Five days removed from successful surgery in which he had a pin inserted in his broken left foot, Dallas Mavericks guard Roddy Beaubois is recovering in Dallas and getting along in a walking boot.

It's certainly not what he envisioned. Beaubois was supposed to have taken on Team USA last Sunday at Madison Square Garden as the starting point guard of the French national team. The French-speaking native of Guadeloupe was to continue to hone his leadership skills at the FIBA World Championships in Turkey beginning in 10 days. Instead, he'll have to settle for watching on TV.

"I talked to him today," Mavs president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson said. "He's walking around in a boot and kind of getting used to it. He knows it's going to be a long haul."

The Mavs have stated that Beaubois will miss two to three months. They are not putting a timetable on his step-by-step recovery process in terms of when he'll begin conditioning workouts, then basketball activities, etc.

"We don't want to put a time table out there. It heals when it heals," Nelson said. "I think we've gone through the normal allotment of time for this type of injury. We are going to take the conservative approach."

Beaubois, entering his second season and anticipating a vastly increased role, clearly won't be ready to participate when training camps opens in late September. If he proves to be a quick healer, perhaps he'll be ready for the season-opener on Oct. 27, but there are certainly are no guarantees.