Dallas Mavericks:
Dampier brings toughness and hope to the Mavs

The Dallas Mavericks are a relatively young franchise in the National Basketball Association only being in the league since 1981. In 24 seasons the Mavericks have played their way into the postseason tournament on 10 different occasions. The team has only made it to the Western Conference Finals twice. The first time came in 1988, when the team was led by guys like Mark Aguirre, Rolando Blackman, Derek Harper, Sam Perkins and Roy Tarpley. The team fell to the “Showtime” Lakers, led by Magic Johnson, and went on to beat the Detroit Pistons in seven games in the NBA Finals. The most recent time the team won their way into the Western Conference Finals was in 2003 when the Mavericks finished the regular season as Midwest Division champs with a 60-22 record, their best in franchise history. In the playoffs Dallas slipped by both the Portland Trailblazers and the Sacramento Kings in seven games. After beating both of those teams they met up with their I-35 rivals, the San Antonio Spurs. The two teams couldn’t be more contrasting in their style of basketball. The Mavericks are a team that will get up and down the court as fast as they can, throw up as many shots as they can and live and die with the jump shot. The Spurs, on the other hand, are a slow, methodical, group of guys that think defense first and live and die with their post presence of Tim Duncan and, before he retired, David Robinson. The Mavericks shocked the world when they beat the heavily favored Spurs, in San Antonio, in the first game of the series. After that the Spurs took over the series, with help from Dirk Nowitzki’s hurt knee, and won four of the next five games and ended the Dallas’ Finals aspirations.

Last season, Dallas finished with a 52-30 record which fetched them third in the Midwest Division and the number five seed in the Western Conference half of the playoff bracket. In the first round of the playoffs they found themselves opposite of the Sacramento Kings. The two teams are the two best offensive teams in the league and always make for an entertaining game whenever they meet up, especially in the playoffs. The Kings jumped out to a 3-1 lead going into game five. In game five the Kings had been leading most of the game and it came down to the last shot of the game. Nowitzki got the ball with just a few seconds left on the clock, pump faked and let his shot fly just before the buzzer sounded and it just missed off the side of the rim and ended the Mavericks’ season.

In the off-season the Mavericks were one of the teams that entered the Shaq Sweepstakes and they came out on the wrong side of it. The team made all kinds of trades and draft picks in hopes that they could deal these players for O’Neal but the lynchpin holding all of it together was Steve Nash. Nash opted to sign a contract with the Phoenix Suns instead of remain with the team and thus ending all hopes for the Mavericks that they could muster together enough quality players to bring the Big Aristotle to Dallas. The Mavericks were involved in three trades during the off-season. The first was when they dealt Antawn Jamison to the Wizards in exchange for Jerry Stackhouse, Christian Laettner and the fifth overall pick in the draft. The team then traded Danny Fortson to the Sonics in return for Calvin Booth. One of their big moves came when they shipped Antoine Walker and Tony Delk to the Atlanta Hawks for Jason Terry and Alan Henderson. Their biggest move came when they traded Eduardo Najera, Christian Laettner, two future first round draft picks, and the rights to Luis Flores and Mladen Sekularac to the Golden State Warriors for Erick Dampier, Dan Dickau, Evan Eschmeyer and the rights to Steve Logan.

In the draft the Mavericks picked up a player in Wisconsin point guard Devin Harris. Harris is the type of point guard that coaches dream of having on their team. Harris has great court vision, a good feel for the speed of the game and can score when his team needs him to by finishing around the basket and getting to the free throw line where he shot 78% during his three years of college ball.

The Mavericks starting five is once again loaded with a lot of fire power but lacks on the defensive end. At point guard Jason Terry should be starting, at shooting guard will be Marquis Daniels, at small forward will be Michael Finley, at the power forward will be Dirk Nowitzki and at center will be Erick Dampier. The team won’t have any trouble putting points on the board and will be much improved with their interior defense and rebounding because of the acquisition of Dampier.

The Mavericks bench provides them with the best defenders on their team. Forward Josh Howard gives the team a huge spark off of the bench. The team will also have Devin Harris, Jerry Stackhouse, Calvin Booth, and Shawn Bradley coming off of the bench.

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