Mavs Notes: Acy, Nowitzki, Rondo, Carlisle

Earlier today, we passed along comments from Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who said on Sunday night that his team doesn’t have any interest in tanking this season, despite a league-worst 3-13 record so far. Cuban’s thoughts on tanking, the 2017 draft, and not wanting his team to grow accustomed to losing created the most interesting Mavs-related headline of the day, but there are plenty of other notes out of Dallas to round up. Let’s check them out…

• The D-League’s Los Angeles D-Fenders have claimed Quincy Acy off waivers, but will trade him to the Texas Legends in a deal that involves a 2017 first-round pick, reports Chris Reichert of The Step Back (via Twitter). Acy was waived by the Mavs earlier this month, and is now on track to join Dallas’ D-League affiliate, once the claim and trade are made official.
• Dirk Nowitzki returned to action last week, but his Achilles issues are expected to linger into December and won’t go away overnight, as Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News writes. Nowitzki sat out Sunday’s game against the Pelicans, and will likely continue to sit out the occasional game going forward to avoid any setbacks, per head coach Rick Carlisle.
• Although his time in Dallas didn’t work out like he hoped it would, Bulls point guard Rajon Rondo praised Carlisle, telling K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune that he has “a lot of respect” for his former head coach. “Just because things don’t go well doesn’t mean you hate a person or that the media perception is right,” Rondo said. “Rick and I had a good relationship in the beginning. We tried to work it out. I worked with him every day on my shot. We watched film together. Not every marriage works. It was a learning process.”