The Rangers are back in the playoffs. The Cowboys are back in the race.
And look now, but the Dallas Mavericks are back in training camp. Yes, already.
Just five months after they walked off the court in the wake of another disappointing first-round playoff loss (this one to the San Antonio Spurs), the Mavs will today hold their annual Media Day and tomorrow commence camp at SMU.
Their preseason opener is October 5; the regular-season lid-lifter October 27. Are we ready for some basketball?
I know owner Mark Cuban is. After a very eventful personal off-season highlighted by almost buying the Rangers, appearing as a regular on Entourage and having his legal battle with the Securities & Exchange Commission re-booted, he's back to hawking the Mavs as the deepest, perhaps best team in the NBA Western Conference.
The West should be a little diluted with the departure of Carlos Boozer from Utah, Amare Stoudemire from Phoenix and the expected move of Carmelo Anthony from Denver, but the Mavs did little more than tweaking to its 55-win team in the summer of huge free-agency movement.
They basically traded Erick Dampier for Tyson Chandler and drafted South Florida shooting guard Dominique Jones. Smells like another 50+-win team and a playoff berth and then ... who knows?
The proposed lineup:
PG: Jason Kidd/ J.J. Barea
SG: Roddy Beabois/ Jason Terry/ Dominique Jones
SF: Caron Butler/ Shawn Marion
PF: Dirk Nowitzki
C: Brendan Heywood/ Tyson Chandler