Keeping Up With The... Mavericks
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - So I'm out late last Friday night. Real late. Late as in, "dang they just turned the lights on and we gotta get up on outta here" kinda late.
So, of course, two words: Waffle House. As the clock neared 2:30 a.m., in walked another two words: Lamar Odom.
My thoughts raced through questions like: Why the heck is he here? Wonder how he played in the Mavs' win over Toronto a couple several hours earlier? Will he ever be happy, motivated and/or good in Dallas?
The thoughts of my female breakfast companion, however, trended a tad differently: Where's Khloe?
I'll be honest, I don't know the Kardashians. Keep up with them? I couldn't pick Khloe or Kim or Karol or Krotch out of a TMZ lineup. I know I'm in the minority here, but I'm not the least bit interested, much less fascinated, by people who are famous for merely being famous. I admire talent. Skill. Accomplishment. Naturally beautiful, inherently wealthy women who are born on third base and run around acting as if they've hit a home run just don't move my needle.
I know there'll be a buzz in American Airlines Center tonight because Khloe – does she really call her husband "Lam-Lam"? – will be sitting courtside with sister, Kim. Go ahead, crane your neck and snap your pics and Tweet "OMG, they're here!" I'll be fixated on Odom and the rest of his new friends.
It's been an expectedly slow start for the Mavericks. The lockout which extended the off-season hurt them more than any other NBA team. It elongated the post-championship party and then forced Dallas to scramble to patch together a roster after making a hurried decision at the fork in the road between win again now or re-fresh and improve in the future. One minute you're hugging J.J. Barea in Victory Park, the next you're raising the championship banner alongside Odom.
Unsettling. Uncomfortable. Underwhelming.
The emotional hangover deteriorated into a funk which contributed to consecutive blowout losses to start the season. Combining alien teammates and games against the athletically superior Heat and Nuggets was a recipe for disaster.
The Mavs will be a legit contender come playoff time in April. But it will take time. The chemistry has to develop. So too the identity. Dallas, unlike the Heat, is a team that has to win with teamwork and ball movement. We've seen it improve the last couple games against the Thunder and will likely tick up slightly again tonight against the Suns at AAC.
Vince Carter has a role. Delonte West is a new strand of Barea. Dirk is Dirk and Kidd is Kidd and Terry is still an offensive sparkplug. Lamar is … to be determined.
Odom has been as abysmal on the court as Terence Newman in the open field. He's still sulking from being uprooted from the Lakers. Even a chance to win a championship, a $7,500-a-month suite at the W Hotel and an order of Waffle House's infamous "smothered and covered" haven't brightened his mood. Yet.
But there are positive signs. Monday night against OKC was his best game yet in Dallas. Played a little point-forward, scoring eight points, grabbing five rebounds and dishing out a couple of assists. So far Odom has sucked, to the tune of 19-percent shooting with only one more field goal (8) than turnover (7) through six games.
Khloe has been a bigger star so far, with the AAC crowd roaring in approval when the video screen displayed her courtside seat behind the Mavs' TV broadcast position. If her husband doesn't warrant bigger ovations soon, this Mavs season may never get off the ground.
And Lamar may be forced to dine at Waffle House by necessity, not choice.
