The Dallas Mavericks are on a bit of a roll right now, having won seven of their last 10 games, including back-to-back victories over the San Antonio Spurs and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Despite all those victories, they remain firmly in the Western Conference cellar, closer to the top of the draft lottery than to a playoff bid — prompting Rick Carlisle to unleash this incredible one-liner to reporters on Tuesday:
Rick Carlisle on the Mavs: "We're a shit team, but we're an underrated shit team. That's about as accurately as I can put it."
— tim cato (@tim_cato) January 31, 2017
Wes Matthews, an integral part of the “sh*t team” in question, had to set the record straight, though:
Wesley Matthews: "Quote me, I want Rick to know he's included in this shit too." All smiles.
— tim cato (@tim_cato) January 31, 2017
It’s hard to argue anything Carlisle said — the Mavericks aren’t very good, but they have legitimate NBA talent in Dirk Nowitzki, the shiny-new-primary-scorer version of Harrison Barnes and Matthews, enough to surprise teams on the right night. And that’s just what they’ve done recently, with their win over Cleveland enough to set LeBron James off on an incredible rant against Charles Barkley.
That’s what “underrated sh*t teams” are supposed to do — steal a couple games, and bother better teams while they’re at it. It’s what the Knicks and Kings would be doing, if they weren’t so constantly overshadowed by organizational malaise and convincing themselves they should be great. The Mavericks certainly have their problems, but infighting doesn’t appear to be one of them, which means that they can truly appreciate the good times without being too depressed by the bad. Working for Rick Carlisle seems fun.
