Which Star Maverick Guard Would You Take Back: Luka or Brunson? | Episode 501

Welcome to episode 501 of Just Wondering with Norm Hitskas. I had no idea I'd reached the milestone of 500 last week until reminded by my editor, Ashley Bullington. This week, I'm just wondering, a hypothetical for Mavs and NBA fans. Now that the Mavs and Stars have chosen their new sites to play, what's left in Dallas? College football looks like they're about to go to a playoff system where basically everybody gets invitations. And the Rangers problem is offense. Right? Well, maybe not all of it. And now a word from our title sponsor. Eying retirement? We aim to turn your nest egg into a paycheck with half the amount you've been led to believe. Fluent Financial combines in house portfolio design risk management with income generating investments designed to aid your financial independence. Our goal is to develop an effective portfolio strategy to help you retire sooner and have a better lifestyle. Fluent Financial can also implement a program that allows business owners to install a cash balance plan, which may potentially reduce income tax payments. You've worked hard to become successful. Let us help develop an effective portfolio strategy that works for you. Learn more today about Fluent Financial. Retire sooner, better lifestyle. For more information or to schedule a meeting, visit fluentfinancial.com or call (972) 852-4800. In the NBA draft in a couple of weeks, the Mavericks will look for a lead guard, a point guard to run their offense of the future. But I have a hypothetical for you. Mavericks fans, NBA fans, given the situation right now in Dallas with the Mavericks. If you could have back one and only one former star Maverick guard, who would you take back? Luka Doncic or Jalen Brunson? And much has been made of the Brunson trade. Mavs didn't get enough. That was my problem with it. They should have gotten the Lakers unprotected 2031, number one also. But at least in the Donetsk trade, they did get the Lakers unprotected 29 number one. They got a solid player in young Max Christie. They got after they traded Anthony Davis, the thirtieth pick in this year's draft, and they have the rights to some free agents or to some nice cap space as the next year or two comes along. So at least the Mavericks have something show for it. When Brunson left, what do the Mavericks get? Diddly squat, buptus, zilch, nada, nothing. He just left. As he approached his free agency, his final year with the Mavs as it would turn out. The the Mavericks instead appeared to want to negotiate with Dorian Finney Smith, and in fact, signed Dorian Finney Smith to a new four year contract. Let's see. Restoring Finney Smith now. Where? Oh, yeah. We know where Jalen Brunson is. At any rate, Brunson all people said Brunson wanted to leave. Brunson wanted to leave. There were lots of indicators he did not want to leave, that he would have stayed here for a nice contract. And by the way, much less than the contract he got for the Knicks. But then the contract with Jordan Finney Smith was announced, and Brunson saw his name starting to appear in trade rumors, and he he was gone to the Knicks. Let's look at Brunson and Doncic. Well, by far Doncic, not by far anymore. Doncic is the bigger name of the two, but Brunson may well have pushed himself in the league's top 10 players. Brunson versus Doncic. Well, we know Doncic puts up these glittering points per game numbers. Let's look at some of the fundamentals. Who's the better three point shooter? Brunson. For his career, he's a 38% shooter, pretty solid. Doncic, a below average 35% shooter. Doncic has never had a season in which he shot 40% from three point range. Brunson's had three of them. Brunson's a substantially better free throw shooter. He has a much better assist to turnover ratio, a critical statistic for point guards. And there's availability. Doncic in his eight years is now average playing 64 games per year. Brunson has played more than 64 games in a year, six straight seasons. And then need we talk about defense? And then why don't we blend and talk about being the leader also? Brunson Brunson was an incredible leader at Villanova, then here in Dallas and then on to lead the Knicks. So if you had your choice, which one would you want back? I suspect you know what my choice would be. What do you want from your favorite restaurant? Fantastic personal service, a cheery, welcoming, spotless atmosphere, and of course, food. The primest of beef, Wagyu, and lamb, incredibly fresh seafood, lobster, salmon, shrimp, hall of fame food from a hall of fame restaurant. Two locations of Bob's Steak and Chop House, the original Bob's on Lemon Avenue, and the gorgeous new Bob's at Craig Ranch McKinney. The Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Stars have chosen the sites to build their brand new arenas. They'll be leaving the AAC and have new arenas built for their thirty one, thirty two seasons. The Mavs will go to Valley View, sitting right on Highway 635. They'll have a 104 acres to spread out there. They've got their Dallas Tollway just to their West And Central Expressway. I think it may be a bit of a misnomer to call that road an expressway. But anyway, that's to the east. The Star's new ice palace will be built in Plano on the site of the shops of Willow Bend. That's just off the tollway, but they'll need to improve access greatly before they open that building in '19 in 2031. So we'll have two new sports mansions, and the team used to play in one sports mansion, the AAC. And to build their new buildings between the two of them, They'll use up more than a billion dollars of municipal funds to get those two arenas done. That's more than a billion dollars in taxpayer money to build two new facilities where they used to play in one arena, which, by the way, still isn't very shabby at all. They'll build spectacular places, glitzy, showy, hotels, shops, of course, entertainment districts. How many of those do we have now in Dallas Fort Worth? And then in thirty years, they'll tear down these two buildings and build two new ones. That's exactly how long the a lasted when they leave thirty years. The ballpark in Arlington lasted twenty six years before the Rangers bailed and built their new Globe Life Field. And that old ballpark in Arlington now called Choctaw Stadium. It's it's they're doing very, very little, and it would still be so usable. And what becomes of that still very usable AAC? Maybe it'll host concerts or or maybe those concerts will go to those new entertainment districts. Maybe it'll be torn down to build something Downtown Dallas really needs. Three or four high rises that constitute 5,000 new apartments, and on the Ground Floor of seven eleven and some sandwich shops, and what of downtown after the stars and the Mavs have left? Well, AT and T is already packing its gear to leave for its new headquarters in Plano, but the stars. Neiman Marcus has shut its iconic Downtown Dallas location. And the city now will likely tear down the I'm paid design City Hall and build, well, another hotel with shops and entertainment district. I'll likely be gone by then. So do me a favor. Would the last one leaving Downtown Dallas please turn out the lights? My wife Mary is the cocreator of Full Moon Healing Balm, And I guess I'm the reason this terrific cream was developed. A few years ago, I began getting these huge, ugly blood blotches just beneath the skin of my arms and hands. The condition's called senile purpura. And no, you don't have to be senile to experience this embarrassment. It happens as you age. And then to cover it up, we begin wearing long sleeves, even when it's hot. It took two years working with a New Jersey lab to refine the all natural ingredients of full moon healing. Gently massage a very small amount into the skin, and within a day, the blotches begin to fade. See now, purpura usually takes weeks to disappear. But this bomb cuts the timeline to about a week. And ordering's so easy. Just go to the website, fullmoonhealingco.com. Looks like we're about to finalize a proposal and put it into action that'll see the college football playoff field expand from 12 teams to 24 teams. The big 12 coaches saw the idea and voted unanimously to accept it. The a a the ACC is on board, and the SEC is on board. That leaves the big ten as the lone holdout. They want a 16 team playoff, but they'll cave eventually. College football initiated a four team playoff in 2014. It went to 12 teams in 2024. And now in two years, three years, It'll go to 24 teams. How will that work? Well, with 24 teams, eight teams will get buys in the first round, and then there'll be eight more first round games involving the other 16 teams, and they'll be played at campus sites. And the winners will meet the eight teams that got buys in the first round. The big conferences, why are why are they so eager to expand? Well, in all due honor of the Swedish band Abba, let me suggest to you the reason. It's money, money, money, money, money. See, with eight first round games and then eight more games from the round of 16. Eventually, it'll take 23 playoff games to decide the national champion, and TV will pay for 23 playoff games. They'll happily pay for 23 playoff games. And who will get the pay? Well, the teams in the playoffs. If if the twenty fourteen playoff were in effect last year and using the final top 25 rankings. That twenty fourteen field would have consisted of six members of the big ten, seven members of the SEC, five members of the Big twelve and three members of the ACC. And then, of course, there's Notre Dame. And then there's the two adorable nuts, James Madison and Tulane. Well, with all those extra games, the the pie is gonna get larger. And the four big conferences, they're gonna get much larger slices of the money, money, money, money. At 24 in the playoff field, that means that more than one of every six major college teams will get a bid to play for the championship. We'll have three lost teams. Lots of four lost teams, maybe a five lost team or two. Yes. Playing for the national championship, a team that they have lost five regular season games. And will a playoff expansion end there? A hundred years from now, will we have a 2014 playoff still? I don't think so. I think the next step is to 36 teams in the field because that means more money, money, money, money. Stolen Water Media is making a move. After two plus years, it's time to change and keep up with our growth. You can continue to view all eight of our podcasts on our Patreon pages. But now you can get all episodes at www.stolenwatermedia.com. This is a developing story, but you can begin by watching and listening right now at www.stolenwatermedia.com. Continue to find all audio wherever you find your favorite podcasts, and some you may not have heard of, but I think will enjoy. Are you just wondering where your next spectacular vacation will be? Relax. Feel the sun on your body. Let your cares melt away at the all inclusive Cerenian Bay Resort in Southern Belize. It's literally built right on the sand. The ocean, your ocean, is just a few barefoot steps away. Laid back luxury, terrific food, a swim up bar, a spa, air conditioned gym, unimaginable service, fishing, snorkeling in gorgeous turquoise waters. Do you want relaxation or do you need adventure? You choose at Ceridian Bay. Barry and I have been there three times and this summer will be number four. Take a cozy bungalow for two or bring the whole family to villas that can accommodate up to 14. Sirenianbay.com, sir E N I a N. The sand and the sea are just waiting for you to get here. When the rangers started the season, they had arguably no. In effect, truly, the toughest first 40 games in the major leagues. We did a piece before the season starting. So they started saying, if only they can get to twenty and twenty through those first 40 games, that would be terrific. Well, he went nineteen and twenty one, which was not bad at all. But since then, in the last four weeks, against perhaps, I think, in fact, the weakest schedule in Major League Baseball, they've gone thirteen and twelve. What's the problem? Well, we all know that it's the offense. This league averages almost four and a half runs a game in the map and the Rangers barely, barely yet four runs a game. And, okay, the pitching's fine, right? The pitching's carrying this team. Well, wait a minute. Shouldn't we factor in the park that the Rangers play in? Statcast, those people who never go out in the sunshine their entire lives and dig into numbers, I can't believe how deep they go. Statcast suggests that in the last three years, the best pitching parks in America, it's tie, Texas and Seattle. That means Texas and Seattle are the toughest hitters parks in all of the major leagues. So maybe you want to forgive the hitters a little bit, and maybe you want to look a little more closely at Ranger starting pitchers like Uvalde and Leiter and Gore, all of whom have ERAs in the fours pitching in the best pitchers park in the big leagues. You know, the rangers the rangers do need offense. I'm not trying to say they don't. And they need a right hand hitting outfielder, a good one, but the farm system's virtually vacant, and there's nothing on a major league level to swap unless they wanna part with one of the young outfielders, and that still wouldn't bring up a sizable bat like that. Yes. The Rangers do need offense. But, you know, also, maybe the Rangers need a little more out of their starting pitching staff considering that staff calls its home a pitcher's paradise. And now a word from our title sponsor. Today's episode has been brought to you by Fluent Financial. Retire earlier, live better. And by Bob's Steak and Chophouse on Lemon in Dallas and in Craig Ranch in McKinney. Bob's, a Dallas tradition for more than thirty years. If you've enjoyed just wondering, please hit follow and a fresh new episode will land in your mailbox early every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning. Should you know a sports fan who might like our work? Please share our contact information with that person. Thanks for listening to today's episode of Just Wondering. I'm Norm Hitschkes, and know that every day I'll be just wondering about something. And I'm Mary Hitchkiss, and I'll just be wondering too. This is a Stolen Water Media production.