Mavs Could Use an Opening Day

Today is a wonderful, wonderful day in the world of sports.

Its #OpeningDay for Major League Baseball.

There’s no other sport like baseball when it comes to the overused but fun saying, “Hope Springs Eternal,” which translates loosely to the human nature to always find fresh cause for optimism.

Baseball has the longest season and the shortest off-season, basketball has a decent sized season but a very long off-season. All the time in between and the unknowns and the variables and the fact that each team has hundreds and hundreds of players at their total disposal makes baseball the obvious sport for more optimism.

Photo Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Basketball, you get five starters, a five to eight man bench and perhaps a few more players here and there from the D-League or another country.

It’s a much smaller window. You pretty much know what you’re getting into before the first pitch or the first tip.

With that said, in the theme of MLB’s festive and much welcomed start to the regular season, perhaps the Dallas Mavericks could use an Opening Day of their own.

The Mavs were 39-20 on February 24th.

They’ve gone 7-11 since.

That’s TURRIBLE.

I mean, yes, they’re still primed for the 7 spot in the West. I mean, no, actually.

The Mavs have 46 wins, will need to win four of their last five to surpass last season’s win total of 49. 49 is good, but it’s not what Mark Cuban had in mind when he at last put together a team he actually wanted for the first time since the Championship season of 2011.

Jose Calderon, Samuel Dalembert and Shawn Marion at the end should not win more games than Rajon Rondo, Tyson Chandler and Chandler Parsons at the beginning. Even with a seriously aging superstar Dirk Nowitzki, the way the Mavs have been just blown off the floor since the start of March is not something you expect from a team with ideas of Playoff success.

The ideas of this team being a top threat in the Western Conference and having home court in at least the first round are long gone, and this season itself is in dire need of a fresh start.

That’s right, a fresh start. In April.

Honestly it’s the only hope, because the way the Mavs have been playing recently it’s either a fresh start from today, April 6th, or it’s going to be a very, very disappointing first round exit for a team with very, very high expectations entering the 2014-15 NBA season.

Next: The Smoking Cuban's Playoff Roundtable

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