HoopsHype.com Columns

Standing pat, for now
by Ken Turetzky / August 6, 2003

With a lucky Chris Webber ankle sprain here, and except for an unlucky Dirk Nowitzki knee sprain there, the Dallas Mavericks could have, should have, would have won an NBA championship last season for deserving coach Don Nelson.

Now the New Jersey Nets, San Antonio’s victim in the 2003 Finals after the Spurs knocked off the Dirk-less Mavs, have stolen Dallas’s top free agent big man candidate, Alonzo Mourning.

With Mourning, the Nets expect to Three-Peat in the East. All that will likely accomplish for them, however, is the chance to compensate Pat Riley for use of his copyrighted phrase. Dallas, meanwhile, has been flummoxed and flummoxed again in its dedication to acquire the bruising, banging, rebounding, defensive-minded interior presence its critics insist the Mavericks need. Otherwise (say critics, perhaps even a few within the Mavs’ organization), watch the improved Spurs, Los Angeles Lakers (with Kobe Bryant), Sacramento Kings or Minnesota Timberwolves surpass or maintain their advantage over Dallas in 2004.

Dallas lost sight of the field while focusing its free-agent efforts on Mourning. When the dust settled, Karl Malone, Brad Miller (via sign-and-trade), Jermaine O’Neal, Michael Olowokandi, Rasho Nesterovic, even Juwan Howard, all the frontcourt free agent names you’ve come to know and love, had found homes in the East, in the West, anywhere but Dallas.

As a result, the Mavericks have begun to revisit the idea of dealing a member of their Axis of Offense -- Dirk Nowitzki, Michael Finley and Steve Nash. Mavs owner Mark Cuban promoted the trio on Atlanta billboards during the NBA All-Star break as “Dirty, Filthy and Nashty,” emphasizing a commitment to the emotional core of a Mavs club that ultimately won a team-record 60 games during the regular season.

In reality, though, Nelson began talking about a “Big Four” when Van Exel’s scoring off the bench – and indifference to pain that required arthroscopic knee surgery and a cortisone shot to his elbow – sparked Dallas to several mid-season victories. Although Van Exel arrived during the previous season from Denver as a fading former All-Star of suspect character, he finished 2003 as the player who saved Nelson’s job.

Realistically, the Mavs aren’t going to trade Nowitzki or Nash. They’re best friends, matched like Aykroyd and Belushi (or for a reference the Canadian Nash would understand, Bob and Doug MacKenzie), and hold essential positions on the floor for Dallas.

Finley, although team captain and the imperturbable “heart and soul” of the Mavericks, is the most-mentioned trade candidate – discounting Van Exel, who announced last season he would trade himself for a big man if he were running the Mavs.

President of basketball operations (and de-facto GM) Donnie Nelson has indicated that he’s willing to work with this group, adding only rookie swingman Josh Howard and an interchangeable free agent or two. He’s holding out the February trade deadline as an abstraction, allowing time to pursue Miami’s Brian Grant, or Golden State’s Erick Dampier, or Donnie’s personal favorite, the gimpy kneed but wily Lithuanian, Arvydas Sabonis of Portland.

The strategy might prove better than Dallas’s initial fixation on “Advil” Mourning, who has missed most of two seasons with kidney problems that may have occurred due to excessive use of the over-the-counter pain reliever ibuprofen. One good shot above the belt or the wrong choice of cola drinks could send him into dialysis.

Donnie probably was mistaken to devote so much attention to any one free agent. Brad Miller, although coming from the weaker East, is the sort of snarling, kidney punching, unapologetic post man who would have been well-suited to the “Bad Boys” Detroit Pistons of the 1990s and who could have performed that sort of dirty work in Dallas. He’s a pretty decent scorer and rebounder as well, but now the Kings have him, through a three-team deal that cost them a couple of spare parts in Hedo Turkoglu and Scot Pollard.

The Mavs talked to Miami about rebounding forward Grant during the playoff drive of last season. At the time, Van Exel appeared to be the likely player to leave Dallas. Grant’s name has resurfaced, alongside Van Exel’s.

Dale Davis or Rasheed Wallace of Portland, Antonio Davis of Toronto and Clifford Robinson of Detroit are all reportedly available, although unattached, with the exception of Wallace, to current trade rumors.

The longest-running and most sensible of the rumors extends back to last season, when Dallas and the New York Knicks were reportedly discussing some combination of Van Exel-Finley-Raef LaFrentz to New York for Kurt Thomas-Charlie Ward.

Thomas is an effective center, although he’s only 6-9, and is irritable, which could be good or bad, depending on the reaction of teammates and officials. Nelson brought him to Dallas when he began his tenure there in 1997, and even made him an assistant coach while Thomas recovered from surgery. Then Thomas took the free agent money and bolted to New York.

Should the Mavs decide to stay home and develop their own candidates, they’ll have to get by at center with a combination of LaFrentz, Shawn Bradley and Evan Eschmeyer. If he can overcome nagging knee problems, Eschmeyer is the bulkiest of the bunch, and will eventually contribute some defense and rebounding, if not six valuable fouls.

At 7-6, Bradley’s got the sky hook, throwback set shot and shot-blocking skills to warrant 15 to 20 minutes a game. Nowitzki owns his class as a 7-footer who can dribble, shoot the three, post up and rebound. But Dallas also has Eduardo Najera, its best offensive rebounder and a guy who is so tough that at 6-8, Nelson sent him out to guard Yao Ming in a box-and-one zone.

Other than Nowitzki, LaFrentz, 27, by far possesses the greatest potential among Mavericks big men. At 6-11, he can block shots, slash inside for garbage dunks, hit the three-point shot. But LaFrentz admits he depends on his jumping ability to get rebounds, and this is not wise strategy for a player who has already suffered knee and ankle injuries. Perhaps the Mavs can persuade Popeye Jones, an unsigned free agent who spent most of last year on Dallas’s injured list, to join its oversized staff as LaFrentz’s personal rebounding coach. Few understand the job any better than Jones.

If all else fails, Don Nelson could activate himself and show the Mavs how he won five championships as a forward with the Boston Celtics. Nelson bailed the Mavs out when he joined the league’s worst team seven years ago, and he might be able to rescue the team again.

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