Dallas Mavericks are a bust so far, and some of that is on Rick Carlisle

This is not a good time to be the president, CEO or marketing director of the Rick Carlisle Fan Club. For one of the few times since Carlisle came to the Mavericks in 2008 his team looks like they are not there. It may actually be the first time it’s happened since he’s been here. The Dallas Mavericks are the second-most disappointing team in the NBA, behind only the Miami Heat. More than any other professional sport, the NBA is a player’s league. But if the team is not consistently showing up, which this team is not, the coach has to feel some of that fun. “We’ve gotta be more consistent with our posture and our disposition and our intensity. No question about it,” Carlisle said Thursday in Utah after the team’s practice when I asked him if he thought his team was playing hard enough to win. If a coach disagrees with that type of question, he’s going to let you know about it. What he’s telling his team is to wake the bleep up and get into somebody. The Mavs are scheduled to play the Jazz again on Friday night in Salt Lake City, but don’t be surprised if they fly back on Friday morning after the Jazz’s ball boy flunks a contact tracing test because his pet goldfish has COVID. Other than Luka Doncic’s triple-double tracker, there isn’t much worth celebrating about the 2020-21 Dallas Mavericks. Unless this team starts to play harder, and quits watching Luka amass empty MVP numbers, this is not a playoff team. They are 8-10, losers of three straight and are in 11th place in a stacked Western Conference, three spots south of the postseason. Right now, despite the presence of Luka and Kristaps Porzingis, this is not even an average team. Too many guys are under performing, and expecting Luka to be LeBron when he’s not. There are, however, a host of perfectly reasonable explanations for Carlisle’s team to be where they find themselves. The team has suffered through a slew of absences from COVID protocols, and Carlisle has not had the chance to coach the team the Mavericks built in the six-week offseason once. Also worth noting, no one cares. You can live with the results considering the team has not been together at all. What you can’t live with is a team that appears to be OK getting its butt kicked. No one expected the Mavs to be the L.A. Lakers, or Milwaukee Bucks. But, heck, the Mavs aren’t even the New York Knicks, who are currently 8th in the East. The Mavs are one of the worst rebounding teams in the NBA. You’re not winning if you can’t have the ball. Defensively they are not much better than they were last season, which is barely average. After Friday night, this all has to change. After Friday night, they will have played a league-high 13 games on the road. According to NBA COVID protocols, players are going to practice, the games, and every other minute is spent in a hotel room. That can’t be fun, or helpful. As much as NBA players all yearned to get out of “the bubble” from last season, this season is not much better. “We are not going to make excuses about COVID,” Carlisle said. Wise choice. The Mavs should get forward Maxi Kleber back shortly, and then they will have the team they expected to before the season began. Beginning Saturday against Phoenix, the Mavericks will play 11 of their next 13 games at home. Even though they are playing in an empty American Airlines Center, the chance to just not be on the road should make some difference. If this team is still sleep walking its way around .500 on Feb. 23 after hosting Boston, they will have no choice but to consider a move or two before the trade deadline on March 25. They may not like Cleveland Cavaliers forward Andre Drummond, but it would be nice if they could find a player with that type of interior game. (BTW, there is some thought Drummond may get bought out soon.) The offseason additions of James Johnson and Josh Richardson are nice, and it still doesn’t give the Mavs muscle underneath. The Mavs knew coming into the season this was not a “finished” team, but if they keep playing at their current pace they are most certainly finished. Basketball stat collect from isports API, for more details please visit www.isportsapi.com .