| | By Eric Karabell
ESPN.com
Oh, what fun it must be to be a Mavericks fan. From Brad Davis to Bruno Sundov, the shame, the horror, the embarrassment. Every year in the 1990s the Mavs would suit up and get ready for another season full of losing. Meanwhile on the gridiron, the Dallas Cowboys were winning Super Bowls and hardly sharing the sports spotlight in town. Why watch the Mavs?
|  | | Michael Finley broke out last season with All-Star statistics. |
Cheer up, Mavs fans. If you haven't heard, there's this multi-billionaire who now lives and dies with the franchise -- and he's not faking. Mark Cuban loves what he's doing and doesn't care as much about luxury boxes and the like. And look at the team; It's not so bad. Look at the nucleus. Look at how the team played in the non-Rodman portion of last season. Look at this year's draft. Are the Mavs going to suddenly become winners and reach the playoffs for the first time since the spring of 1990 (the longest streak of futility in the league, by the way)? For Cuban's sake, we hope last season's good times are just a portent of what's to come.
With that in mind, we present our sixth offseason team spotlight, the Dallas Mavericks. As always, we have our opinions, which are below, and we thank you for yours. Click on the right to see some of the better comments you had.
Why the Mavs were 40-42: Finishing 40-42 might be a bad year for some teams, but in Dallas it was pretty big news and very well-received. After hearing about Cuban and seeing him put more energy into rooting from the sidelines than Shawn Bradley does rebounding on the court, it put a nice exclamation point on all he was trying to accomplish in getting fan interest up. Is he a lunatic? Not really. He's merely trying to sell Dallas on a NBA team that never wins, so making a quasi-run at a playoff berth last season was pretty sweet. No, it's no like winning the Super Bowl, but people were watching.
The Mavs lured people in the stands by scoring a ton (only two NBA teams scored more) and barely stopping anyone (four teams were worse). Michael Finley and Dirk Nowitzki, well, they can certainly play. Steve Nash, Shawn Bradley, well, they have some nice qualities. Say what you will about Don Nelson, who last won something when Sidney Moncrief and Junior Bridgeman were his best players, but despite Bradley, Nash, Leon Smith, Wang Zhi Zhi and every other bad move Nellie has made in Dallas, he came close to really scaring the Sonics and Kings for that final playoff berth. Signing Dennis Rodman never quite worked out, but you could see why Cuban did it. No team was more pitiful when it came to rebounding than the Mavs.
Now loaded with an assistant coach for every player, the Mavericks are ready to become players in the league. They produced their best record since 1989-90 -- that's 10 years, but who's counting -- and increased expectations around town for the future. Maybe we're onto something here. Anyone remember the last time the Cowboys really stunk? Right, it was the last time the Mavs were good. Michael Irvin, out. Michael Finley, in.
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Current projected top 6
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PG
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Steve Nash
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SG
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Courtney Alexander
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SF
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Michael Finley
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PF
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Dirk Nowitzki
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C
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Shawn Bradley
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6th
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Gary Trent
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Team MVP: Finley. Points, rebounds, assists, steals, this guy is a monster. Now just build around him. Team LVP: It may not have improved the team much, but it sure would have been nice to see Gary Trent in more than 11 games. We're not doctors, but missing almost all of the season with a groin injury sounds extreme. And in a free agent year, too. Surprise! Dirk, Dirk, Dirk. We just like saying it. Nellie got him two drafts ago (in a trade) and proclaimed he'd be a superstar. Everyone laughed when the kid bombed his rookie year. They're not laughing anymore. Up and comer: The Mavs got four players in the recent draft, and all signs point to Courtney Alexander fitting in here very well. He can light it up and ignores the other end of the floor, just like everyone else. But really, having three players more than capable of scoring 20 a night doesn't hurt.
What they need: Despite having a big man with few peers when it comes to height, wingspan and the ability to block shots, the Mavs are softer than a fifth-place NFL schedule. Nowitzki is a European big man -- need we say more? -- who can score and pass but not stop Shawn Kemp when he's burrowing into the lane. Finley, Nash and Hubert Davis don't exactly think defense first and Cedric Ceballos may be the most one-dimensional NBA player ever. The Mavs need at least one banger to come in and rebound, push people around in practice and bring some toughness.
With a bad salary cap situation, it won't be easy. Trent is a free agent, but Cuban says he wants him back. The lure of money down the line could get it done. If Nowitzki plays small forward, Finley the two-guard and Charles Oakley decides he would play for the $2.5 million exception, the Mavs would be on their way. Rookie Etan Thomas is strong and can bang and block shots, but he's a little raw offensively.
Even if Trent becomes the 15 and 10 guy they so desperately need, the Mavericks also have limitations at the point. Nash is a fine bench player, able to hit the three, find the open man and even run the fast break, but can he grab the starting role and keep it? Unlike the lockout season, when he shot .363 from the floor, he did well in less minutes last year, averaging 10.6 points, 6.3 assists (and only 2 turnovers) and shooting .495 when he started. Still, there are cynics. And as for Robert Pack, the definition of a streaky, injury-prone NBA player, it's tough to depend on anyone who suits up only 40 percent of the time over six years. It's pretty much a pattern by now, don't you think?
What the plan is: They looked like the same ol' Mavs when Cuban took over the team just after New Year's. But then, without much warning, they finished 30-21 after Cuban purchased majority control of the franchise from Ross Perot Jr. So did Cuban make that much of a difference?
We say yes. The players say they liked playing for him, that his attitude, like Pat Croce in Philly, is infectious. And assuming Cuban can lure a big shot free agent after next season -- and if he's willing to outspend everyone else, don't bet against him -- the Mavs can actually fill a need instead of winning and losing games 120-119 again.
The plan is to keep free agents Trent and Davis, get rookies Alexander, Thomas (who because he's strong could also solve problems right away), Eduardo Najera (more than just a token Mexican to attract fans) and Donnell Harvey involved and see who blossoms and maybe keep Nelson in charge through the following season, when the team should peak.
Direction heading: The Mavs are a team to watch, for sure, but can a team that doesn't play much defense and is questionable at center and the point win half its games in the tough Western Conference? It's worth a shot.
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