Missing Playoffs Only The Beginning For The Dallas Mavericks

how bad it is there. It's like watching a slightly overweight European train go off the rails as a more slightly overweight owner tries to fix it, but he can't and he just has to watch horror. And if you thought that the last month was entertaining, oh boy, this offseason just got even more spicy, more of a soap opera,

because it's probably gonna get worse. So where do we start. Well, we talked last episode about how Dallas punted on the season technically, and then Luca came out and said, no, that's actually not true, We're not doing that, and then more bad things happened. They deemed a future draft pick more important than trying to make the playoffs, which was Luca's stated goal. They said, we need to not give the pick to the next so we're going to do

whatever we can to keep it ourselves. So they tanked in a way that was even more egregious, even more embarrassing, even more obvious than the Blazers, which is kind of crazy because they said the quiet part out loud. They told everyone. Jason Kidd came out in front of everyone and said, Hey, my bosses are telling me that no one can play toon because we need to plan for the future, and losing games right now is how we do that. And the league says, oh, no, baby, you

can't say that. You can't do that. Luca came out and played for a quarter and some change, got his player prop ching and got a weirdly non standing ovation standing ovation, and then that was the last that we saw from him. That was the last that we saw from Kyrie, who did not play, did not give an exit interview, and it is just so bad. Why was Luca so mad that he didn't get to play the full game despite the fact that he wanted to participate in a game that was still meaningful because they could

play in the playoffs. It has everything to do with Slovenia because the MAVs scheduled Slovenia Day on the second last day of the season, meaning people traveled from Slovenia to watch Luca, and Luca played a quarter in front of his own people. He had to sit in warm ups while people who flew ten thousand miles or whatever it is watched insert player you've never heard of and Reggie Bullock? Are we serious? Do you know embarrassing that is for your people? Do you know how much of

a slap in the face that bullshit is? And they were like, we do not care about Slovenia. The only Slovenian that we care about is you. And Luca was pissed. So what did they do? They like, I said, They said, Kyrie, christian Woods, Hardaway Bullock, and it was everybody was clearly healthy. They sat Christian Wood and Jaden Hardy for rest guys who were in their early twenties. And then now what is going on, Like clockwork, the league investigates the maps

for tampering. Everybody is thinking about what the outcome is going to be. There's every scenario down from finding the MAVs five million dollars to taking a draft pick from them, which would be hilarious because that was the whole reason that they did it to begin with, is to preserve their draft pick. Everyone now says that Luca is unhappy. There are new reports that Dallas fears that he will ask out. Luca says, I am happy here. I am not asking out anytime soon, but we need to fix

these problems. He sounds a little like Damian Lillard. Folks with less patience and really less rope with the organization. By the way, meanwhile, Kyrie and Luca were five and eleven when they played together this year, and Dallas has just one option. They must sign Kyrie Irving. There's no other maneuvers that you have. The roster is in disarray, and I don't know if you can see the train wreck coming, but I certainly can't, and I don't know that there's much to do to stop it. And by

the way, quick little aside. I did a show on New York Sports radio this weekend on WFAM, and I spent nearly two hours talking with fans, nick fans about whether they wanted Luca on the Knicks, and eighty percent of people said no, which is just where we're at on Luca right now. Insane. I love the end of the season because every time that it ends, we all know who's getting fired. And we've been waiting for months for Steven Silas to get fired. We've been speculating for

months about Dwayne Casey getting fired. We've also been commenting recently about whether Nick Nurse would decide to leave. Two out of those three are now no longer with the team and a coaching capacity. Dwayne Casey stepped down after very rough season. When Cade cutting him went down, it was curtains for them. We knew that they got James Wiseman, and then the curtain call came down even more. That's what happens when you win a league low seventeen games

on top of twenty three wins last year. Just not a team that you can trust whatsoever. Killian Hayes developed into a nice piece. Isaiah Stewart did as well. Like this is a team with talent, as a team with athleticism, this is a team with length. But the good news is that Casey has stayed on with the team and some of the other replacements that are possible, potentially Chauncey billups Piston's legend and moving forward. Down in Houston, the

Stephen Silas eras has also come to an end. He he was fifty nine and one hundred and seventy seven while he was the head coach of the Houston Rockets. He said that it was one of the best times of his life, but fifty nine and one hundred and seventy seven record would be so painful to watch on a day to day basis, not just watch it like us because I watch it and I'm in pain, but also watch it and be asked to fix it. It

has been rough for him. Things were so broken by the time he got there when James Harden and Russell Westbrook asked out that you can't really blame them except for that you can. Except for that you can. He was not taking into account what his coaches said to do. He didn't hold any of his players accountable. He had no ability to fix the defense. He did not develop Jalen Green. No one knew their role. Eric Gordon asked to be a part of the offense, and he told them,

I'd love to give you some more responsibility. However, Rafael Stone and the man with the shrimp fork Tillman for Titta says we can't do all that, We gotta let the young guns develop. The athletics said this to say about him. The absence of leadership on the floor turned to chaos, with lack of winning habits the only consistent theme in a twenty and sixty two season. Offensively, players deviated from game plans and resorted to their own means.

It's bad Defensively, the effort was largely Nolan Voyd on a nightly basis. It is no surprise that the Rockets, per cleaning Glass, have ranked in the bottom four an offensive end defensive efficiency over the last three seasons. I mean, is there anything more scathing that you can say than that? The article basically said what we could all see, this

guy is in over his head. The Rockets have no identity as a team, and that you add that to a front office with heavy fire and an owner with no patients, and you've got a team that's underperforming on the court, that really does not compete. That is a recipe for disaster. And Silas pretty much was on the chopping block all year. He's a good offensive coach, but he has no business leading men. As for the Rockets, the latest rumor is that they're primed to go big

game hunting in the off season for more stars. I don't know who they think they're gonna get. Honestly, they've got a lot of cap space. But would you want to play in that mess right now? No, No one wants to oversee a rebuild again in h Town. No chance. Moving forward, Tray Young time when Quinn Snyder was hired to help and helm the ship of the Titanic that

is the Atlanta Hawks. I did say that it was weird timing, but you add that to the notion that there were speculation that the only reason he came on that late in the season was to figure out whether he could live with Tray Young in the mix. It turns out that we have our answer about what that was all about. Rumors are now catching fire saying that the Hawks are one hundred percent going to explore trading Tray Young in the off season. The rumors, let me

say that again. The rumors are that the Hawks ownership has given the green light to whoever wants to do it to trade Tray Young in the off season. Wow, the Trey Young experience may have been coming to a close in Atlanta. According to Kevin O'Connor at The Ringer, who dropped this recent article called the Hawks have changed

everything except for Tree Young. The Hawks could be making some huge moves and make no mistake, the decision will be one hundred percent Quinn Snyder's because, according to O'Connor, league sources say during months of negotiations in the lead up to Quinn Snyder getting hired, and he has demanded

and now wields significant influence over personnel decisions. Though Atlanta's front office dynamic is described as a quote collaborative effort, which is never something that you want, many high level decision makers from opposing teams believe that it's now Snyder who has the final say pause, paus pause. Did Kevin O'Connor just write months months of negotiations with Quinn Snyder?

So they were negotiating with Quinn Snyder while eight McMillan was still rolling out the ball and coaching the Atlanta Hawks. That is interesting. That is very very interesting. I guess it makes sense given that the most desirable coaching candidate on the market at the time would demand control, and it would make sense that he would want some sort of conversation prior to the opening. But ge zis christ is that wild? He has been ten and eleven since

taking over. Because Trey Young doesn't want to move without the ball. Basically he is Russell Westbrook. Everybody thought he was going to be Oklahoma Tree Young, which is some version of Steph Curry with off the ball movement, pinned downs, dribble handoffs, and really what he does when he doesn't have the ball is just stand there. Is that encouraging to you or not? Because it is not encouraging to me.

How Snyder has gotten the kids Aj Griffin, Sadique bay Jalen Johnson to buy in and Trey Young hasn't shows you everything you need to know about Trey Young. So would that shock me if Trey Young and or Dejontey Murray got moved this summer, No, it would not. Would I be shocked if they tried to build around Trey

Young next year? I would also not be shocked. All I know is, for the first time in Trey Young's career, people are pointing at Trey Young and saying, listen, motherfucker, you are dead on the chopping block if you don't get that shit squared away. They are not putting up with his nonsense. So either he needs to move without the ball and be a little baby Steph Curry, or he is going to somewhere like Houston with Jalen Green and them boys. That's all the time that we have

for this episode of the heat Check. Check back Thursday before we start the playoffs. Do not forget to check the feed. I hope that there will be more interviews coming. Might have an interview lined up that is very special. Stay tuned for that, and please follow the heat Check is the playoffs are now here, download subscribe, Please tell your friends, all of them. Follow us on socialide at this heat Check at just to criek on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram.

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