The longest preseason trip in NBA history
Your favorite NBA newsletter was there for the last leg and can now share this maiden dispatch from Madrid
MADRID — In his eight-game Dallas Mavericks career, Facundo Campazzo made one 3-pointer, three baskets total and one free throw in the 52 minutes of floor time he managed before he was abruptly released after just six weeks with the team.
In Tuesday night’s Luka Dončić Bowl at Real Madrid’s WiZink Center, Campazzo scored the hosts’ last nine points in the final 85 seconds to put a stinging seal on the longest preseason trip — literally and figuratively — in NBA history.
The Vengeance of Facu?
The above tweet reply I received after the game might have overstated things somewhat. Real Madrid’s Campazzo-led closing surge to inflict a 127-123 defeat of the Mavericks came largely against Dallas’ third string.
The visitors’ inability to beat a EuroLeague team in the last of three preseason games abroad, following back-to-back losses to Minnesota in Abu Dhabi, nonetheless put a fitting seal on how disorienting much of this lengthy excursion has been for Dallas.
A left calf strain Dončić suffered Tuesday in practice forced the Mavericks to limit the former Real Madrid teen stalwart to less than five minutes of court time in the game that owner Mark Cuban has been promising to get on Dallas’ schedule for years. Dončić insisted afterward that the injury is “nothing serious,” but it is the same left leg that has been giving him trouble since late February.
It was the same injury, furthermore, that prevented Dončić from playing in the first three games of the Mavericks’ stirring first-round series against Utah in the spring of 2022.
Kyrie Irving, meanwhile, missed two of the Mavericks’ three international exhibitions with left groin soreness that, to this point, has generated no recovery timeframe. It’ll likely thus be unclear, when the Mavericks fly back to Dallas on Thursday to cap a 12-day journey covering nearly 17,000 air miles, whether either of their All-Star guards can be back on the floor next Monday when the team is allowed by league rules to resume full-scale practices.
Fresh off a 5-11 record last season when both were in uniform, Dončić and Irving have spent less then seven minutes together on the floor during the Mavericks’ 0-3 start to the preseason.
The truth is that Campazzo’s two late driving layups and dagger 3-pointer from the wing won’t cause any lasting hurt for Dončić and Dallas. Although it surely stirred some emotions for the Argentine guard, who was signed by the Mavericks to bring some Madrid-tinged familiarity to Dončić’s NBA city before he was abruptly jettisoned to make room for Kemba Walker, this was still just an exhibition game.
It’s TBD, though,, whether we’ll be able to say the same about a lengthy journey that, even with 11 new players, didn’t exactly foster the renaissance feel that the Mavericks were hoping for after last season’s almighty slide from the Western Conference finals to a 38-44 record and an 11th-place finish in the West.
There will be more to come from my trip to España to see it all play out, both in pictorial and written form, in the next few days. First up was this quickie postgame coverage from the middle of the night in Madrid that, that made this dispatch a Tuesday Evening Newsletter Extravaganza.
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A new Dream Team?
It has been difficult to keep track of the all the American stars since training camps began leaguewide who have announced to the world that they'd like to play for the United States at next summer's Paris Olympics.
There were so many — even before Philadelphia's Joel Embiid pledged his international future to the red, white and blue — that Kawhi Leonard might have to settle for a sixth-man role if he's actually on the 12-man roster.
Seriously. If everyone plays for the United States who says they want to play?
It will be closest thing to the original Dream Team, in terms of talent and star power, that we've ever seen.
Imagine a starting lineup that features Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Embiid ... with a TBD starry fifth starter.
I can't, however, help but ask:
Do we really want or need to see that?
On one hand: USA Basketball absorbs reams of criticism whenever it loses any game and can't be faulted for wanting to assemble the strongest possible squad to hush that noise in the wake of fourth- and seventh-place finishes at the last two World Cups.
On the other: If the best of the American best are all volunteering to play, as appears to be the case, it is doubly difficult (at least for me) to feel remotely celebratory about the United States adding the reigning MVP in what felt like a free agency recruiting showdown with France and Embiid's native Cameroon.
It's a quandary that I explored at length during the third segment of my Saturday radio show on 97.1 The Freak in Dallas. The show also featured an interview with Timberwolves coach Chris Finch.
Check it out here:
Numbers Game
🏀 1988
The Mavericks' game Tuesday night at Real Madrid marked the NBA's 20th exhibition game in Spain since the Boston Celtics played against both Real Madrid and the unified Yugoslavian national team in 1988.
🏀 2016
It was the NBA's first game in Spain since 2016, when Real Madrid — featuring a 17-year-old Luka Dončić — beat Oklahoma City. Real Madrid won that one, too.
🏀 19
Nineteen first-round picks from the Class of 2020 remain eligible for contract extensions before the Oct. 23 deadline after Boston's Payton Pritchard became the seventh player from the class to sign a new deal. (The number actually rises to 20 because Orlando's Chuma Okeke, drafted No. 16 overall in 2019, didn't actually sign with the Magic until 2020.) The list of players still extension-eligible:
*No. 2 pick James Wiseman (Detroit)
*No. 4 Patrick Williams (Chicago)
*No. 5 Isaac Okoro (Cleveland)
*No. 6 Onyeka Okongwu (Atlanta)
*No. 7 Killian Hayes (Detroit)
*No. 8 Obi Toppin (Indiana)
*No. 9 Deni Avdija (Washington)
*No. 13 Kira Lewis Jr. (New Orleans)
*No. 14 Aaron Nesmith (Indiana)
*No. 15 Cole Anthony (Orlando)
*No. 17 Aleksej Pokusevski (Oklahoma City)
*No. 18 Josh Green (Dallas)
*No. 19 Saddiq Bey (Atlanta)
*No. 20 Precious Achiuwa (Toronto)
*No. 21 Tyrese Maxey (Philadelphia)
*No. 22 Zeke Nnaji (Denver)
*No. 25 Immanuel Quickley (New York)
*No. 28 Jaden McDaniels (Minnesota)
*No. 29 Malachi Flynn (Toronto)
🏀 4
Four first-round picks from 2020 are ineligible for a rookie-scale extension: No. 10 overall pick Jalen Smith, No. 23 Leandro Bolmaro, No. 24 R.J. Hampton and No. 27 Udoka Azubuike.
🏀 7
With a reported four-year, $30 million extension, Boston’s Pritchard joined the four 2020 draft alumni who have received max deals (Minnesota's Anthony Edwards, Charlotte's LaMelo Ball, Indiana's Tyrese Haliburton and Memphis' Desmond Bane) as well as San Antonio's Devin Vassell and Detroit's Isaiah Stewart.
🏀 8
The East Asia Super League begins its first season with home-and-away games this week with a field of eight teams from Japan's B.LEAGUE, Korea's KBL, Taiwan's P. LEAGUE+ and The Philippines' PBA. Familiar names participating include Jeremy Lin (New Taipei Kings) and, fresh off averaging 23.6 points per game for Jordan in the recent FIBA World Cup, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (TNT Tropang Giga). Lin joined his new team this week and is scheduled to play in Taipei alongside his brother Joseph.
🏀 8
Trivia time: Without looking it up, can you name all eight NBA teams that Lin played for?
🏀 9
I'm guessing many of you by now are familiar with the Exhibit 10 contracts NBA teams routinely employ to sign players to training camp deals that also enable them to secure a player's G League rights. But are you familiar with the ins and outs of an Exhibit 9 contract? My salary cap maven pal Keith Smith has a great new piece on Spotrac that explains the Exhibit 9 deals recently inked by Rudy Gay and Rodney McGruder with Golden State, Lamar Stevens with Boston and reigning NBA slam-dunk champion Mac McClung with Orlando. Something I didn't realize until I read Keith's piece: Dwight Howard originally signed an Exhibit 9 contract when he joined the Lakers for the second time for their championship season of 2019-20.
🏀 5
After Joel Embiid announced that he will play for the United States at next summer's Paris Olympics, Cameroon will have to try to qualify without him as one of 24 teams that will participate in last-chance qualifying in July. Without Embiid or Toronto's Pascal Siakam — neither of whom has played a senior national team game for their native country — Cameroon was one of five teams to win a pre-qualifying tournament during this past offseason along with Bahrain, Croatia, Poland and The Bahamas (starring DeAndre Ayton, buddy Hield and Eric Gordon).
🏀 24
The 24 teams next July will be divided into four six-team groups — with the winners filling the last four Olympic spots in a 12-team field that already features host France, Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, Serbia, South Sudan and the United States.
🏀 9
Nine nations from Europe will also compete in last-chance qualifying: Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Italy, Spain, Montenegro, Greece, Georgia and Finland. Ten more teams come from the Americas Region (Puerto Rico, Brazil, Dominican Republic and Mexico), Africa (Egypt, Angola and Ivory Coast) and Asia and Oceania (Lebanon, Philippines and New Zealand).
🏀 11
Trivia answer: Lin had stints in the NBA with the Warriors, Rockets, Lakers, Hornets, Nets, Hawks and Raptors in addition to his breakout run with the Knicks during the 2011-12 season. He played with 11 teams in North America if you include his three G League stops (Reno Bighorns, Erie BayHawks and Santa Cruz Warriors) and won a ring with Toronto in 2019.
🏀 97.1
Readers in the Dallas area — or those who want to listen online — can catch me live for an hour on Saturdays talking NBA on 97.1 The Freak. The Saturday Stein Line debuted on July 1 and can be found via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts:
If you were an NBA coach, who on Real Madrid’s roster would you feel most comfortable having in your rotation?
I wonder what Weaver is going to do with Wiseman and Hayes and I'm scared that I know the answer.