EIGHT-MAN ROTATION
Pos	Player	Key Stat	Skinny
PG	Steve Nash	.363 FG %	Quite possibly Nelson's worst move ever
SG	Michael Finley	20.2 PPG	Emerging Pippen-type out with foot injury
SF	Cedric Ceballos	12.5 PPG	If you give him the ball, he averages 20
PF	Gary Trent	16.0 PPG	Suddenly very much in demand
C	Shawn Bradley	3.24 BPG	Proves that anyone 7-6 can find NBA work
PG	Robert Pack	.431 FG %	May start over Nash when he's healthy
SF	Dirk Nowitzki	69 threes	Another Nelson gamble gone bad, so far
SG	Erick Strickland	40 steals	Huge preseason in Finley absence

		What has Don Nelson done? Nelson took over the team from Jim Cleamons and said the Mavericks were a playoff team. He hasn't done it yet. They signed Steve Nash to play point guard, and that hasn't quite worked out yet. Dallas has been in a transitional period. So the big question is, How long will Nellie be there? Their talent pool is slight and hasn't been increased. A lot of talented players have left, and they haven't received talented players in return. When that happens, the eyes will naturally be cast on the front office. The Mavs will be happy to have 25-30 wins, and that's not much to be happy about.

"Certainly if I had to (make an in-season coaching change), I will," Perot says. "Anything can happen."

Nelson has said this is his final season coaching in the NBA.The Plan, as Nelson likes to say, is for his son -- the Mavs' top assistant, Donnie Nelson -- to become the team's next head coach. But if the Mavericks don't win this season, the Nelson Plan may go up in smoke.

Since Don Nelson took over the coaching chores on Dec. 4, 1997, he has produced a puny 35-81 (.302) record. Perot expects more from a man voted one of the 10 greatest coaches in the history of the NBA.

The Mavericks have the dubious distinction of not making the playoffs during the past nine seasons, the longest such streak in the NBA.

Nelson took some giant steps toward rectifying that by announcing before training camp that all five starting positions were up for grabs, and that he would start the season with a nine-man rotation. Nelson won't be using 20 different starting lineups like he did in the 1999 season. Too much is at stake in the Nelson household to be tinkering with 10th, 11th and 12th men.

With Dallas playing 13 of its opening 19 games on the road and with early injuries to Steve Nash (sore ankle), Michael Finley (sore foot) and Gary Trent (torn hamstring), the Nelson Watch could start taking a life of its own as early as six weeks into the season.

	Player to watch
	Trent How does a guy go from the scrap heap to finishing third in the NBA's Most Improved Player voting in the same season? Only in Dallas, only in Dallas. A year ago nobody wanted Gary Trent, but this was one move that paid off for Don Nelson. Trent's a little small to match up with some power forwards, but statistically he competed well, and he's on his way up. Score one for Nelson.

Point guard
Nash started last year but wound up having a nightmare of a season, playing so poorly that the usually laid-back Mavericks fans booed him during a March 24 home game vs. Houston. Nelson hailed Nash as a cornerstone point guard after the Mavericks acquired him in June 1998. And when Nash received a six-year, $33 million extension prior to last season, even he admitted that he tried too hard to please the fans live up to the contract.

Robert Pack, hailed by Nelson as a cornerstone point guard when he was acquired from New Jersey during the 1996-97 season, could unseat Nash as the starter. The NBA's new no-touching rule really favors a player with Pack's quickness.

Pack must stay healthy in order to help. The eight-year vet has missed parts of the past six seasons with various injuries. Nash also came to Dallas with nagging injuries and missed the final 10 games with a lower-back strain.

Erick Strickland, whose name is often mentioned in trade talks, is the third point guard.

Shooting guard
Finley is the Mavericks' best and longest-tenured player. He started slow last season but finished the year with a team-high 20.2 points a game.

That and the 21.5 points Finley averaged in 1997-98 make him the first Mavericks player to average at least 20 points in consecutive seasons since Mark Aguirre in the late-'80s.

"For the most part, this is the same team we had last year," Finley says of the team's playoff chances. "So hopefully we can build upon where we left off last year."

Finley refers to the 6-4 record the Mavs ended the season with. But that was made largely with Finley's backup, Hubert Davis, switching over to play the point when injuries sidelined Nash and Pack for the season.

Davis was third in the NBA in three-point shooting at .451. He's also the fourth-best career three-point shooter in in NBA history of the NBA at .434.

Small forward
In 1998, after he acquired Germany's Dirk Nowitzki in a draft-day trade with the Bucks, Don Nelson boldly proclaimed Nowitzki as a Rookie of the Year candidate.

Well, after Nowitzki stumbled out of the gate with several poor games, the 7-footer said Nelson asked him if he wouldn't mind being taken out of the starting lineup. This was the same Nowitzki who kept telling Nelson after the draft that he wasn't ready for the NBA.

Nowitzki is a raw talent who can handle the ball well and has a deft shooting touch. But some of his teammates have jokingly nicknamed him "Irk" because he can't play "D."

Cedric Ceballos is a former All-Star who can get 15 points just falling out of bed. The 30-year-old Ceballos is returning from successful surgery on both wrists that forced him to miss the final 37 games last season.

Power forward
Nelson nearly moved heaven and earth over the offseason to make sure Trent would return and be his No. 1 low-post scoring threat. Trent was a free agent coveted by several teams. He ended up turning down a three-year offer for approximately $12 million from a much better Seattle team to sign a one-year deal with the Mavericks for $2 million and a one-year option that could pay him another $2.6 million.

Trent returned to Dallas because he'll receive plenty of minutes and much of the offense will be geared toward him. Last year Trent averaged 16.0 points and 7.8 boards, becoming a dominant force for the first time.

Kebu Stewart will back up Trent. Stewart is a rebounding machine-the type of player the Mavs desperately need. Nelson also will play Nowitzki at power forward, and centers Sean Rooks and John "Hot Rod" Williams also are capable of playing the 4.

Center
Rooks returns to the place where his NBA career started. The 6-10 seven-year veteran was originally drafted by the Mavericks and had his best two seasons in Dallas. Rooks spent the past three seasons on the Lakers bench watching Shaquille O'Neal but is ready to battle Shawn Bradley for playing time.

Bradley is coming off the best season of his six-year career. Last year the 7-6 beanpole averaged 8.6 points and 8.0 rebounds, shot a team-high .480 from the field and was second in the NBA with 3.24 blocks a game. He accomplished all of this while averaging the fewest minutes (26.4) of his career. But he is trying to overcome back problems that hampered him throughout training camp.

Williams is the Mavericks' third center and at age 37 is the oldest player on the team. Williams missed training camp with back spasms, forcing the team to use steroid injections to help alleviate his pain.

Coaching
Mavs fans think they're on the verge of receiving Nelson's greatest coaching performance ever because he's coaching for his son's future in Dallas.

In 21 years, Nelson has produced an 886-710 record, and he's won 50 or more games in nine different seasons. But Nelson's history is not what the Mavericks care about.

This franchise needs a booster shot and is keeping its fingers crossed that Nelson can administer it in this, his swan song.