👋 Good morning! Happy midway point of the week, everyone. And happy Cooper Flagg Eve to those who celebrate. The Mavs kick off Summer League tomorrow against the LA Lakers, giving us our first glimpse of Flagg in a Mavs uniform. Can’t wait!

This marks the first of many events we’ll be remote for in the coming weeks. The Mavs crew heads to Vegas today and will be there through Sunday. Abby Jones will be at all the MLB All-Star festivities next week, bringing you coverage of Jacob deGrom and more. Clarence Hill is about to head to Oxnard for Cowboys camp, and the rest of the crew will be joining him the second week of August. We’re getting closer to football season, folks! We’re looking forward to covering all this stuff and bringing you as close to the action as possible. — Bobby Karalla

News came from kinda out of nowhere yesterday afternoon that Mavs big man Anthony Davis underwent surgery to repair a detached retina. A brief Google image search tells me that it’s the kind of procedure I don’t ever want to look at again, let alone experience. (Eyes freak me out.) Davis suffered the injury at some point during the regular season. It’s very possible it happened April 2 against the Hawks, when he was on the receiving end of some friendly fire. He briefly left the game to get cleaned up before coming back in and hitting a game-winner.

It also could have happened at any other point. Basketball players get poked in the eye a lot, and Davis dealt with some various eye injuries and maladies during his time with the Lakers as well.

The injury and timing of the surgery quickly became another referendum on the Mavs’ training and medical staff, who understandably came under fire due to the sheer volume of absences the team experienced last season, Dereck Lively II’s inexplicable nearly playing on a broken foot due to a reported misdiagnosis, and some icy tension between the team and Luka Doncic before he was traded to LA.

I’m not gonna go there just yet. First off, we don’t know when this happened. Secondly, he might have seen a specialist who said it was OK to keep playing with. NBA trainers don’t really deal with internal eye anatomy. That’s someone else’s job. Third, we don’t know how severe the injury was, or how comprehensive the procedure ended up being. Fourth, we don’t know if there was any chance for further damage. Most importantly, it’s July and I don’t really want to think about a medical staff at this point. I just don’t have the the juice for that right now. BUT, if I did, I’d say let’s wait and see what else (if anything) comes out about this. Marc Stein and Tim Cato will definitely ask around and will share any additional information they hear.

Clarence Hill brought the goods with this story on Dak Prescott’s thoughts on the George Pickens acquisition and what it’s been like working with him and CeeDee Lamb so far.

“To be the guy that gets to get them the ball, it’s exciting as hell because you can turn on the OTA tapes and one of the guys, the ball is in the air (for) and (the) other one has got his hand up celebrating already,” Prescott said.

It seems like those two are getting along great. We know CeeDee and Dak have great rapport on the field already, but if Pickens and Prescott end up clicking too then watch out. The Cowboys might just have an elite passing offense this season, if the coach is OK with throwing it enough.

The Rangers scored 13 runs last night in a win against the Angels, as many as they’d scored in their previous three games combined. It had to have been a nice collective sigh of relief after another frustrating loss the night before and struggling to consistently get on the board in the previous series against the Padres.

Texas did it on just 12 hits, too. Jose Soriano walked the bases loaded in the top of the fourth and the Rangers thanked him by slapping two doubles and a base hit to bring home five in the inning. The Rangers are 3.5 games out of the last Wild Card spot.

Sam Nestler put together a Stars offseason roundup so far, which provides some nice insight into the big and small moves the team has made so far, including and especially at head coach. If you’re in the camp that thinks the Glen Gulutzan hire rules, this is the article for you. If you’re a Hire Hater, well, give Sam a chance to change your mind.

THE LUDS SHIN PADS!!

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Bobby Karalla
DLLS Sports Head of Content​
[email protected]