[#1MavsFan]

The Mavericks Report By "Maven" Dawn Santoianni
for HOOPSWORLD.com
Sep 22, 2002, 11:06am

Sometime last week I was watching the movie Jerry Maguire – the one with Cuba Gooding Jr. as the petulant football player and Tom Cruise as the sleazy sports agent who develops a conscience and decides to be honest with clients. Maguire, played by Cruise, loses all of his clients and is left with Gooding as his only chance. The best scene is hilarious – Gooding is on the phone with Cruise demanding him to “show me the money...show me the money!” Cruise is screaming it into the phone over and over – Gooding even prompts Cruise to yell, “I love the black man!” It’s a classic. And watching it, I couldn’t help but get a mental image of Mark Cuban on the phone with Rashard Lewis, screaming “I WILL SHOW YOU THE MONEY...I LOVE BLACK PEOPLE!” Of course, in the end, Cuban and the Mavs couldn’t show Lewis much money and he resigned in Seattle for exactly the reason everyone speculated he would.

Whether or not signing Lewis would have been a gamble that paid off, no one will know. But the movie also provided a striking metaphor for how the Mavericks had all their plans pinned to one player. By reserving the mid level exception for Lewis, the Mavs have forgone other free agent signings. No one but Lewis was worth the full exception in the Mavericks’ eyes, so they focused on one player. For Jerry Maguire, it worked out. For Dallas, it didn’t.

Maybe I’m being a bit harsh here. After all, the Mavericks made a highly rated move in bringing back the all-hustle, no-air Popeye Jones. They will hopefully resign fire spark Eduardo Najera in the next week or so, and seem to have something brewing via sign-and-trade with Wang Zhizhi. The Mavericks want to stay put and not make any major offseason changes. That wouldn’t be a bad thing if you look at the roster that includes All-Stars Finley, Nash and Nowitzki, an explosive starter quality point guard that comes off the bench, and three seven-footers. But the defensive woes of the Mavericks are well documented, and while Don Nelson identified the lack of defensive muscle as a key area to address in the offseason, the Mavericks have basically done nothing. The lack of summer movement prompted the well-respected Dwain Price of the Star-Telegram to wonder “Has Nelson suddenly become gun-shy? Has he lost the touch that helped him acquire Christian Laettner, Howard Eisley, Adrian Griffin, Tim Hardaway, Danny Manning and Evan Eschmeyer the past two off-seasons?” I kind of laughed when I read that statement. I think Dwain might have been ironic without realizing it – after all, 4 of those 6 players are no longer with the team, and you could forget Eschmeyer was even on the roster as he rotted on the bench last season.

I wouldn’t think staying put was a huge problem if Nelson was going to use the talent on the bench properly. But his love of small ball, his lack of focus on defense throughout the season, and the constant changes to quirky defensive schemes (supposedly to confuse the opposition) left the Maverick players confused and without proper instruction on how to play decent defense. If you look at the minutes he has played his big men (with the exception of Dirk Nowitzki), it is dismally small. In 2000-01, big men played only 18% of the total game time, in 2001-02 it shrunk to 15%. Add in Dirk, and big men were on the floor only 30% of the time last season. That’s right – 70% of the time, the players on the floor were under 6’10”. Conversely, the small guys (under 6’5”, which doesn’t include Finley) were on the floor 37% of the time. The Mavericks have quite a few tweeners on the roster, who got significant playing time when Nellie went with small ball. If you figure a typical lineup features three frontcourt players taller than 6’10” (which the Mavericks could put on the floor), big men should at a minimum play 60% of the time, right? The idea of staying with the current group is not a bad idea if the big men are utilized and Dallas gets serious about defense. Unfortunately, the players who could make the most impact on the defensive end are often the ones sitting on the bench.

I am actually quite relieved that Lewis signed in Seattle. I think he’s a fine player, but an offensively gifted one – the last thing the Mavs need. With Nelson likely starting training camp with the current group, he may be forced to give more minutes to hustle players like Najera and Jones, and defensive-minded types like Griffin and hopefully Bradley. With no Lewis in the SF spot, 38 minutes of playing time just became available. The void left by Lewis is not a void. It is an opportunity for the Mavericks to get serious about defense. Lets hope they seize that opportunity.