Well the summer is over, so it's time for my pretty much annual write up
of "what's gone on with the Mavs since the draft" with games just around
the corner.


I was happy when Dallas signed Devin Harris to a 5 year, about $45 million
contract extension.  Harris has one year left on his current rookie
contract and is now signed through 2012-13.  The Mavs had until the end of
October to sign him to an extension, else he would have been a restricted
free agent next summer.  They got the job done early and now are
publically committed to Harris as their point guard.  I liked what I saw
in Harris as a rookie and said at the time that it would take 4 years for
him to fully develop. This is year 4, so hopefully I was right and he has
taken the next step in his development.  Remember that he came out of
school early and is now only 24 years old.

No surprise that Dallas re-signed Jerry Stackhouse to a 3 year, $21
million contract.  Stack has fully accepted his role with the Mavs and is
a key component to the team (one that they would have had difficulty
replacing if they hadn't re-signed him).

Dallas also re-signed Devean George to a 1 year, $2,369,111 contract.  It 
was a technical move as George had opted out of the last year of his 
contract as the Mavs could pay him a little more by signing him to a new 
contract.

Thus, the Mavs re-signed all their free agents they wanted to keep.
Austin Croshere (signed with Golden State) and Kevin Willis were not
retained.

Dallas signed Eddie Jones to a 2 year, $4 million contract on August 6.
Jones is a shooter and has a reputation of being a good defensive player.
He's a swing man who plays both shooting guard and small forward.  But
he's not a youngster as he turns 36 this month and is looking for a ring
as he nears the end of his career.  It looks like he has fit in well with
the team as I saw him laughing and talking with a smile with a number of
players and coaches during breaks in the action of Fan Jam.

The Mavs traded Greg Buckner to Minnesota for Trenton Hassell on September
29.  It's not an exciting trade and the players' games are some what
similar.  Buck didn't really mesh with the team last season and didn't
provide the role that was expected of him.  Hassell is known for his 
defense.  He missed the first couple of days of training camp while 
attending to his father, who is recovering from a stroke.  Hassell joined
the team on Thursday (but didn't play in Fan Jam) and says his father is 
doing well.  [Add to the seperated at birth file Hassell and Shawn
Respert.]

Dallas liked what they saw in Brandon Bass, who played for the Mavs summer
league team, and signed him to a 2 year contract.  I was surprised that 
New Orleans had given up on Bass, whom I had thought they really liked.  
He's a very young player with a very big body.  He is listed as 6-8 and 
240 and has been christened with the nickname "The Animal" by his 
teammates and coach.  He came out of school after his sophomore year and 
is just 22 years old.  The Mavs are hoping that he will blossom with 
Dallas like DeSagana Diop did.  As a result of Bass' addition, Dallas 
released Pops Mensah-Bonsu.

Of the 2nd round draft picks, only Nick Fazekas is with the team for
training camp.  Reyshawn Terry is playing for Aris TT Bank of Greece
and Renaldas Seibutis is with Olympiacos of Greece - Dallas retains the
NBA rights to both players.  Fazekas is signed to a 2 year contract
(likely with the 2nd at the team's option) and probably won't see much
time with the Mavs during the regular season and will probably spend a lot
of time in the NBADL.  He's not NBA ready and needs to learn a lot.

Dallas added Jamal Sampson, Jared Newson, and Darvin Ham to the training
camp roster.  None are likely to make the team, though I'd give Ham a
slight edge if the team feels it needs another big body due to injury
reasons.  Newson played with the Mavs in the summer league, but didn't
look good in Fan Jam (though it's just one game) as he often was on the
wrong place on the court.  Sampson has floated around for a number of
years trying to break into the league, yet still looked like a rookie 
during Fan Jam (again, just one game).  Ham is a role playing veteran with
8 years of NBA experience, though he did not play last season.  He is most
known for his monster dunks.

Erick Dampier underwent shoulder surgery in June and is still recovering.
No exact idea has been announced for when he'll be ready to play and the 
range is considered between mid-November and mid-December.

Devean George has a stress reaction in his left foot.  It should heal with
simply rest and he'll be wearing a boot cast for 2 weeks.

Eddie Jones tweaked his right hammy during Fan Jam and missed Saturday's
practice.  It's a minor injury.

Paul Westphal and Mario Elie have been added as Avery Johnson's assistant
coaches, joining Joe Prunty as the 3 bench assistants.  Billy Owens (long
time Golden State player) joined the developmental coaching staff.  
Bernard Griffin left the developmental team after 2 seasons to return to
New Orleans to coach high school basketball.

San Antonio will retire Avery Johnson's #6 during the December 22 San
Antonio-LA Clippers game.


As for Fan Jam:
It was kind of early in training camp for the annual Blue-White scrimmage,
which took place on Thursday, as it was only the 3rd day of training camp.
Erick Dampier, Trenton Hassell, Devean George, and DJ Mbenga (knee) did
not play.  Devin Harris introduced the teams and and his teammates got the
biggest kick with him introducing JJ Barea as "the Puerto Rican AI".  No
surprise that Dirk Nowitzki got the biggest cheers.  I took advantage of
my media pass and took a prime seat near the White Team bench - I can tell
you that Mario Elie was really coaching that team, hardly sitting down and
full of instructions.  The White Team contained Nowitzki, Harris, Jerry
Stackhouse, Jamal Sampson, Jared Newson, Barea, and Nick Fazekas and was
coached by Elie with assistants Popeye Jones and Greg Dreiling.  The Blue
Team had Jason Terry, Eddie Jones, Josh Howard, DeSagana Diop, Brandon
Bass, Maurice Ager, and Darvin Ham and was coached by Joe Prunty with
assistants Monte Mathis and Billy Owens.  Avery Johnson and Paul Westphal
watched the game courtside.  The game consisted of 4 8 minute quarters.
It was a competitive game and not as sloppy as I thought it would be for 
being so early in training camp.  There were even a number of hard fouls.
But the shooting was poor (both teams under 40% FG) and there were 16 
missed free throws (26-42 FT).  The game stayed close throughout.  It was
tied with less than a minute left.  A layup by Sampson gave the White team
a 2 point lead with about 40 seconds left.  After a timeout, the Blue team
ran a play with a lot of passing of the ball.  Diop had an open look from 
the top of the free throw line, but passed the ball instead of shooting 
and the ball went out of bounds.  The White team had the ball with about 
28 seconds left and ran the clock down before missing a shot.  After a 
timeout, the Blue team again could not get a good shot with (I think) 
Jones throwing up a prayer that wasn't even close and the ball went out of
bounds off of the Blue team.  And they elected not to play the last .7 
seconds of the game.  The White team won 48-46.

As for the players, I think the first 3 times down the court, Harris drove
at the basket, showing off his new instructions of "drive, drive, drive".
He still drove later in the game, but not as much as he did in that 1st 
quarter.  Harris had a game high 15 points including 8-12 FT.  Dirk looked
like Dirk and hit a couple of shots that had you going "wow" (but also 
missed some he should have made).  He had 11 points.  Howard struggled the
whole game and his frustration showed at times with hard fouls and yelling
at the refs.  He had just 8 points including 2-13 FG and 5 fouls.
Stackhouse had the shot of the night in nailing a 3/4 court shot at the
halftime buzzer.  He had 10 points.  Terry also had an end of quarter
bucket as he drove from over halfcourt for a layup at the 3rd quarter
buzzer, but part of that was due to lax defense from the White team.
Terry was the only player in double-digits for the Blue team with 14
points.  Though he did have 9 rebounds, Diop didn't have a great game with
his poor decision making at the end of the game.  He had 3 points on 1-4
FG.  Bass had similar numbers with 5 points on 1-4 FG and 3-6 FT and 9
rebounds.  He is a big body, but didn't do anything note worthy in this
game.  Eddie Jones had 7 points, but I was a little concerned when I saw
him grab his leg a couple of times and was glad to hear that it was just a
minor tweak to his hammy (though he should pulled himself out instead of
continuing to play in a meaningless scrimmage).  Barea remains a Nowitzki
favorite (you should see Dirk cheer when JJ does something good).  He did
have a nice steal during the game, but didn't finish at the other end.
Barea had 3 points on 1-5 FG.  Fazekas had a couple of nice plays, but
still looked like a rookie most of the game.  I'm a little concerned about
his confidence as Elie gave him an extra pat of the back during a sub-out
with a comment of (paraphrased): "You did good.  Keep your head up."  And
I also noticed the next time Fazekas subbed out, he again had his head
down.  Fazekas had 4 points and 7 rebounds.  I'm still not see much from 
Maurice Ager, and with the number of players in front of him at shooting
guard (and he definitely is not a point guard), I don't see him adding any
value to the team.  I won't be surprised if by either trade or simple 
release in opting to keep a bigger man, Ager wasn't with the team for the 
start of the regular season.  Ager had 5 points in the game.  Jared Newson
and Jamal Sampson did not impress at all.  Newson had a couple of nice 
steals, but was lost at times on the court.  A couple of times, Harris was
upset with Newson for not being in the proper position for a play (and 
instruction from Harris was not followed).  Newson had 2 points including
1-6 FG and 3 steals.  Sampson had some nice rebounds, but was clueless 
defensively.  He had 3 points and 6 rebounds.  Ham missed a monster dunk 
that still had the fans oh'ing and made another less impressive dunk.  He
had 4 points.

The stats crew also had a little fun with the game as they listed the
officials as "Moe Moe, Curly Curly, Larry Larry".  I think the players
agreed with those names.  Nowitzki got hit at least twice (he said 3
times and I could see 2 clearly from across the court) on the arm while 
attempting a shot with no call and a timeout was called as the ball went 
out of bounds.  As Nowitzki was walking to the bench, he said, "Stevie 
Wonder could've saw that."

Also of note, it looks like there are new shot clocks above and behind the
basket (unless they were there just for the scrimmage).  It will take some
getting used to as I think I'll be needing to look at the lower one that's
on the basketball support from my regular seats.


The Mavs first preseason game is Tuesday vs San Antonio.  The regular
season kicks off October 31 in Cleveland.


patricia