the league. So, that’s what they’re really pushing hard. Um, I don’t know. If I were Luca, I have to imagine Luca doesn’t want to do the Good Morning America bits where they’re asking him if he’s on Ozic just because that was a wild ass question. Like, when they asked that question, I was like, whoa, they really went for the GLP1 conversation. Okay. All right. Okay. It’s like, no, I’m a professional athlete who gets paid tens of millions of dollars to work out every day, all day. So, right, that’s that’s what it’s from. But no, uh, yeah, I think it’s, you know, it is what it is. Luca’s gotten into shape in the past for the Mavs. So, I don’t know if it’s like a I try to watch my words with this because there’s no nuance allowed in any of these conversations. Like, you just get screamed at and yelled at no matter what you say, but, you know, it is. Yeah. If you’re a Mavs fan, I think it’s right to be a little frustrated. I I I think that’s fair. Yeah, totally. Yeah. Yeah. And what I’ve what I’ve said is like like like you said, I think pretty much every summer he works out. He could he could do a story about it. You know, he’s he’s arrived nearly every time, nearly every season in shape. It’s all about how he responds to the emotional up ups and downs of the end season. And sometimes, and sometimes that starts really early, like sometimes you look back at last season, it’s like you show up in shape and then you get hurt the day before training camp and you’re ready by opening day and between that time you showed up in shape and opening day. Clearly, clearly something was lost in translation here. Clearly, you did not keep things going. Uh, the other thing I’ll say is like, yeah, I agree that Luca is not I I I highly doubt that he was enjoyed being on Good Morning America. He has got slightly more willing to do stuff like this. He’s at least said yes regrudgingly, like a little bit, like 5% more each year he’s been in the NBA. So, I can’t imagine this was, you know, it probably wasn’t pulling teeth bad. It was probably just like, “Okay, fine. I’ll do it if you say I have to.” And but it is weird. It is weird. I agree with you. I think the Jordan part is is probably the best case scenario. I think obviously Luca’s team also wanted to really push back at at narratives. Some of them to an extent that were unfair. Some of them that you know I think Mavs fans could have a lot of complicated feelings on. But it’s an athlete going around saying look how fit I am. I’m doing my job. It’s and I get it. It’s just it it was all in all this strange thing. This is setting up for him to win the MVP. This is that’s the conclusion I’ve come to is like this is a quoteunquote reframing of a narrative to set up the story for him to be the league’s MVP. Uh going into Shahit says Luca Ozic. That is if I’m leading a team or like you need Ozimpic, I’m looking for a trade immediately. Yeah, exactly. If that’s your first plan of action for me to get No, no, we got to start something else. Uh before we let you go, obviously the Luca trade was the most memorable thing from this past season, but when you reflected on the entirety of the season, what was kind of the common theme and thread that you landed on given the totality of what was the 2425 season for this? I mean, it felt like so I I always thought the 22 23 season where they miss a playin was like worst case scenario. You play that season a 100 times, you’ve just got the worst case scenario type of outcome. last year just felt like every week you you go back and look at it’s like every week something bad happened with the team whether that was uh an injury or poor play. I mean I went back I looked they were one and six in their first seven clutch games. Like I forgot how bad of a start they got off to the season. They were five and seven to start the season. Like I I remembered it being slow but I didn’t remember it being that actively bad. The Utah loss was the worst. Yeah, that wood was so bad looking back on it. They had so many bad losses that it was just everything that could have gone wrong for the Mavericks did. Like that was it. Everything that could have gone wrong up until the trade and then you get Anthony Davis and then he has the first three. It literally you think to yourself the only thing that could make this worse is if Anthony Davis gets hurt in his first game. Like that is literally the worst possible thing that could happen now and then he gets hurt in his very first game. I mean it was just insane. Uh, Slightly, tell the folks where they can find you and where your work is, man. Uh, YouTube.comslightlybias. That’s really it. Slightly is good to see you as always, my man. Thank you for hanging out with us here on the show today and we’ll talk to you soon, man. Yeah. Thanks for having me on, boys.

Slightly Biased joins the show to discuss his recently published video recapping the craziness of the 2024-25 Dallas Mavericks season which covers everything from the mystery illness that swept the team, to the Luka trade, to the bright spot Brandon Williams’ emergence provided. They also cover Luka’s recent press tour, the return of the “Will Dereck Lively shoot 3s this season?” narrative and much more!