Some notes from Friday and Saturday evening practices. But first the 95-96 pre-season roster. Dallas Mavericks No. Player Pos Ht Wt B-day College Exp 1 Scott Brooks .......... G 5-11 165 7/31/65 UC Irvine'87 7 4 Cherokee Parks ........ F-C 6-11 275 10/11/72 Duke'95 R-1 5 Jason Kidd ............ G 6-4 208 3/23/73 California'96 1 7 Tony Dumas ............ G 6-6 190 8/25/72 Missouri-KC'94 1 10 Marcus Grant .......... F-G 6-6 200 11/21/73 Mississippi State'95 R 21 George McCloud ........ F-G 6-8 225 5/27/67 Florida St'89 5 24 Jim Jackson ........... G 6-6 215 10/14/70 Ohio State'93 3 30 Lucious Harris ........ G 6-5 205 12/18/70 Long Beach State'93 2 32 Jamal Mashburn ........ F 6-8 250 11/29/72 Kentucky'94 2 33 Brain Fair ............ G 6-4 216 2/3/73 Connecticut'95 R 35 Donald Hodge .......... C 7-0 250 2/25/69 Temple'92 4 40 Loren Meyer ........... C 6-10 260 12/30/72 Iowa State'95 R-1 42 Roy Tarpley ........... F-C 7-0 245 11/28/64 Michigan'86 6 43 Terry Davis ........... F-C 6-10 250 6/17/67 Virginia Union'89 6 44 Lorenzo Williams ...... C 6-9 220 7/15/69 Stetson'91 3 50 Brian Hopgood ......... F 6-9 275 4/8/72 Oklahoma City'95 R 54 Popeye Jones .......... F 6-8 265 6/17/70 Murray State'92 2 Head Coach: Dick Motta (Utah State'53) Assistants: Brad Davis (Maryland'78) Kip Motta (Western Montana'82) Trainer: Doug Atkinson (UTEP'72) The first thing I noticed here was the differences in weights from last year's roster. Player Old New Lucious Harris 190 205 Donald Hodge 239 250 Jim Jackson 220 215 Popeye Jones 250 265 Jason Kidd 205 208 Jamal Mashburn 240 250 (pure muscle gained) George McCloud 215 225 Lorenzo Williams 200 220 and the rookies change from from the start of summer Loren Meyer 257 260 Cherokee Parks 247 275 Although I argued the other way when the players were drafted, it appears (visually) that Meyer is actually slightly taller than Hodge despite the roster listing. And Meyer did seem to be a tad taller than Parks (both have buzz cuts now), but Parks does have a tendency to slouch some. [I never noticed Parks and Hodge standing near each other, so no comparison there.] Tattoos are common place amongst the players now. Jackson marred that finely sculpted arm of his with a "J.J." in script. Sad to see. I heard that Mashburn and Kidd both have tattoos, but I didn't notice them. Kidd was wearing his new funky Nikes - mostly black with a white area on the side with a black swoosh. McCloud was wearing a pair on Saturday. [The kids siting in front of me had found Nike shoe boxes of size 13 and size 14 and were arguing who had Kidd's box.] Except for free agent Hopgood, all the players looked good physically. There wasn't too much sucking wind going on and the players were able to run the drills effectively and continuously. Occasionally there were signs of weariness. On Friday, Hodge had a 3/4 court break away and I wondered if he was going to make it (but this was after 1 1/2 hours of practice) and Popeye was struggling to catch him from behind. Jackson's ankle is fine. He is moving mobility is good and had no problem with the side-shuffle drill. His shooting is great. He earned $500 when he made 30-30 in the perimeter shooting drill Saturday morning. He was the 6th player to go perfect in the drill since Motta started using it in 1974 (joining Larry Wright, Kevin Grevey, Allan Bristow, Brad Davis, and Rolando Blackman). For the drill, the players are divided up into groups of 3 and they take turns shooting around the arc (20-23 feet) and back from 5 spots. Jackson made 27-30 in the evening practice. Brooks also made 27-30 (9-10, 10-10, and 8-10) in the evening. Dumas was the third of the trio and shot 9-10 on his second round (didn't watch his first) and hit his first 6 shots before losing his concentration and missing the last 4 on his third round. The talk of Friday's practices was Loren Meyer. The word was that he looked very good in the morning session and looked impressive to me in the evening session. He has a nice soft 10-15 foot outside and kept after the ball to get some good rebounds and putbacks. He is fairly mobile for his size and Kidd reportedly already has a soft spot for him. Parks also looked good. To me, he looked better on Saturday than he did on Friday, but that could have been due to my focusing more on Meyer on Friday (Meyer was with Jackson, Kidd, and Mashburn's group during one of the drills, so I tended to watch that side of the court more than the other.) He hit several outside jumpers during the 3-on-3 and 4-on-4 drills. One of the highlights from Saturday was when he hit a fall-away 3-pointer over his defender at the shot clock buzzer. [They use a 24 second clock that Motta sometimes adjusts and they do have refs - Meyer got called for charging when he barreled of a set Popeye and sent Popeye flying.] One thing I noticed while Parks was shooting around before practice that had me concerned was the he was shooting a set shot from about 15 feet out. He did revert to a jump shot during practice, though. I'm glad that I didn't have time to write notes from Friday's practice as one of my concerns was alleviated during Saturday's practice. Friday, Kidd took only about two shot attempts (besides the shooting drills) and was just passing (and some amazing passes they were) to the other players. Saturday, he took several shots, slashed to the basket at least twice and scored instead of dishing it off, and airballed a 3. It is hard to say if or how much his shooting ability has improved since I was also watching so many other great shooters. What else... Harris looked good. He has a sweet shot and the weight he gained looks to be mostly muscle. Dumas looked good - I was impressed by the way he looked and performed, especially compared to last year. He could probably use some time on the weight machines, but that image could be due to watching studs Jackson and Mashburn. Hodge actually looked pretty good, but I still say he is the odd man out. Terry looked slow compared to everyone else on the team. He put the hustle in but he just does not have the physically speed to keep up with the fast pace. He'd do good in a eastern half court scheme. Lorenzo still looks skinny. He had some nice blocks during the drills. For the free agents, only Fair looked decent. He has a very impressive shot. He was on the red 4-on-4 team that won one of the drills and showed some nice passing ability and made several shots. He had finished he college eligibility for basketball but had a year left in football and was playing wide receiver and strong safety for UConn when the Mavs called him with the invite to training camp. Grant left no impression at all with me. Hopgood got frustrated with a non-call and took a while to recover from that frustration. Those who hung around after practice: On Friday, Brain Fair and Scott Brooks stayed to shoot. On Saturday, Fair and Tony Dumas stayed to shoot. Brooks and Mashburn stayed to run sprints - this did not look voluntarily. Before anyone who watched the evening practices complains that there was no focus on defense, the defensive drills are run in the morning sessions. For the evening sessions, Motta likes to run the drills which the fans find more enjoyable such as the fast break and scrimmages. To sum up my impressions from watching two practices, it is hard to believed that they have only been practicing for two days. The practices ran better and smoother than the one I saw last year midway through training camp. And everyone is in such good shape. If you do have the opportunity to go one evening, I highly recommend it. Non-training camp notes As you probably heard, Roy Tarpley did not pass his physical and, thus, is not attending training camp. He is suffering cramping and inflammation in the pancreas-gallbladder area. He will undergo tests on Monday to try to determine the cause of his pain. Tarpley suffered from pancreatitis last July. What a difference a year makes. Last season Doug Smith earned $1.95 million with the Mavs. This season he will make $500,000 with Boston. Doug signed a 2 year contract worth $1 million, but only this season is guaranteed. patricia