I've been working on this off and on since the season ended and finally finished it. Here's my team and player analysis for the 1997-98 season. The Team Well, it was yet another disappointing season for the Mavs. The team finished with a record of 20-62 - 6th worst in the league. Head coach Jim Cleamons was fired after his [third] team yet again rejected his inflexible triangle offense. Cleamons had a record of 4-12 this season and 28-70 including last season. He had players grumbling about his inflexibility and openly complaining. Despite the players' dissatisfaction, he starchly refused to listen to any suggestion of change. He doesn't even get credit for the biggest win that occurred under his tenure. On November 1, Seattle led 79-66 with 5 1/2 minutes left when Khalid Reeves decided (without consulting Cleamons) to toss out the triangle offense and play a running game. It worked as Dallas won 89-81. Cleamons goes down as the second worst coach in Mavericks history, behind Quinn Buckner. Don Nelson took over December 4 and finished with a record of 16-50. The team was much happier under Nelson and there was a lot of praise for the way he ran things. He did occasionally do some strange things during the season such as a couple of games of stall ball where the Mavs would hold the ball until there was 7 seconds left on the shot clock before initiating their offense (and that style almost worked in the 66-68 loss to Utah), intentionally fouling Dennis Rodman (a poor free throw shooter) at the end of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd quarters in the first Chicago game, playing a lot without a true point guard on the floor, and playing a lot with 4 guards (counting Michael Finley as a guard) and a power forward or center on the floor. It may not have been pretty, but it wasn't boring. And, except those who found their way into Nelson's dog house, the players were happier and the game on the court was much better than what occurred under Cleamons. As a whole, I found this season to be very frustrating (not the most frustrating in team history, though). I was constantly amazed at the lack of fundamentals shown by the players. The players did not seem to know how to blockout an opponent from going after the offensive rebound much less know how to go after an offensive rebound themselves. The team only averaged 12.3 offensive boards and had 19 games where they had less than 10 offensive rebounds including a pathetic 2 offensive boards on March 10 vs Houston. And this from a team that shot 42.7% FG. On the same note, they don't know that you are supposed to follow your shot (yes, sometimes a player has the excuse that he is supposed to get back on defense immediately, but that is not always the cases). And the field goal percentage was pretty sorry. Not a single Mavs shot near 50% - Samaki Walker was the high Mav with 48.6% FG. The team only shot 50% FG or better in 6 games. The poor shooting showed on the score board as the team averaged a mere 91.4 points and only broke 100 points in 16 games. And don't even get me started on the assists. The Mavs were on a pace to challenge the NBA record through February at only 17.2 assists per game (would have tied the second lowest) before picking it up in the last 2 months of the season and finished averaging a team record low 18.7 (old 19.8). The low assist numbers were not helped by the fact that the Mavs played most of the season without a true point guard. Low scoring, field goal percentage, assists, and rebounds obviously leads to a very poor season. The phrase I seemed to be saying the most during the first two months of the season was "not a basketball brain among them" as the team would do stupid things such as committing 10-second violations, not fouling to stop the clock, and not taking the needed quick shot at the end of games. It drove me nuts. The team was the third youngest in the league through most of the season (second youngest at the end), so simply inexperience could explain some of the reoccurring problems. On the plus side, the team did set the record low for fewest turnovers in a season at 14.4 per game (only 1 fewer turnover for the season than the old record) and fewest personal fouls at 20.0 per game (old 21.1). Despite the above problems, the team did have some very surprising wins. The Mavs overcame a 13 point deficit with 5 1/2 minutes left to defeat Seattle 89-81 on November 1. The Mavs defeat New York 105-91 in Don Nelson's Mavs' coaching debut December 4. The Mavs again beat Seattle on January 20 107-98. Cleveland lost to Dallas 84-77 in overtime as Michael Finley had a season high 39 points. Finley nailed a 3-pointer with a second left to give Dallas a 85-82 win in two overtimes over Indiana. The Mavs beat Minnesota on March 23 and March 3. And then there was the great Chicago game where the Mavs over came a 89-74 deficit with less than 4 minutes remaining, capped by an incredible 3-pointer by Cedric Ceballos with 4 seconds left, and defeated the Bulls 104-97 in overtime. That's 8 wins over playoff teams from a team that only won 20 games total. Unfortunately, there was also the 22 road loosing streak that finally ended February 13 and too many bad games for me to mention (there were 62 losses after all). A key factor in the season was the injuries. The Mavs shattered the team record by losing 363 player-games due to injury. Even if you discount Ace Custis' 82 games, that is still more than the previous record of 246. Custis missed all 82 games, Kurt Thomas missed 77 games, Robert Pack missed 66 games, and Samaki Walker missed the last 40 games of the season. The team made two major trades for 1997-98. Before the season started, Derek Harper was traded to Orlando for Dennis Scott. As much as the trade initially concerned me (Scott had off the court problems early in the summer), it turned out to be a good move. Though very inconsistent on the court, Scott provided solid leadership to the rest of the team. An even better move was made when the Mavs traded Scott (who Nelson had decided wasn't in the team's long term plans due to age) to Phoenix for Cedric Ceballos on February 18. With Ceballos, the team had a change in attitude. Once he started, Ceballos provided a solid second offensive option and an offensive rebounder. With Ceballos as a starter, Michael Finley and Ceballos averaged 41.6 points. The Mavs won 4-5 of the games Ceballos started and actually went 8-8 in March even though Ceballos did not play in the last 8 games of the month. From everything I heard, it was a team full of good guys off the court. Erick Strickland, Michael Finley, Martin Muursepp, Robert Pack, A.C. Green, Samaki Walker, and Dennis Scott all sponsored seat sections during the season. Kurt Thomas also gave away 4 lower level tickets to a family for each game. Samaki donated a basketball court in South Dallas and the entire team spent a day during the season with about 30 kids at the court cleaning it up (and Finley treated everyone to ice cream). Several of the players spent a day at the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children (and a search occurred trying to find Eric Riley; he was found playing tic-tac-toe with a girl who had surgery the day before). Shawn Bradley and CiCi's Pizza donated $25 each to Bryan's House (a center for support and health care for children with AIDS) for each block shot he had. Erick Strickland and ACME Brick donated $50 each to the Dallas Mavericks Foundation for each 3-pointer he made. Strickland, Green, and Pack also have their own foundations. And other volunteer things occurred during the season. I never heard a single bad thing about any of the players' off the court personality and I was told by those in the know that they were just such a great set of guys. GP-GS MIN AVG FGM-FGA PCT 3PM-3PA PCT FTM-FTA PCT Total 82-0 3981 48.5 2882-6753 0.427 422-1183 0.357 1308-1738 0.753 Opponent 82-0 3981 48.5 3138-6819 0.460 386-1130 0.342 1333-1868 0.714 Player OFF DEF TOT AVG AST AVG PF-D STL TO BLK PTS AVG HI Total 1007 2281 3288 40.1 1535 18.7 1643-20 646 1182 460 7494 91.4 119 Opponent 1222 2645 3867 47.2 1882 23.0 1608-6 658 1239 369 7995 97.5 124 The Players Chris Anstey - power forward, small forward, center Hampered by missing all of training camp while playing in Australian (I still say the Mavs should have bought out his contract to get him to camp), Chris Anstey started very slowly. His improvement over the last 2 months of the season had some picking him as the surprise player for the Mavs (IMHO, that distinction goes to Samaki Walker). In March, Anstey averaged 12.4 points including 46.8% FG and 5.9 rebounds in 29.1 minutes. He had a career high of 26 points including 11-15 FG with 8 rebounds on March 17 vs Boston. Anstey suffered a series of minor hand injuries in April and missed the last 4 games of the season with a sprained right thumb. He is a very quick and mobile player. Though he first played at power forward and a little center (he's 7-0, 249), small forward was where he shone. He has a nice outside touch and good foot work (which may be attributed to being a good tennis player, where foot work is key). He needs to work on his inside game and definitely needs to have a good off-season workout program to bulk up some as he was pushed around on defense. With more muscle, he will be able to play some at center. The thing about Anstey I found surprising and very enjoyable was that he is an excellent lobber and assisted several of Finley's highlight jams. Though looking very promising, he still has a lot to learn. The Mavs signed him to a 3 year rookie contract last summer. GP-GS MIN AVG FGM-FGA PCT 3PM-3PA PCT FTM-FTA PCT 41-8 680 16.6 92-231 0.398 3-16 0.188 53-74 0.716 OFF DEF TOT AVG AST AVG PF-D STL TO BLK PTS AVG HI 53 104 157 3.8 35 0.9 95-1 31 41 27 240 5.9 26 Shawn Bradley - center I can't say I was surprised by Shawn Bradley's poor performance this season. Though a nice guy off the court, he just doesn't seem to have the desire on the court. And, to me, he doesn't seem to have much of a shooting touch around the basket - he seems to be just throwing the ball at the basket instead of shooting it. When he gets the ball in the post, he pivots, moves, and fakes a bit before flipping the ball towards the basket, often missing as seen by his horrendous 42.2% FG. On the rare occasions that he would simply catch and shoot in the post, he was fairly successful. His poor season found him in Nelson's doghouse and out of the starting lineup for most of the end of the season. Nelson reportedly really bawled Bradley out before the Portland game and Bradley responded with an incredible 22 points, 22 rebounds, and 13 block performance. I'm sure that fans of every team he has been on (and I even said this last summer) has said that he _really_ needs to work on his game in the off-season. He has had an excuse (and usually not a good one) for not attending Pete Newell's Big Man's Camp each summer and I can only hope that he will finally attend it this summer. Bradley's basic basketball fundamentals simply are not very good. Despite his height, he is not that good of a rebounder - he often bats at the ball instead of grabbing it with both hands. And he rarely blocks out the opponent on the boards. I can't tell you how many times I saw the guy he was supposed to be defending get the offensive putback. He is constantly being pushed around by the bulkier defenders. I don't expect him to bulk up, but he needs to learn how to play better position defense to help keep the opponents from running over him. One of his worst problems is that he whines way too much to the refs and, thus, the refs give him no respect. There are a lot of fouls committed by opponents that do not get called and Bradley often gets called for ticky-tacky fouls and even non-fouls. Then Bradley usually gets frustrated and does something stupid like committing blatant fouls. He needs to learn to keep his mouth shut and play the game - his reputation of whining is far too large. He does have talent and, as seen in the Portland game, he could be great; he just has to work at improving his game and get some consistency. Bradley did set the team record for most blocks in a season. He is signed through 2001. GP-GS MIN AVG FGM-FGA PCT 3PM-3PA PCT FTM-FTA PCT 64-46 1822 28.5 300-711 0.422 1-3 0.333 130-180 0.722 OFF DEF TOT AVG AST AVG PF-D STL TO BLK PTS AVG HI 164 354 518 8.1 60 0.9 214-9 51 96 214 731 11.4 26 Cedric Ceballos - small forward, power forward The Mavs traded Dennis Scott to Phoenix for Cedric Ceballos on February 18. In Ceballos' first 3 games with Dallas he came off the bench. Then Nelson inserted him into the starting lineup and it was a positive change for the team. In the next 8 games (he was injured during the 9th game), the Mavs went 4-4, the Mavs rebound and assists numbers went up, and Ceballos had 17+ points in each game he started. Ceballos also provided some much needed offensive rebounding. His impressive postup game was consistently being double-teamed after only 2 games and that freed up Finley some. Finley and Ceballos looked great together on the court as the two combined to average 41.6 points in the games Ceballos started. Having a true small forward like Ceballos also allowed Finely to play more shooting guard. Unfortunately the fun of seeing the two on the court was short lived as Ceballos injured his knee March 17, underwent surgery to repair a slight meniscus cartilage tear, and sat out for the rest of the season. His highlight as a Mav is the incredible 3-pointer over Scottie Pippen and Toni Kukoc he hit with 4 seconds left to tie the game and send it into overtime in Dallas' win vs Chicago March 12. He is a free agent this summer. The Mavs have said that they would like to re-sign him, but he has said that the chance of that happening is only 50-50 (if Houston makes a good offer, he'll likely go there, but I'm hoping that is just a negotiating ploy on Ceballos' part). If he does not receive a good offer from a contending team, he will likely be be back. GP-GS MIN AVG FGM-FGA PCT 3PM-3PA PCT FTM-FTA PCT 12-9 364 30.3 75-157 0.478 6-20 0.300 47-61 0.770 OFF DEF TOT AVG AST AVG PF-D STL TO BLK PTS AVG HI 24 48 72 6.0 25 2.1 29-0 11 33 8 203 16.9 25 Ace Custis - forward After earning a roster spot by his performance in training camp, free agent invitee Ace Custis blew out his right ACL the week before the regular season was to start. The Mavs did sign him to a 1 year contract and will invite him to training camp where he will again have to earn a roster spot. He has hung around with the team the entire season. I don't know much about his game, but from what little I've heard, Nelson likes his hustle in practice. Hubert Davis - point guard, shooting guard The Mavs' best pure shooter this season was unquestionably Hubert Davis. His 43.9% 3-point shooting was the 4th highest in the league. Though he would occasionally have poor shooting games, there were games where he was on and you'd wonder why the Mavs didn't give him more touches. Hubert spent a lot of the season from January 14 on as the Mavs "point guard" and had a surprisingly low 1 turnover per game average for a shooting guard playing out of position. His 1.9 assists per game was pretty low, but his job as point guard was to bring the ball up the court, not set up the offense. He recovered nicely from his career lows last season with Toronto. One of the highlights for Hubert this season was his performance in the All-Star 3-point Shootout. He finished second in the contest, losing 10-14 to Jeff Hornacek in the finals, and had the contest high of 24 points in the 2nd round, including a shootout record 11 straight makes. I thought that the 6 year, $4.5 million contract the Mavs signed him to last summer was a bit long, but it turns out to be a real steal. GP-GS MIN AVG FGM-FGA PCT 3PM-3PA PCT FTM-FTA PCT 81-30 2378 29.4 350-767 0.456 101-230 0.439 97-116 0.836 OFF DEF TOT AVG AST AVG PF-D STL TO BLK PTS AVG HI 34 135 169 2.1 157 1.9 117-0 43 88 5 898 11.1 25 Michael Finley - small forward, shooting guard All praise Michael Finley! Where would this team be without him? He led the team in minutes, points, assists, and steals. His 21.5 points average was the 11th highest in the league. What's not to like about his performance this season? All of Finley's stats went up from 96-97 to 97-98, except free throw percentage (decrease from 80.8% to 78.4%) and 3-point percentage (decrease from 36.1% to 35.7% - but the line was farther out this season). He is a work horse and, barring a serious injury (he'll play through anything minor), will likely become on of the league's iron men as he hasn't missed a game yet in his career and A.C. Green is his idol. He averaged a league high 41.4 minutes and set the team record by playing 3394 minutes, including 7 complete regulation games and 49+ minutes in 5 overtime games. And he had the complete game. He and Grant Hill were the only players in the league to averaged 20+ points, 5+ rebounds, and 4.5+ assists. In addition to all the highlight dunks and plays, Finley had a career high 39 points, including outscoring the Cavs himself 17-14 in the 4th quarter and overtime, in the overtime win vs Cleveland January 27 and the game winning 3-pointer at the buzzer in the double overtime win at Indiana February 13. He scored 30 or more points in 11 games this season. There is no question that Finley is the franchise player for Dallas. I was pleasantly shocked when the Mavs gave him a contract extension last summer of 5 years, $42 million (with a player opt-out after the 3rd year [2001]) just minutes before the deadline for signing players in the second year of their rookie contract to an extension. His performance this year proved that to be an investment well made. Look for Finley to continue to continue improving and to make the All-Star team next season. GP-GS MIN AVG FGM-FGA PCT 3PM-3PA PCT FTM-FTA PCT 82-82 3394 41.4 675-1505 0.449 87-244 0.357 326-416 0.784 OFF DEF TOT AVG AST AVG PF-D STL TO BLK PTS AVG HI 149 289 438 5.3 405 4.9 163-0 132 219 30 1763 21.5 39 A.C. Green - power forward, center And then there is Mr. Ironman himself. A.C. Green set the NBA Ironman streak November 20 by playing in his 907th consecutive game - besting Randy Smith's streak of 906. He finished the season having played in 978 consecutive games and next season will likely best Ron Boone's 1,041 game streak that spanned the ABA and NBA. And his game was streaky too. He started the season great with double-digit rebounding in 8 of the first 10 games and then slumped, while suffering from lower back pain, for the next two months. Granted his minutes were down some due to the improvement of Samaki Walker. Green returned to form of providing the Mavs with needed rebounding and defense from February on. Any points he scored were considered a bonus. And he did score 20+ points in 3 games as he had an accurate outside jumper in the last few months of the season (shocking for a 34 year old veteran to develop). Green had a season high 25 points and had 11 rebounds in the blowout win at Washington February 28. He has one year left on a high price contract (about $5 million). Though some Mavs fans would like to see that money spent on a younger player, it is highly doubtful that another team would trade from Green due to the large contract and, thus, he will highly likely be back next season. He does provide a strong veteran presense, is the team captain, and can help teach the younger players. GP-GS MIN AVG FGM-FGA PCT 3PM-3PA PCT FTM-FTA PCT 82-67 2652 32.3 242-534 0.453 0-4 0.000 116-162 0.716 OFF DEF TOT AVG AST AVG PF-D STL TO BLK PTS AVG HI 219 449 668 8.1 123 1.5 157-0 78 68 27 600 7.3 25 Martin Muursepp - small forward, power forward Speaking of streaky, okay - more like flash in the pan, there is Martin Muursepp. He would occasionally show signs of strong potential, but that was surrounded by loads of dismal and/or out of control play. Nelson's favorite description of Muursepp the basketball player is that he does everything opposite. If he should drive, he shoots the jumper. If he should shoot, he drives. Muursepp received a lot of DNP-CDs this season. He only had two games worth noting this season. He had 24 points and 8 rebounds in 28 minutes in the win vs the Clippers March 5 and 16 points and 14 rebounds in the loss at Sacramento April 5. Even with the occasional flashes, I was not impressed with his game. He is a complete defensive liability. Muursepp has one year left on his rookie contract, but there is strong talk that the Mavs will eat his final year and he will return to Israel (he played there 93-95) to play next season. GP-GS MIN AVG FGM-FGA PCT 3PM-3PA PCT FTM-FTA PCT 41-7 600 14.6 83-191 0.435 16-38 0.421 51-67 0.761 OFF DEF TOT AVG AST AVG PF-D STL TO BLK PTS AVG HI 46 68 114 2.8 30 0.7 96-1 29 29 15 233 5.7 24 Robert Pack - point guard With what was being praised as a great pre-season, Robert Pack broke the ring finger on his right hand October 17. He returned to the team in mid-December and struggled mightily. He quickly found himself in Nelson's dog house and even DNP-CD 5 games. He suffered a torn ligament in his right thumb January 22 and missed the rest of the season. Due to his play this season and injuries, Nelson has been very critical of Pack. In the 12 games he played in, Pack had career low averages in shooting and free throw percentages and only averaged 3.5 assists. He had averaged 7.75 assists the previous 3 seasons. If the Mavs don't trade him this summer (a trade is unlikely to occur due to his high contract and injury history), he's going to have to work himself back into Nelson's favor. He is signed through 2001. GP-GS MIN AVG FGM-FGA PCT 3PM-3PA PCT FTM-FTA PCT 12-10 292 24.3 33-98 0.337 3-6 0.500 25-36 0.694 OFF DEF TOT AVG AST AVG PF-D STL TO BLK PTS AVG HI 8 26 34 2.8 42 3.5 17-0 20 38 2 94 7.8 23 Khalid Reeves - point guard, shooting guard Khalid Reeves is a true tweener. He has the mentality of a shooting guard with the body (6-3, 201) of a point guard. With Pack's injuries, he saw most of his minutes at point guard. He did play some shooting guard in Nelson's three guard lineups, though. Reeves was very good at the drive-penetration, but would rarely pass the ball out after doing so (he actually improved on this in the last month as I near had a heart attack due to shock when he did so on consecutive plays in one game). He currently has too much of an offensive mindset to be successful as a point guard, as seen in his low 2.8 assist average. Though he had some other good performances, his season highlight game is unquestionably the win vs Seattle November 1 where he personally brought the Mavs back from 13 points down with 5 1/2 minutes left and engineered the 89-81 win. He engineered the win by tossing out Cleamons' triangle offense (with out consulting Cleamons) and running a motion offense. And he was one of the players who publically complained about Cleamons. He started to do a little bit of griping about Nelson in December, but Nelson put a quick stop to that and his teammates responded negatively to it. If I recall correctly, throughout his career he has complained about his playing minutes. [But on the plus side, I've heard that he is a really nice guy off the court.] Reeves' offensive mindset did hurt the Mavs some as he shot a very poor 41.8% FG, including tons of blown layups, and only shoot 50% FG or better in 14 of the 82 games he played in. He is signed through next season. The Mavs would be more than willing to trade Reeves, but there probably is not any demand for him. GP-GS MIN AVG FGM-FGA PCT 3PM-3PA PCT FTM-FTA PCT 82-55 1950 23.8 248-593 0.418 56-152 0.368 165-213 0.775 OFF DEF TOT AVG AST AVG PF-D STL TO BLK PTS AVG HI 54 131 185 2.3 230 2.8 195-3 80 130 9 717 8.7 28 Shawn Respert - point guard The Mavs signed Shawn Respert to a 10-day contract March 27 and signed him to a 2nd 10-day contract April 8, which carried him to the end of the season. He is another player that has a shooting guards mentality in a point guard's body (6-2, 195), but in the short time he played with the Mavs he was able to play point without too much of a shooters mentality. After trying too hard in his first two games with Dallas, he settled down and put in some good performances in limited minutes, including playing a key role in the win at Vancouver March 31 where he scored 14 points including 5-6 FG in 14 minutes. Respert is a free agent this summer and will likely get an invite to the Mavs training camp (I doubt that the Mavs would, but there is a slight chance that the team would sign him to a low salary, one year contract during the summer). GP-GS MIN AVG FGM-FGA PCT 3PM-3PA PCT FTM-FTA PCT 10-0 216 21.6 36-84 0.429 6-26 0.231 4-7 0.571 OFF DEF TOT AVG AST AVG PF-D STL TO BLK PTS AVG HI 7 20 27 2.7 17 1.7 17-0 5 15 0 82 8.2 14 Eric Riley - center, power forward Eric Riley was signed to a non-guaranteed contract December 17 to help out with all the injured big men Dallas had. He played well enough as a backup big man that he stuck with the team for the rest of the season. Though not an offensive player, his defense would sometimes (not always) slow down the Mavs' bulkier opponents in limited minutes. He does have a surprisingly soft outside shooting touch. Due to lack of natural skills and desire (probably his biggest fault), he will never be more than a 10th-12th man. He is a free agent this summer and I don't really expect him back, though the Mavs may give him an invite to training camp. GP-GS MIN AVG FGM-FGA PCT 3PM-3PA PCT FTM-FTA PCT 39-14 543 13.9 56-135 0.415 0-1 0.000 27-36 0.750 OFF DEF TOT AVG AST AVG PF-D STL TO BLK PTS AVG HI 43 90 133 3.4 22 0.6 80-0 15 37 46 139 3.6 16 Erick Strickland - point guard, shooting guard The personification of a sophomore slump can be found in Erick Strickland. Even given that he was hampered with nagging ankle injuries (all the way back to the summer camps) and knee injuries, Strick's performance this season was a major disappointment. Only on rare occasions (such as his 30 point performance and great defense against Gary Payton in Dallas' second win vs Seattle January 20) did we see flashes of the Strick the fans fell in love with last season. I really can't pick out anything positive for Strickland this season except that it is over. Okay, I thought of one, he has an excellent knack of sacrificing his body and drawing the offensive charge. His desire was still there (he _does_ have the eye of the tiger), but he just couldn't execute. He is a hard worker in the off season and, hopefully, he will return to the form (and improve on it) that earned him a 6 year contract and Nelson calling him a cornerstone last summer. GP-GS MIN AVG FGM-FGA PCT 3PM-3PA PCT FTM-FTA PCT 67-19 1505 22.5 199-558 0.357 48-163 0.294 65-84 0.774 OFF DEF TOT AVG AST AVG PF-D STL TO BLK PTS AVG HI 35 126 161 2.4 167 2.5 140-1 56 106 8 507 7.6 30 Kurt Thomas - power forward Kurt Thomas missed the first 6 games of the season while still recovering from a fractured right ankle that occurred in January 1997. He only played 5 games with Dallas before re-fracturing the same ankle. It was the 4th time in a year that he had fractured the ankle. Though rusty, he did show offensive and rebounding flashes in his few games. He was important to the team as he was named as an assistant coach December 5 and, along with Mark Aguirre, helped Samaki Walker and Chris Anstey develop. He is a free agent this summer and the Mavs are expected to sign him to a one year contract. GP-GS MIN AVG FGM-FGA PCT 3PM-3PA PCT FTM-FTA PCT 5-0 73 14.6 17-44 0.386 0-0 0.000 3-3 1.000 OFF DEF TOT AVG AST AVG PF-D STL TO BLK PTS AVG HI 8 16 24 4.8 3 0.6 19-1 1 10 0 37 7.4 13 Samaki Walker - power forward, center Samaki Walker gets my vote for most surprising and improved player for the team. Most people wrote him off as a bust last season and his performances in the first 14 games of the season (under Cleamons) did nothing to dispel the bust image. He did have two good performances in three of Cleamons' last games (14 points, 10 rebounds and 14 points, 15 rebounds). With Nelson taking over, Samaki improved vastly. He credits the teachings of Mark Aguirre and Kurt Thomas for his improvement. In a four game span in mid-December he averaged 15.8 points (on 27-37 FG) and 9.8 rebounds. His performances in the next 5 games were poor due to splitting the webbing between his index and middle fingers on his shooting hand during practice December 22 and playing those 5 games with a protective glove on the hand. He shone again in January as he averaged 18.2 points including 56.6% FG and 11.2 rebounds in the first 6 games of the month. The performances occurred despite the fact he was playing with a sore right foot. Three of his last six games were not as impressive due in part to foul trouble, but he averaged 15 points and 13.7 rebounds in the other 3 games. He snagged a career high 20 rebounds on January 24. Unfortunately, his season ended very early as a MRI on January 31 revealed that it was not just a sore foot; there was a stress fracture in his right foot. No surgery was performed and the foot took some time to heal. He could have returned for the last week or two of the season, but the team decided that there was no need to take a chance and risk further injury, so Samaki sat out the rest of the season. The improvement of Samaki during the season was incredible. Samaki was more aggressive going for the rebounds and his confidence in his game was evident. He had developed a patience that allowed him to take the smart shot instead of the quick shot. And he was even get the respect of the opponents as he would occasionally see the double team. During the month of January, Samaki provided a much needed post-up player. With this being his second season plagued with injuries, there will be some concern that he is injury prone. Hopefully that will not be the case and he will continue to improve and shine next season. Next season will be the 3rd and final year of his 3 year rookie contract. The Mavs do have the option of signing Samaki to a contract extension before October (as they did with Michael Finley last summer), but I'd be surprised if that occurred. GP-GS MIN AVG FGM-FGA PCT 3PM-3PA PCT FTM-FTA PCT 41-19 1027 25.0 156-321 0.486 0-1 0.000 53-97 0.546 OFF DEF TOT AVG AST AVG PF-D STL TO BLK PTS AVG HI 96 206 302 7.4 24 0.6 127-2 30 61 39 365 8.9 26 Bubba Wells - small forward, shooting guard Rookie Bubba Wells was a flop. He only had one good game (21 points including 10-14 FG, 9 rebounds, and 7 assists in a loss to San Antonio February 19), two games with 10 points, and the rest of the games he played in were not worth noting. Nelson even tried force feeding him minutes in March, but Wells did not perform. He did find his way into the NBA record book when Nelson had him intentionally foul Dennis Rodman in the Chicago game December 29 and Wells fouled out in 3 minutes. The Mavs signed him to a two year, $572,000 contract ($300,000 in 98-99), but he will not likely be back next season. GP-GS MIN AVG FGM-FGA PCT 3PM-3PA PCT FTM-FTA PCT 39-2 394 10.1 48-116 0.414 1-6 0.167 31-43 0.721 OFF DEF TOT AVG AST AVG PF-D STL TO BLK PTS AVG HI 22 46 68 1.7 34 0.9 40-1 15 31 4 132 3.4 21 Other players with Dallas for part of 97-98 Adrian Caldwell played only 3 minutes of 1 game with the Mavs while holding a roster space for Chris Anstey, who was finishing up the playoffs in Australia. Kevin Ollie played well as a backup point guard under Cleamons before falling out of the rotation in late November and off the roster December 17. He was a good defensive player and was picked up by Orlando March 2 (though I was surprised that it took so long for another NBA team to sign him). The Mavs traded Derek Harper to Orlando September 24 for Dennis Scott. Despite many misgivings about Scott's personality, he was a positive on the team. He provided true locker room leadership. His performances on the court were generally not very good - he is a streak shooter and it seemed he had more than his usual share of off-nights. Scott was traded to Phoenix February 18 for Cedric Ceballos. Player GP-GS MIN AVG FGM-FGA PCT 3PM-3PA PCT FTM-FTA PCT Scott 52-42 1797 34.6 258-666 0.387 94-273 0.344 97-118 0.822 Ollie 16-0 214 13.4 14-42 0.333 0-0 0.000 18-25 0.720 Caldwell 1-0 3 3.0 0-0 0.000 0-0 0.000 0-0 0.000 Player OFF DEF TOT AVG AST AVG PF-D STL TO BLK PTS AVG HI Scott 39 158 197 3.8 129 2.5 121-1 43 92 26 707 13.6 33 Ollie 6 15 21 1.3 32 2.0 16-0 6 16 0 46 2.9 11 Caldwell 0 0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0.0 0 The future: Once again there are a lot of "if"s associated with next season. If Kurt Thomas is finally healthy. If Robert Pack is healthy and returns to form. If Samaki Walker is healthy and continues to improve. If Cedric Ceballos is re-signed or we get sign a good free agent small forward or draft a good small forward who can fit in quickly. If Chris Anstey has a good off-season workout and continues to improve. If Shawn Bradley develops some sort of consistency and we see some of what he showed in the incredible Portland game on a regular basis. If Erick Stricland reappears from where ever his game disappeared to. If A.C. Green's body doesn't finally give out on him. If we get a good draft pick who fits the team. I cringe at saying this due to fear of jinxing them, but Michael Finley and Hubert Davis are the only two players on the team that I really don't associate an "if" with. There are far too many "if"s to expect much from this team next season - and there is still the unknown of what will happen over the summer [and the unknown as to if there will be a lockout]. Michael Finley, Hubert Davis, Chris Anstey, Samaki Walker, Erick Strickland, and A.C. Green will most likely be back next season. Though the Mavs probably wouldn't mind trading him, Green's contract (about $5.5 million next season) is far to large to make a trade likely and, plus, the Mavs are looking at the summer of 1999 as when the team will have the money to go after a big name free agent and the loss of Green's contract then is what will free up a lot of the cap room. For the trading block, the Mavs would probably listen to offers for Robert Pack, Shawn Bradley, and Khalid Reeves. I really don't expect any of those three to be traded as the Mavs probably wouldn't be offered much in return (Pack and Bradley) or there is little interest (Reeves). Look for the Mavs to also try to re-sign free agents Cedric Ceballos and Kurt Thomas. Ceballos will likely shop the market and go else where only if it is to a contending team. Thomas will likely be signed to a 1 year contract by the Mavs. Ace Custis and Shawn Respert will likely get invites to training camp and I'd be surprised if Martin Muursepp (rumored to return to Israel), Eric Riley, and Bubba Wells were here next season. As I said, the Mavs have very little cap room, if any, to spend on a free agent. I believe, though, that they still have the $1 million exemption available to use towards a free agent. The team could pick up a small name free agent or a bigger name that lucked out on the market as the season gets closer. Of course, the team also has a nice high draft pick with their own first round pick and might be able to pick up a good rookie with the first pick of the second round (from Toronto via the Popeye Jones trade). What the team really needs for next season (besides being injury free) is a true point guard. Even if Pack returns to form, a backup point guard is needed. The team could also use a bulkier backup center who could sub for Bradley and bang with the bigger centers. If the Mavs don't luck out and get Mike Bibby in the draft, the team will probably draft a shooting guard and/or small forward (and there is always the chance that Nelson will trade the pick). Though I like him better at shooting guard, Finley can play both shooting guard an small forward and there is the question regarding if Ceballos will be back. The only position the team really doesn't need help in (barring multiple injuries again) is power forward as the team has Green, Thomas, Walker, and Anstey (though he can play small forward and center). We still have a long ways to go. patricia