Scatter Shooting

Well, I’ve been MIA due to tending to my ill wife for the past several days but I’m happy to say she fought through it and is on the mend and doing much better. Oh, and just for the record, I’m not quite sure how single parents work and raise a toddler…that’s tiring stuff! Over the past week, several things have happened that deserve mention. So, here are my thoughts on the happenings around where we live today, Sports…

A New Coach for the Mavs - Rick Carlisle

I’ve heard thoughts on Carlisle ranging from being an uninspired hire to a questionable hire to a good hire. Basically, I haven’t heard a consensus on if this is a good thing or not. My thought is that this is a good hire. Or let me put it this way…I don’t know of another available coach that would have been a better hire. According to Donnie Nelson, Carlisle has a balance of offense and defense, which is a good thing. The Mavs went from Don Nelson who was all about offense to Avery who was always preaching about defense, but neither one of those guys had a good balance of stressing both offense and defense. I think Carlisle can do that. I wasn’t onboard with Mike D’Antoni being brought in here for the reason I just said. D’Antoni, while being a solid coach, is all about offense which is why he never won a title, or even got to the Finals, in Phoenix (and why Dallas never did either under Nelson). Another trendy name being tossed around in the media is Marc Jackson. I wasn’t in favor of him either because he has no head coaching experience and with this current roster of veteran players, I don’t think the Mavs can wait through another rookie head coach learning the job on the fly as Avery did. They need someone who has some skins on the wall and knows the ins and outs of being a head coach in the NBA. Here are Carlisle’s skins as head coach:

-Detroit (2001-2003), Indiana (2003-2007); NBA coach of the year 2001-2002; Reached Eastern Conference finals with the Pistons in 2002, which wasn’t expected, and with the Pacers in 2003, where in his first year with the Pacers, he led the team to 61 wins.

So, Carlisle knows what he’s doing. Lets see if he can breathe some new life into a team that had gotten stale on offense and complacent (at best) on defense. I think he can and will.

Is This the Same Old Rangers? Or Are We Seeing Something New?

The only baseball team I’ve ever really followed on a consistent basis is the Rangers. And over the past few years, I’ve come to accept the fact that the Rangers may never have a championship team, much less a competitive one. On April 24th, the Rangers were 7-16. At that time they were leading the league in errors, had no timely hitting…just playing some horrible baseball There were many rumors in the media that Ron Washington’s job was in serious jeopardy and general apathy was really starting to set in…on April 24th! Less than a month into the season!

However, since then, they have turned things around 180 degrees. From April 25th through May 14th, they have won 6 consecutive series and now stand at 20-22. Let’s hope they continue this! Summer can be extremely long, hot and boring around here when the Rangers are the typical Rangers.


Stars Still Alive

Well, I predicted the Stars would take the Wings in 7, so my prediction is technically still alive. In all likelihood though, Dallas will probably be eliminated on Saturday afternoon and if not at that time, then in game 6. There is a glimmer of hope they can come back from the hole they dug themselves but realistically they probably won’t. Detroit is so good in every phase of the game…on the offensive side, on the defensive side, on the power play and killing penalties. They are a well oiled machine.

However, it is good to see that the Stars won at least one game. I know that is a small consolation but Colorado didn’t even do that against Detroit in the Western conference semi-finals. When you are playing a team as good as Detroit, moral victories are big and seeing as the playoff expectations for the Stars were “one and done”, just like they had done in the previous 3 playoff appearances, Dallas is playing with the casino’s money right now. I just hope they can continue this because it’s been really fun watching these games. But even if they get beat on Saturday, they have given this city some hope for next season and something to look forward to (because there probably won’t be very high expectations for the Mavs).