This is Chad Ford's 'Mavs Preview', taken from today's ESPN Insider...
DALLAS MAVERICKS
Starting Five: Jason Terry, Marquis Daniels, Michael Finley,Dirk Nowitzki, Erick Dampier.
Key Subs: Jerry Stackhouse, Josh Howard, Devin Harris, Calvin Booth.
Outlook: Mark Cuban made two bold predictions this summer. First, he claimed his new reality series, The Benefactor, would be a big hit. Second, he claimed the new version of the Mavericks he pieced together is the "best team we've ever had."
The first prediction was completely off the mark. The Benefactor stunk and ended up being canceled prematurely by ABC.
Jason Terry
Jason Terry averaged 5.4 apg last season; Steve Nash, now with the Suns, averaged 8.8.
Let's hope his fortune-telling skills are a little better when it comes to basketball. Cuban likes to gamble, and this summer was no different. He let the heart and soul of the Mavericks, Steve Nash, walk away.
He traded away the reigning Sixth Man of the Year, Antawn Jamison, for a guy, Jerry Stackhouse, that has been labeled a cancer on the last two teams he's played for and a rookie point guard (Devin Harris) with big upside, but without the physical strength to contribute right away.
He swapped Antoine Walker for a point guard that most league coaches believe is much closer to a shooting guard than a playmaker. Then Cuban capped his offseason by paying more than $70 million to Erick Dampier – an inconsistent, injury-prone center coming off a stellar 2003-04 campaign.
On paper, Cuban's prediction doesn't seem farfetched. The Mavericks got much better defensively – their Achilles' heel in the playoffs the past two years. Terry is a much better defender than Nash at the point; Stackhouse can be a physical perimeter defender when he wants to be; and Dampier gives the Mavs a legitimate bruiser – a dominant rebounder and shotblocker – in the paint.
The Mavs added all of that without sacrificing offensive firepower. Terry and Stackhouse can score at will. Harris has the potential to be a big-time playmaker and also can fill it up when called upon. Dampier isn't a dominant scorer in the paint, but he's a bigger threat offensively than anyone the Mavs have put in that position the past decade.
Scoring and defense. Athleticism and basketball savvy. Youth and experience. So why are some NBA folks predicting a Benefactor-esque apocalypse for the Mavericks this season?
One rival GM breaks it down:
"The team is talented and deep. They'll be able to score the same clip that they did last year, and they are much better equipped to defend. But two things really bother me about this team. First, I think they are going to miss Nash more than (they) think. He was a perfect fit in Nellie's offense. I don't think Terry pushes it or creates as many opportunities for his teammates as Nash did.
"Second, when you're adding missing pieces to the puzzle, you really want to add veteran guys who know what it takes to win. They added three guys who've been stuck on losing teams for most, if not all, of their careers. Guys like Terry, Dampier and even Stack don't have a clue what it takes to win. Just because all of the guys on your team can fill up a stat sheet doesn't necessarily translate into wins in the NBA."
So far the reviews out of the preseason have been justifiably mixed. It's going to take a team like this a while to jell together. Will Terry pass the ball? Will Damp bog down their uptempo game? Will Jerry blow his stack coming off the bench?
When I talked to Dirk Nowitzki last week on the road in Orlando, he didn't sound like a man confident that this version of the Mavs was the best ever.
"We still have a long way to go to be a good team," Nowitzki told Insider just hours before the winless Magic ran them out of the gym. "We miss him [Nash] a lot. To me he was always our motor. He got us going every night. I thought he was a top-three or four point guard in the league. The two guards we got are solid. They have to get used to Nellie. It takes a while to get used to, I hope."
If Cuban's right, the Mavericks couldn't have picked a better time to make their move. The top of the Western Conference isn't a strong as it used to be. The Spurs, Timberwolves and Kings are still good, but they're all beatable.
If he's wrong and the Mavs actually sink deeper into the Western Conference quicksand, it's probably time to cancel this version of the Mavericks and start from scratch again next season.