SLAM Mavs preview

[ames7]

from Mike Fisher (db.com)...

WHAT'S YOUR NAME AND WHERE DO YOU LIVE?: Mike Fisher, in Dallas, the editor of DallasBasketball.com and the host of the daily radio show "Fish For Lunch" on 990 am in Dallas.

YOUR TEAM IS: Dallas Mavericks

WHY IS THIS YOUR FAVORITE TEAM?: Geographic reasons, to start, of course. I do think, though, that the force of personality of first Nellie and then Cuban has created a zany, entertaining, "what-will-happen-next?" circus atmosphere for fans who watch the games and for players who participate in it.

Nellie recently said that no matter his personnel changes, he will always coach a running team "because it's fun. The players like to run and I like to run." A recognition of responsibility to be both good and entertaining, rather than insisting that the only way to win is to make your players wear dark suits, short haircuts and a "three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust" mindset? Cool.

WHO IS RETURNING FROM LAST YEAR?: We're looking at a drastically different roster from the team that won 60 and went to the WCF just 18 months ago: Only Dirk Nowitzki, Michael Finley and Shawn Bradley remain from that maybe-best-ever-Mavs team. 2003-04 rookies Josh Howard and Marquis Daniels (signed in a hurry when Nash left) are back; both are good enough defensively to belie the idea that Dallas can't play defense.

Look at it this way: Assuming Dallas' starting lineup is Erick Dampier, Dirk Nowitzki, Michael Finley, Marquis Daniels and Jason Terry, that means a 60-percent turnover from that 2002-03 WCF starting lineup. Assuming the next five guys in the rotation are Devin Harris, Josh Howard, Jerry Stackhouse, Alan Henderson and Calvin Booth, there's a 100-percent turnover in the second five.

WHO SKIPPED TOWN?: The most significant loss is the departure of Steve Cash...I mean, Nash. (That line was uttered recently at a Fan's Q-and-A session and got a big laugh, so I thought I'd try it out on this audience.) The spin being sold here in Dallas is that Nash somehow showed a bit of disloyalty by going to Phoenix, and it seems the audience is buying it. Whatever.

Also being peddled here is that Nash's departure is acceptable because he was a defensive liability. That's a little easier for me to swallow than the concept of Nash as a money-grubber.

Antoine Walker is gone, of course. He's the worst great player who has come through here in a long time; when Nellie mumbles about how last year's team "didn't fit," he's talking about Walk.

Antawn Jamison is gone, and will be missed. He gave Dallas something it truly lacked: a way to get easy baskets.

Eddie Najera will be missed, too. Another fan fave who turned into a solid defensive commodity when most people thought his role here was to be like some sort of Pet Rock with legs.

WHO HAS YOUR TEAM ADDED?: Um, everybody. Erick Dampier is the new starting center (and the first real center Dallas has had since, I believe, Eisenhower was boffing his Jeep driver.) Jason Terry is the new point guard, and rookie Devin Harris will split time with him there. (In terms of replacing Nash, both have already taken the first step, with Red Bull levels of energy on the practice court and in press conferences). Jerry Stackhouse claims to be fired up about the chance to win Sixth Man of the Year, following his UNC pal Antawn Jamison. ("Two in a row? Let's go for it!" Stack says, and he doesn't seem to be faking it.) Calvin Booth is the backup center (leaving Shawn Bradley to, I guess, jump center to start overtimes and ladderlessly change light bulbs). Alan Henderson gets first crack at the backup PF job (but Dirk will eat up 38 minutes there, and Henderson is already mentioning his sore back an awful lot). (Get used to that! -- Lang)

And then two interesting big men (big kids, actually): Pavel Podkolzin (we call him "P-Pod"), who is 7-5, maybe 300, proportionately huge, a neat guy, a funny guy, and a guy who has the basketball instincts of a third-grader; and D.J. Benga, from The Congo, a 6-11 martial-arts expert who looks like some freakish combination of Dennis Rodman and Kevin Willis but will probably foul out in his first minute of every appearance.

Oh, and one tip of the cap to Avery Johnson. He'll return to town with a players' contract but will truly be only a coach and an IR guy. AJ is a natural born leader, a recruiter (the Dampier thing was influenced by him), a spiritual guide (his big-brothering of Van Exel two years ago saved Nick's career) and a guy who will sometimes run practices (he's the head-coach-in-training).

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR TEAM'S COACH?: He stands at the post-game podium with a Bud Light in his hand...what's not to like? He's the perfect coach for an underdog, because he tinkers and experiments and prods and takes risks and entertains and has fun. Is he the perfect coach for a team that seems pretty loaded? Again, he is tremendous at creatively closing the gap between his undermanned teams and superior opponents. He is a gifted and respected leader. He is a marvelous game-day coach. He's a helluva guy.

But the days of poor-mouthing his team by claiming that "we couldn't beat the Pismo Beach Panthers" are over.

WHICH PLAYER IS THE KEY TO YOUR TEAM'S SUCCESS THIS SEASON?: Not even close -- though the Mavs themselves don't always seem to realize it. I hear people talking about how Damp is going to be fed the ball inside. (That's not his game; he's a junk dealer.) I hear people say that this remains Michael Finley's team. (Even Nellie said it the other day, almost defiantly: "Mike has been our leader for a long, long time, and I would suggest to everyone that he will continue in that role.")

But the sooner this team becomes the property of The UberMan -- Dirk Nowitzki -- the sooner it becomes truly great. Dirk is too deferential, and I used to think it was the result of his mellow nature. Then I watched him play for Team Germany in that exhibition against Team USA. Dirk schmoozed the refs, barked orders to the players, pointed out ideas to the coach...he was a leader. The leader.

Why? Because he is clearly Germany's best guy.

Why should he now do the same in Dallas? Because he is clearly Dallas' best guy.

Nellie does go this far: "Nowitzki will have his most productive year."

WHAT TEAM DO YOU MOST WANT TO BEAT?: When I was in high school, my nemesis/bully was Nacho Espinoza. Big, bad mofo. Twenty years later comes my high-school reunion. I was not looking forward to bumping into Nacho -- until I learned he is now the assistant head janitor at the Greeley (Colo.) Mall.

Goodbye, rivalry.

I think about this when I hear Mark Cuban talk about how this year, no matter what rival you bring up, he brings it back to wanting to beat the Lakers. Dallas vs. the Lakers, this year? Forget history: Cuban will probably happily discover that L.A. is the Mavs' Nacho Espinoza.

WHAT TEAM DO YOU MOST NEED TO BEAT?: Before the Dampier deal, the Mavs' roster looked like a jumbled assemblage of interesting but ill-fitting pieces that, had it remained that way, probably needed to focus on beating whomever else was trying to finish seventh or eighth in the West.

But now?

The idea is to be in the top four. Mavs brass has absolute respect for the excellence of San Antonio, recognizes that Minnesota's rise may continue, and knows its wishful thinking to believe that Sacramento's window has closed. That's three.

Of course, Memphis, Houston, Denver -- yeah, maybe even the Lakers and more -- have other ideas.

WHO IS THE MOST IMPORTANT NEW PLAYER ON YOUR TEAM?: Ah, so many to choose from.

"Damp is a true power center, and our expectation is that he is a top-five center in the league," says Mavs owner Mark Cuban.

OK. If Damp is a top-five center, that's pretty important, huh?

Yao Ming of Houston will be the West's All-Star starter this year (and a billion Chinese people with internet access cannot be wrong). Yao's numbers: 17.5 points/9 rebounds. Then there's Sacramento's Brad Miller (14.1/10.3) and New Orleans' Jamaal Magliore (13.6/10.3). And that's about it. No reason Dampier doesn't perform as if he's an All-Star-level center...unless...

Unless the always-clever Nellie tries to play Erick at "point center" or something.

YOUR GENERAL MANAGER -- DISCUSS: A three-headed monster -- or, a three-headed beauty queen, depending on how this all shakes out. Nellie has sort of distanced himself from the onus of being the front-office decision maker. To use an old Bill Parcells parallel, he doesn't get to buy the groceries, he just gets to cook 'em. At least that's what Nellie is saying.

Truth is, the guy buying the groceries is Donnie Nelson. Hard to distance yourself from your own son. And the guy paying for the groceries is Mark Cuban, and hard to argue with his open checkbook.

It really is a collection of three Beautiful Minds -- especially because, just like in that movie, things are not always as they seem. Is Nellie/Cuban an embryonic Jimmy/Jerry? Have they reverted to the days when the two of them truly treated each other like family? Has Donnie's work as a buffer brought everyone closer?

Remember the end of last regular season, when Dirk said the team wasn't on the same page, and was careful to note that he included the coach and owner on that list?

When the soft-spoken Dirk goes public on such a subject, you know it needs addressing. Mavs fans hope it has been -- because in terms of the X's and O's of a front office, few are more capable, more insightful and more ballsy that the Mavs.

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR TEAM NEED TO IMPROVE?: As recently as last year, Nellie moaned that you simply can't teach defense to players who can't play it. I never quite bought that -- if a guy can run and jump and move on offense, why can't he run and jump and move on the other end of the floor? –- but that thinking is eliminated now.

Consider: Damp can play defense. So can his backup, Booth. So, in his way, can Bradley. Howard is terrific on defense. So is Marquis. When healthy, Stack was a tough-guy defender. Same with Henderson. Finley used to play defense, and Terry works at it, so they shouldn't be liabilities. And you should've seen Devin Harris play defense in the rookie league: one-man full-court press, just because he can.

No excuses now. Not even for Dirk, whose deficiencies can be covered up if he's on the floor with, say, Terry, Marquis, Stack and Damp.

WHERE DO YOU HOPE YOUR TEAM CAN FINISH THIS SEASON?: I say the bar has been raised, but there is a "Happy To Be Here" mentality among some followers that is the result of soooo many years of Mavs ineptitude. I'm going with Nellie's scouting report: "We're bigger, we're stronger, we're quicker. We will score the ball the same as we always have, but we'll also be much better defensively...We'll still run, but we'll be a more traditional team with a true center...I have a lot of confidence we can be a great team."

For now, I'll define greatness in relative terms: as 55 wins and a top-four seed.

OK, NOW REALLY, WHERE WILL THEY ACTUALLY FINISH THIS SEASON?: There is a growing pains fear, I suppose. A "we need time to gel'' concern, I suppose. I've even seen a newspaper article or two that suggests this is a "transition" year. (Transition from what? The Antoine Walker Era?) Those seem to me to be convenience excuses, though. I'd tell Mavs apologists to check out what LA, Minny and SA did last year: New players, yet they were too concerned with winning to be concerned about "gelling."