Inside the Mavs - Nov 5th

[Max Power]

Magic number on defense? 42 percent
03:24 AM CST on Friday, November 5, 2004


The banner is the first thing you see once you walk down the stairs that lead to the Mavericks' practice court.

42 percent. That’s the number the Mavericks' defense will focus on this season. Not points. Not steals or blocks, although the Mavericks want plenty of both.

Shooting percentage. When a team plays an up-tempo style and scores as much as Dallas, points allowed isn’t the best indicator of defensive efficiency. Shooting percentage is a better gauge.

The Mavericks want to keep their opponents at or below 42 percent from the field. The defense did just that in victories over Sacramento and New Orleans to open the season.

And this isn’t the zone defense the Mavericks tried in past seasons. The defense isn’t trying to funnel the ballhandler into the middle or push him to one side or the other. This is hard-working, in your-face defense.

“We’re trying not to funnel this year,’’ coach Don Nelson said. “We’re trying to guard and not get beat to the middle of the floor. Our centers are going to be in whatever position they need to be in to be shot blockers.

“We decided not to push any one way this year because it was an excuse to get beat that way. We don’t want any excuses. We want accountability.

“You guard your guy, as Larry Brown would say, like a yard dog.’’

Did you ever think you would hear yard dog in the same sentence as Mavericks defense and not laugh?

It’s early, but this may be the season.

—David Moore

MAVERICKS/NBA Q&A
Q: I think Mark and the Nellies have finally assembled a team worth working with for more than just one year. If these guys are slow to jell this year, does Mark Cuban plan to give this lineup two or three years to prove itself?

Ken Badt, Dallas

MOORE: Three years is a stretch. If this group hasn’t jelled by then, you can argue it never will. I know that’s what Cuban would argue.

Two years? Probably. But if this group is struggling in 2005-06 as the trading deadline approaches, Cuban isn’t the sort to sit by and do nothing. He’s not afraid to make a change, but he usually likes to give it a year-and-a-half to see if it works before moving on. Antawn Jamison and Antoine Walker proved to be the exception because those moves clearly didn’t work.

There may be a tweak here or a trade demand there, but Cuban and the Nelsons want to keep this nucleus intact.

• • •

Q: Assuming Marquis Daniels’ ankle is healthy, why not start Daniels and Josh Howard? Michael Finley and Jerry Stackhouse, when they are healthy, would play however many minutes are left over.

Lynvol Arthur

MOORE: Finley and Stackhouse have been All-Stars. They deserve more than leftover minutes. Make them bit players, and the chemistry this team needs to succeed will never develop.

I don’t want this to sound like I’m saying Daniels and Howard are two young players who should wait their turn. Your turn comes in the NBA when you can produce and help your team win.

Finley is a better outside shooter than either Daniels or Howard and is the team leader. Stackhouse can get to the line and create his own shot better than anyone on the team. The Mavericks need a spot for these skills in the lineup, even if it means shaving a few minutes off the totals of Daniels and Howard.

The key word here is shave, not cut. Doling out minutes among these four players will be the most difficult test Nelson has this season.

• • •

Q: I love Nellie, but why has he insisted on having one of our best players come off the bench the past three years? First Nick Van Exel, then Antawn Jamison and now Jerry Stackhouse, who could be an All-Star and might be better than Finley these days. I know we need Finley’s outside shot, but we also need Stackhouse’s slashing. Start them both, and let the young guns come off the bench.

Mark P., Plano, Texas

MOORE: Rather than answering this, I’d like to get you and Lynvol (see above question) together in a room. It would make for an interesting discussion.

This is an argument that won’t go away. There are 96 minutes a game available at shooting guard and small forward. Divide those minutes by the four players involved and each would get 24 minutes a game.

Each deserves more than 24 minutes a game. Some nights, one or two of them will get it. Other nights, at least one of them will be the odd swingman out.

I don’t think starting Finley and Stackhouse together is a good option. It gives you too many players on the floor who need the ball in their hands to be successful. This takes away from what Dirk Nowitzki gives you offensively -- as we saw last season -- and weakens your defense. The best combination is to start one of the young players with one of the veterans.

• • •

Q: Have the Mavs settled on a point guard or will the load be shared this season?

Jerry Davis

MOORE: Rookie Devin Harris will start. But some of his starts will be like Wednesday night’s game in New Orleans, when he played nine minutes and backup Jason Terry played 39.

This distribution is unusual, but it will happen. Harris and Terry will split the job and minutes played will vary from game to game based on matchups and how they’re performing. Marquis Daniels should be thrown into the mix as well. He has a better feel for Nelson’s offense than either Harris or Terry. Don’t be surprised if he’s at the point in the fourth quarter of close games.

• • •

Q: Chemistry is a big concern. Are we collecting centers to trade for Jason Kidd?

Raju

MOORE: No. The Mavericks are collecting centers for themselves.

Rumors about Kidd possibly coming back to Dallas are overblown. He is the best point guard in the league, but he’s still owed more than $90 million over the length of his contract and is coming off microfracture surgery. Throw that into the equation and he’s not as attractive.

The Mavericks like Terry and want to develop Harris. If Kidd proves he’s healthy and the Mavericks had to give up relatively little to get him, they would listen. But it’s unlikely that will happen.

• • •

Q: I love having Avery Johnson as part of the coaching staff. Why is it that we had to have him on our roster as well, especially considering the number of contracts already in place? I realize he can probably be paid more this way, but does this arrangement have an added benefit to the Mavs?

Mitch, Durham, N.C.

MOORE: Only part of it was monetary.

Think of all the factors in play when the decision was made. Johnson still wanted to play. The Mavericks had a rookie (Harris) and a veteran (Terry) who had never run Nelson’s system. There was a sense that Johnson might be needed in a pinch.

As training camp progressed, it became clear that Harris was more advanced than the Mavericks anticipated. Johnson, meanwhile, found out coaching took up so much of his time that he wasn’t able to do the conditioning he needed to stay in shape.

When Harris and Terry weren’t available for a preseason game in New York, using Johnson wasn’t even discussed. That’s when it hit everyone that Johnson should concentrate on coaching. He announced his retirement a few days later.

• • •

Q: I read that Avery Johnson is the heir apparent to Don Nelson. I thought Donnie Nelson was the heir apparent. Which is it and how does that new heir apparent affect Donnie Nelson?

Robert, New York City

MOORE: Donnie was two heir apparents ago before Sidney Moncrief. Technically, that makes Johnson the third heir apparent. He also is the most likely to actually get the job.

Donnie has moved off the bench and into the front office full time to concentrate on his role as president of basketball operations. Part of him would still like to coach. But he enjoys the front office job and loves Dallas. Look for him to stay.

• • •

Q: Will the Mavs run the risk of losing DJ Mbenga when his current contract expires because another club can outbid them? If so, why didn’t the Mavs draft him in the first round instead of Pavel Podkolzin? It appears Mbenga will be the better player

John Lane

MOORE: The Mavericks could lose him down the road. But he signed a two-year deal, meaning he’s with the team through the 2005-06 season.

Mbenga is an unknown who is more advanced than the Mavericks envisioned. He wasn’t on the draft radar of any team. Podkolzin, meanwhile, wasn’t going to get out of the first round.

Mbenga is the better player now because Podkolzin hasn’t even played. Both need time to develop. Mbenga is promising, but it’s much too early to declare he’ll be better than Podkolzin a year or two from now.

• • •

Q: What is your read on big Pavel P? Will he contribute at all this season or will he spend the year in Europe?

John Whitlock, Brantford, Ont.

MOORE: It’s highly unlikely that Podkolzin will play for the Mavericks this season. He missed most of training camp because of visa problems and is scheduled to undergo surgery on his pituitary gland. He will spend the season on injured reserve, working with Mark Bryant, a member of the team’s player development staff, before and after practice. He’s under contract to the Mavericks and can’t play for a team in Europe.

Podkolzin has the size and potential to be a starting center. But most personnel directors and scouts around the league view him as a backup center who has a lot of work to do before making that next step.

• • •

Q: After two games, Jerry Stackhouse seems like a gem. What did I miss from his early career that made him a virtual throw-in when the Mavs acquired him through trade?

MOORE: The acquisitions of Erick Dampier, Jason Terry and Devin Harris received more attention during the off-season, but Stackhouse was always the most talented player of the lot. He was available in Washington because he disagreed with management about when to return from injury and expressed his displeasure with playing for a losing team. The Wizards also wanted a frontcourt scorer to help balance their offense.

Stackhouse has a reputation of being difficult to get along with. When someone this talented is with his fourth team, there must be something to that reputation. Stackhouse has shown none of that so far in Dallas and publicly accepts his sixth-man role. Time is the true test to see if he really does.

[Scoobay]

so can i take it from the assessment of 'guarding your man like a dog' that the mavs have been playing man-man defense the first two games so far? haven't had a chance to see either...

if so how's our perimeter defense looking?

the other question is it seems it's been either Terry or Harris running the point... thoughts on Daniels running the point, even for brief stretches of time or vs. teams that have bigger players running the point (ala Wade on the Heat of Jaric on the clips)?

[HexNBA]

Yeah there's been little zone

[Mavs_fun_fan]

Originally posted by: Scoobay
so can i take it from the assessment of 'guarding your man like a dog' that the mavs have been playing man-man defense the first two games so far? haven't had a chance to see either...

if so how's our perimeter defense looking?

the other question is it seems it's been either Terry or Harris running the point... thoughts on Daniels running the point, even for brief stretches of time or vs. teams that have bigger players running the point (ala Wade on the Heat of Jaric on the clips)?

I got to watch the New Orleans game it was the first I have been able to watch.

All I can say is it didn't even look like the same team I have become use to, the defense was for the most part very good. Especially when you factor in they haven't played together for very long, They played mostly man to man and very aggressive.

I have to say I was extremely impressed with what I saw, they seemed to be able to contest almost all shots and did a very good job of plugging up the lane and got many steals and deflections

I've only got to watch the one game, but what I saw excited me very, very much.

edit spelling