It takes more than a single player to win an NBA championship.
When Dirk Nowitzki did it back in 2011 he was surrounded by the likes of Jason Kidd, Shawn Marion, Tyson Chandler and Jason Terry.
Nowadays, when he looks around the locker room it’s Deron Williams, Chandler Parsons, Wesley Matthews and JaVale McGee staring back at him. Well, it will be, when those all those players are fit enough to play.
See, a quick look at the box score from either of Dallas’ first two preseason defeats reveals that Williams is suffering from a calf strain, Parsons and Matthews are still recovering from surgery and McGee is out indefinitely with a left tibial stress fracture.
Mavs fans needn’t worry though, as Devin Harris, Justin Anderson, Charlie Villanueva, Raymond Felton and Zaza Pachulia are all good to go, which perhaps tells you all you need to know about Dallas’ hopes of being a contender this year: they’re slim.
Yep, once again Mark Cuban has failed to give Nowitzki the tools he needs to succeed and as good as additions like Matthews and Williams could turn out to be the rest of this group smacks of mediocrity.
Dirk, quite frankly, has every right to feel frustrated, as ever since getting his hands on the Larry O’Brien trophy back in 2011 the team has been adding pieces and getting incrementally better.
Despite missing out on Williams (the first time around) and Dwight Howard in free agency during that time the Mavs appeared to have found a decent formula last season after getting off to a 19-8 start. Of course, Mark Cuban took a big swing on Rajon Rondo that backfired terribly and if, as has been predicted, Wesley Matthews is out until Christmas, McGee misses a large chunk of the season and Parsons fails to get fit in time for the start of the campaign this banged-up Mavs team could well be playing catch up from day one.
Speaking about the current situation Nowitzki told Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News “It’s disappointing. Honestly, you’d wish more guys would be doing more, at least more contact or run more. But that’s not the case. Some of these guys have had major, major surgeries. And whatever the doc tells them, you got to take it slow. Obviously, Parsons and Wes are both guys that want to be here for a lot of years. It would be wrong to push it too much in October and not have them later in the season. You want to take it slow and progress week to week, and whenever they’re ready, they’re ready.”
Regardless of whether they’re ready or not it’s hard to see this Mavs team making it out of the Western Conference.
Despite the tumult they did last year, losing 1-4 to the Houston Rockets in the first round after recording 50 regular season wins.
Nowitzki averaged 17.3 points per game along the way, 21.2 points in the playoffs, but found himself limited to just 29.6 regular season minutes per game. He is, after all, 37 years old now and won’t be able to carry this team as he has in the past.
Had the Mavericks got DeAndre Jordan things might have looked rosier.
Jordan wouldn’t have won them a title but he would have provided some long-term security for a franchise whose star player of seventeen years could well be entering his final year.
And it is for this reason that Mark Cuban should cut his superstar loose.
The Phoenix Suns did it for Steve Nash a few years ago and even though that didn’t work out so well for the two-time MVP point guard fans considered it the humane thing to do, largely because it gave a player who had served their franchise so well over the years one last opportunity to compete for a title.
If Mark Cuban were to trade Nowitzki it seems likely that Mavericks fans would take a similar view. The big German has, after all, sacrificed so much for his adopted hometown, most notably the huge pay cut intended to give Cuban the necessary cap space to land a superstar.
There’s no doubting Dirk loves Dallas but surely he’d also love another shot at a title, especially as he currently has about as much chance as Kobe Bryant has by staying put.
Trading Nowitzki would be good for the franchise too, as Dallas would almost certainly acquire some quality assets as a result. Dirk’s contract is, after all, worth a measly $8.3m, meaning most NBA teams could look to take it on without having to free up a lot of space.
If Mark Cuban and company are looking for an incentive they should perhaps consider the Steve Nash trade, as although the Phoenix Suns only got Archie Goodwin, Brandon Knight and $3.1 million in return, that deal was the first step towards constructing the exciting young roster playing out in the desert today.
Add a couple of prospects and perhaps even picks to the Mavericks’ current crop and the team could leapfrog the likes of the Suns, maintaining the postseason run that’s seen it make fourteen appearances in the past fifteen years in the process.
The alternative is to allow Nowitzki to retire in blue and white – an option that could result in years of mediocrity while the team rebuilds… oh, wait.
