The Dallas Mavericks are excited about center Tyson Chandler. They believe he's regained much of the explosiveness they remember during the 2008 playoffs and that's been ravaged the past two seasons by foot and ankle injuries.

The Mavs became increasingly giddy over Chandler's play during the build-up toward the FIBA World Championships underway in Turkey. Chandler was receiving strong reviews from USA teammates as well as coach Mike Krzyzewski as he appeared to nail down the starting job at center. In fact, it seemed almost odd that the starting center for Team USA would come to Mavs training camp in less than a month as the backup to Brendan Haywood.

However, in the three games that Team USA has played over the past three days, Los Angeles Lakers forward Lamar Odom has started at center as Krzyzewski goes with a smaller lineup, and Chandler's role has continually decreased. After playing 11 minutes with four points, four rebounds and two blocked shots in Saturday's opening win against Croatia, the 7-foot-1 Chandler, the only true center on the roster, has managed no points, two rebounds and one blocked shot against Slovenia and Brazil in just 13 total minutes.

He played a tournament-low five minutes today in the 70-68 win over Brazil, despite the presence of 7-foot center Tiago Splitter, who will play for the San Antonio Spurs this season. Chandler did not attempt a shot and had one defensive rebound. Of course, no one expected him to be much of an offensive force for the Americans, but his long arms on the defensive end, shot-blocking and rebounding were touted as key components for the squad.

It will be interesting to see if Krzyzewski finds spots to utilize Chandler or if he trends toward the end of the bench. Up next is a match against Iran at 11 a.m. Wednesday on ESPN.