D Magazine presents StrongSide

Guest: Tim MacMahon of ESPN and The Hoop CollectiveThe new head coach of the Dallas Mavericks is… Dusty May? The Michigan guy? We’ll talk to Tim MacMahon shortly about why May and how this came together, but for now, what’s your take on Jason Kidd’s replacement? So that’s the coach. But how do May and Masai Ujiri and Mike Schmitz want to build this roster? We’ve got our first glimpses on Tuesday,...

0:00 - 1:17 Intro 1:18 - 25:16 Jalen Brunson reaches the mountain top 25:17 - 31:12 Hurricanes win the Stanley Cup 31:13 - 38:50 Keaton Wagler scouting report 38:51 - 53:35 What will the Mavs do on draft night? 53:36 - 1:23:28 Shaq Moore of FC Dallas talks World Cup —-------------------Like and subscribe to our channel if you enjoy StrongSide. If you'd like to read even more great journalism a...

After years of anticipation, the World Cup is finally here. Are you into it, or has the adjoining layers of nonsense – high ticket prices, watering down the field, visas – taken some of the joy out of it? We’re gonna talk to the man himself about it shortly, but Friday marks the 15-year anniversary of the greatest moment in Mavs history. You and I met for the first time like two weeks after this w...

The first big domino of the future homes for was the teams’ decision to split up after spending more than 30 years in the same place. Now we’ve got the second: the Mavs have picked their site, and in a mild upset, it isn’t the City Hall site. Instead, the Mavs are staying in Dallas by way of building over the old Valley View mall. The Stars are on the move to Plano as well. What a tough 24 hours f...

The Rangers managed to get themselves no-hit on Monday in spite of opening the game with three consecutive walks. Impressive stuff! Is there some larger takeaway besides a bad day at the office, and is a combined no-hitter more embarrassing than being taken down by just one guy? Story that flew under the radar this weekend: the Mavericks won their legal battle with the Stars and now control the Am...

The Mavericks decided to fire Jason Kidd. What now and why? The Dallas Cowboys are heading into voluntary OTAs. So, what’s still to-do and what’s worrying you the most? Which position groups could derail this season before it starts? The Rangers feel tethered to being one game under .500. It’s been a little bit since we talked about the local baseball team, so let’s do a Rangers vibe check. On the...

Well, the NBA draft lottery has come and gone and, surprise, the Mavericks had bad luck again! Seems they really did use up every bit of good juju last year getting Cooper Flagg. This time around, Dallas has the ninth pick, which is one spot lower than the projected lottery odds had them going in and outside of where we saw the sweet spot of this draft. Cool stuff. On Friday, Jim Nill addressed th...

When we recorded our last episode, we both had a feeling the Stars were in trouble. Turns out our worst fears were realized pretty quickly, as they got bounced in Game 6 for their earliest playoff exit since 2022. You buying this as a one-off or do you think this is a sign of a deeper issue that needs to get fixed? The Mavericks found their Nico replacement, and it’s a pretty impressive name. Masa...

Some things in life are not worth the wait. That Cowboys draft was. Now that we’re on the other side of this thing, and Caleb Downs is in our lives, are you as fired up about how well that went as I am? It wouldn’t be the Cowboys if something weird wasn’t going on, though, and something weird is definitely going on with George Pickens. Last week, the team announced he’s playing on the franchise ta...

We have a series. The Stars and Wild are tied at one game apiece, with Dallas dropping the series opener before rallying in Game 2. You were pretty jacked up last week. You still feeling that way as the series shifts to Minnesota or you more like that dude Colin Blackwell knocked the fuck out? The Mavericks lost a lottery coin flip with New Orleans on Monday that bumps them down to eighth in the d...

Six long, excruciating months later, we are finally free of this cursed Mavericks season. Dallas finishes the season 26-56, which tied the for seventh-worst record in the league. Cooper Flagg was awesome–maybe so awesome that the league gives him Rookie of the Year like they should. Other than that, Mike, what did we learn? Let’s talk about the other Dallas pro basketball team because there’s cons...

The NBA was having a nice little Rookie of the Year debate, and then Cooper Flagg up and decided to drop 96 points in two games. The only rookie to do that before him? Wilt Chamberlain. In so doing, Flagg also became the first teenager in history to have a 50-point game. Can we stop talking about Kon Knueppel now? The NHL regular season doesn’t end for a few more days, but we know the Stars’ first...

Machine was the optimistic one of the two of us about the 2026 Texas Rangers, and so far, so good. The Rangers are 4-1, but better still is how they’ve looked getting there. You have to encouraged right now, right? Mark Cuban, come do our podcast! Because it seems like every time the man does one, tea gets spilled. The latest and greatest happened this week on the Intersections podcast, which is h...

At long last, after months of frustration and repudiation and very little spending, Opening Day is here! We’ll get into the nitty gritty with our guest Zach Wolchuk, but let’s do the top-down view now. Texas’ over-under for wins is 83.5 and more or less a coin flip with Houston for second place in the AL West. Will Texas exceed or fall short of those projections? Speaking of narrow margins, Cooper...

Last week on this program, I got real mad about the Cowboys doing next to nothing in free agency. Since then, they’ve done less than nothing, because somehow, the talent got worse on defense. Cobie Durant is coming in on a one-year deal from the L.A. Rams, but out went Osa Odighizuwa, who was traded to the 49ers for a third-round draft pick. I give up, man. Last week, we had a bit of a revelation...

The Cowboys: they’re doing things! The highlights were Monday, when Dallas traded a 2027 fourth-round pick to Green Bay for defensive lineman Rashan Gary and signed safety Jalen Thompson from Arizona on a three-year deal worth up to $36 million. We’re going to talk more about both guys with Bob Sturm, but why has the Cowboys free agency approach failed? Last week, we started our draft spotlight se...

Let’s begin with some news we saw coming: George Pickens got franchise-tagged. We’re seeing all the right things out there about how both sides want to continue together long-term, and I’d guess that ends up happening. But the type of franchise tag they gave him tells us this may not be quite as cut-and-dried as people want it to be, right? Good news, Mavs fans: the team is not raising ticket pric...

avonte Williams is back with the Dallas Cowboys on a three-year deal. The total outlay: $24 million, $16 million of which is guaranteed. It's far less money than Pie was planning on paying him and kind of proves Machine right that his market was nowhere close to the 10M a year range. I think the NBA heard us on tanking. According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, the league will put anti-tanking measu...

The NFL combine is underway. I know the NFL wants us to care about this a whole lot–it’s now a full week. And there will undoubtedly be useful information to come out of this. But how much substance is there relative to the sizzle? How much should we really care? Sebastian Walcott, the Rangers top prospect, needs elbow surgery. The good news is he’s not a pitcher–this should all be fine in a year....

File “Mark Cuban may or may not want to re-purchase the Mavericks” under things I did not expect to read this week. But according to Marc Stein, “an unidentified Dallas investor group is interested in partnering with Mark Cuban to buy the Mavericks back from Patrick Dumont.” Is this a real possibility and is it a good idea? Hey, did you know the Super Bowl was Sunday? Real thing that happened. Sup...

Well it finally happened, the Mavericks have closed the circle on the Luka Doncic trade by trading Anthony Davis to the Washington Wizards. What we assumed to be a pure salary dump a few weeks ago actually turns out to be rather profitable. We give the Mavs front office their flowers and take a deep breath as we exit the most tumultuous year in the history of Dallas sports. We also take time to re...

If you caught our emergency pods on Friday, then you know our feelings about Christian Parker, the Cowboys’ new defensive coordinator. Short version: we like it, and he’s going to take this defense out of the stone age. But you said something very interesting that I want to unpack more as we spin this thing forward. Machine said you know exactly what positions the Cowboys are going to draft with t...

If you have followed the Rangers’ offseason, you understand how reasonable this assumption was. Things began boldly enough, on Thanksgiving week, when the Texas swapped club stalwart Marcus Semien for Brandon Nimmo in a trade after my own heart. Past that, it was a lot of a little—tweaks here, touch-ups there. As Zach Crizer pointed out last month, none of these moves were bad, per se. Danny Janse...

The Cowboys held a legitimate search for their open defensive coordinator position and came to the conclusion that Eagles pass game coordinator Christian Parker was the best man for the job. Parker comes from the Vic Fangio coaching tree so what does that mean for the style of defense that the Cowboys could be rolling with this season?

On Saturday night, Luka Doncic returns to Dallas for a second time. I was still a Mavericks employee the first time he made it back. Now I'm not. What was that first return like, and how are the feelings different now versus a year ago?  The college football season is over and Indiana is your national champion. Their 2026 non-conference schedule includes the Mean Green, so get ready to learn N...