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Ninth in a 15-part series ranking the Mavericks' 2011-12 roster in importance of bringing back next season.

Surely one can look around the NBA and field a lineup of unfulfilled careers. With the Dallas Mavericks that search stops with Rodrigue Beaubois, the highly-talented guard whose career appeared headed toward the stars until the unfortunate day when the fifth metatarsal in his left foot snapped.

Nothing's been the same since. And everything's been a struggle.

Beaubois is heading into the most important summer of his young NBA career and he knows it.

"I cannot tell you what is going to happen, but obviously I know that this summer is going to be big for me," Beaubois said. "I have to work out a lot and make sure that I am ready because if they give me space (more playing time) I will have to be ready for that."

For the first time in three summers, Beaubois is healthy and able to train. He broke his foot in early August 2010 training with the French national team and underwent surgery soon after. He missed two-thirds of the following season because he re-injured the foot and then hurt it again in the final game of the regular season, forcing him out of the entire championship run and back into the operating room.

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Few inroads were made this season and so here we are at a crossroads. Beaubois is effectively entering the final year of his contract. The Mavs can make a qualifying offer next summer or they can say goodbye.

The Countdown ticks down to No. 7...

RODRIGUE BEAUBOIS
Pos.: G
Ht./Wt.: 6-foot-2, 180
Experience: 3 years
Age: 24 (Feb. 24, 1988)
2011-12 stats: 8.9 ppg (42.2 FG, 28.8 3FG, 2.9 apg)
Contract status: Signed through 2012-13
2011-12 salary: $1.2 million
2012-13 salary: $2.2 million

His story: The second surgery ruined another summer of work and development with the lockout adding another layer of frustration because it prevented Beaubois from working, or even visiting, with Rick Carlisle and the coaching staff. Once again, Beaubois' role this season is in total limbo because that's also where the Mavs' roster is. Will they sign Deron Williams and re-sign Jason Kidd to back him up at point guard? Will Delonte West and/or Jason Terry return along with Vince Carter to fortify the shooting guard position? And then there's the whole issue of whether he's a point guard -- which he mostly played to varying degrees of success this season -- or a shooting guard, or does it even matter? Or will that be determined simply by where there is room for him?

His outlook: Any number of backcourt variables that emerge after July 1 could open up playing time for Beaubois or again leave him buried behind a veteran crew. Or, in yet another scenario, Beaubois could get caught up in a trade to create additional cap space. Beaubois was essentially out of the rotation in the playoffs, leaving him with still virtually no postseason experience in three trips. Will the 2012-13 season be something of a rebirth for Beaubois in Dallas or the beginning of the end?

No. 15 Lamar Odom
No. 14 Brian Cardinal
No. 13 Yi Jianlian
No. 12 Dominique Jones
No. 11 Brendan Haywood
No. 10 Kelenna Azubuike
No. 9 Ian Mahinmi
No. 8 Vince Carter
No. 7 Rodrigue Beaubois
No. 6 Coming Friday

Say the Dallas Mavericks come up empty in free agency (i.e. don't sign Deron Williams) and Dwight Howard is dealt somewhere to end that pursuit before it really started, and the only option left is to rebuild.

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Mavs F Dirk Nowitzki says he's too old to stay with a rebuilding franchise but couldn't imagine himself leaving the city of Dallas. Listen

Would Dirk Nowitzki request a trade?

It's a hypothetical that was presented to Nowitzki during his Tuesday appearance on ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM's "Galloway & Co."

"It’s kind of tough," Nowitzki said. "I’m like the grandfather of Dallas sports right now."

He continued: "I’m not sure. I’ve always said I want to finish my career here and obviously the championship season topped it all off; that’s what I always was chasing and dreaming about so that kind of sealed that deal on that front. If we really come out with nobody this summer then maybe they want to rebuild and obviously I’m too old for that. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens on that front. But, I still think I got two, three good years left in me and if we get some players in here we can be right back up there and compete."

Nowitzki said he's excited about the prospect of reeling in a big fish in this first summer of cap space in his career. While owner Mark Cuban might talk of different roster-building ideas outside of nabbing a so-called big fish, Nowitzki makes it clear that his idea of a big fish is free-agent-to-be and Dallas-area native Williams, which obviously is no secret at all.

"We’d love to get a prime-time player like D-Will in," Nowitzki said. " But our thing right now is we just have to wait and see what happens in July."

Back to that hypothetical of Dirk, who turns 34 next month and is newly engaged, eventually seeking an exit from a rebuilding phase or the club deciding to part ways to bring in younger talent, Nowitzki said he doesn't see either one ever materializing.

"I don’t even want to think about it because I don’t think it’s going to happen," Nowitzki said. "I want to finish my career here and hopefully compete again in the playoffs and be a player late in June. We’ll see. Everything else is kind of all in the future. I can’t really see myself in another city or another uniform after 14 seasons I think it’s been now. Growing up here and basically I've matured so much over the years and met a lot of great people here, so I can’t even think about going somewhere else really."

One thing Deron Williams knows for certain is that nobody knows which team he will sign with this summer.

Williams made that clear during an impromptu session with Nets beat writers Tuesday.

“I want to reiterate, I don’t know what I’m doing next year,” Williams said, according to the Bergen Record. “Still. Nobody does but me. Not even my mom, my brother, my uncle, my cousin. I haven’t talked to anybody about where I’m going next year.”

Williams hammered home the point that he hasn’t made a decision yet and was reportedly annoyed by the speculation that he will be picking between the Nets and Mavericks.

“I can’t know where I’m going to go because I haven’t talked to any teams, because I’m not allowed to talk to any teams,” Williams said. “So I haven’t had any contact with anybody, so there’s no decision to be made right now. I just hate that people think they know where I’m going, because I don’t know where I’m going. So there’s no way for them to know or assume that I’m going to Dallas or that I’m staying here. I don’t know. There could be another team that comes into the picture.”

Williams doesn’t want his every move before free agency opens on July 1 to be analyzed for clues on which way he’s leaning.

He said he continues to work out at the Nets facility as a matter of convenience, adding that he has sold his house in San Diego and is in the process of selling his house in Utah and that his children are in school until the end of next month. His recent trip to Europe, which included spending some time with Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov, was just a vacation.

“People say I’m staying here for sure because I went to Russia,” Williams said. “Yeah, I went to Russia. I’ve never been to Russia. [Former Jazz teammate Andrei Kirilenko has] been telling me to come to Russia for the last six years, so I went to Russia. It was close to Turkey. I went to Turkey because I love Turkey, I played there for three months, I wanted to see my teammates, I wanted to check out some games, so I went to Istanbul.”

Oh, and if you see Williams around the Metroplex over the next week, don’t read much into that, either.

“I’m from there,” Williams said. “My mom lives there. My brother lives there. My aunt, my uncles live there. I’m going there to have my son’s birthday party. I’m going Thursday through Tuesday.”

We’ll find out in July whether Williams will be back on a regular basis.

If Dwight Howard is dead set on leaving the Magic's small (market) world ASAP, as reports suggest, and Orlando grants his wish, it's hard to find the happily-ever-after ending for the Dallas Mavericks.

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That's the picture Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Bianchi painted Tuesday morning during an appearance on ESPN Radio's "Mike & Mike in the Morning." If you thought D12 got what he wanted with Monday's news of coach Stan Van Gundy's firing and the franchise parting with general manager Otis Smith, it might come as a surprise then that Bianchi suggested that Howard could be traded before the June 28 draft.

Bianchi believes the Magic will first ask Howard for a long-term commitment. If the game's top (and seemingly profoundly confused) center says no thanks, then Bianchi thinks the Magic will act quickly to move him out to spare the club and its fan base another derailing, drama-filled season.

If Orlando again begins to solicit trade offers for its statuesque big man coming off back surgery just a month ago -- while also likely looking to unload the egregious Hedo Turkoglu contract (two years, $23.6 million) -- what's the Mavs' best offer?

Think the Magic jump at Brendan Haywood, Lamar Odom's partially guaranteed contract, Shawn Marion, Brandan Wright, Rodrigue Beaubois and whoever else the Mavs might want to throw in?

Not likely (and it's here where speculation can run wild that re-signing Tyson Chandler might have made the Mavs a more prominent player in a potential deal).

Howard has been adamant that he wants to play for the Brooklyn Nets. That's presumably because of his desire (or is it adidas' desire?) to play in a large market where his superstardom can really shine, and his arrival would almost certainly convince All-Star point guard and free-agent-to-be Deron Williams to sign long-term in the borough. If the Nets get a top-three pick in the draft lottery May 30, they'll keep their protected pick from the Gerald Wallace deadline deal, a golden nugget to toss into a package to Orlando.

The Nets, with restricted free-agent center Brook Lopez, and the Los Angeles Lakers, with center Andrew Bynum or power forward Pau Gasol as prime bait, are the top contenders to deal for Dwight now.

The Mavs simply are not.

Dallas' best hope would be that the Magic are desperate to trade Howard out of the Eastern Conference and can't work out a deal with the Lakers. The worst-case scenario, obviously, would be for Orlando to deal him to Brooklyn, effectively (presumably) taking the Mavs out of the running for D-Will and leaving Mark Cuban and Dirk Nowitzki staring into an uneasy future.

For years now talk has revolved around bringing in a second superstar to pair with Dirk Nowitzki. That hasn't changed, obviously, with the Dallas Mavericks having carved out salary cap space to make a run at Deron Williams, a perennial All-Star point guard and the lone superstar headed for free agency on July 1.

What has changed is the language the Mavs are using to describe Nowitzki -- the No. 2 superstar -- as he creeps into his mid-30s.

The No. 2 superstar? Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said it earlier this week.

"That's our goal," the coach said, stressing the need to lift the scoring burden from Dirk's shoulders entering his 15th NBA season.

There's certainly nothing wrong with that. It's not to say that Nowitzki doesn't have at least two more seasons -- the length of his contract that will take him through age 36 -- of All-Star-caliber fallaways and one-legged leaners left in his 7-foot frame. But it is getting unreasonable to expect Dirk, who turns 34 next month, to be the same player, or play the same minutes as he did at age 28 or even at 32 when he had the postseason of his life and led the Mavs to the franchise's lone title.

Did that dip start this season with Nowitzki posting near career-lows across the board? It was such a funky season that it's tough to say if Father Time indeed has his irreversible chops into Nowitzki, but regardless, inevitable decline will come as he ages. That's just how it works.

Which reinforces the obvious that Nowitzki can't get this thing back to an elite situation by himself. It was practically a miracle how the Mavs came together in 2011 and roared through Portland, L.A., OKC and Miami to win it all. Just look at the four teams left in the the Western Conference playoffs. One-superstar outfits don't exist. San Antonio still has three strong superstars surrounded by a deep supporting cast that is helping to keep Tim Duncan spry and sharp.

The Lakers have perennial MVP candidate Kobe Bryant with two All-Star sidekicks, in Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. The Thunder obviously have the youngest and perhaps most fearsome Big Three going that includes three-time scoring champ Kevin Durant and the Sixth Man of the Year James Harden. Even the Clippers boast Chris Paul with rising star Blake Griffin.

Nowitzki needs help, and this summer represents the best chance to lure elite-level help because, for the first time in the Mark Cuban era, Dallas wades into free agency with hearty cap space bait.

"We want to have the best players in the game, that’s always going to be our goal here," Carlisle said. "And there’s three ways you get them: you draft them, you trade for them or you get them in free agency, and we’re going to explore all three of those vehicles to continue to improve the team and get the right guys around Dirk Nowitzki. Our championship happened because we had the perfect mix of guys, not only on the floor, but around him. We’re always working on that."

We'll probably never know coach Rick Carlisle's true feelings about Lamar Odom and the forward's indifferent attitude and disappointing performances with the Dallas Mavericks.

Carlisle is a pragmatist. He doesn't obsess over what might have been.

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"It’s a chapter that is one that will go down in Mavs history as just something that didn’t work out," Carlisle told ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM's Galloway & Company earlier this week. "We all tried. We all wanted it to work; Lamar wanted it to work. It was just rough. At times it felt like we were gaining momentum, but we just couldn’t get there and in the end we had to go on without him."

One has to wonder how badly Odom really wanted it to work since only he could control his attitude and effort. The Odom chapter is not yet closed because, well, he's still a member of the team. The Mavs would love to slam the book shut by trading Odom around the draft and getting rid of the $2.4 million potential cap hit, the amount guaranteed on the final year of his deal that in full is worth $8.2 million.

The deadline to trade Odom and wipe his potential cap hit from the books is June 29. Any team that has him on its roster by that date is responsible for paying him his guaranteed money. Two well-documented trade partners include Sacramento and Toronto, teams with substantial cap space to absorb Odom on the payroll and waive him. The Mavs will throw in cash to cover the buyout and maybe even throw in a second-round draft pick.

That strategy has seemed the most logical because, the thinking has gone, the Mavs in no way will take back salary because it would burn their cap space and squeeze their ability to offer Deron Williams a max contract in free agency.

Then, Carlisle on GAC offered just a scenario.

"One of the things about Odom’s contract is it is a contract that is going to be very desirable because it is a large number with a small guarantee, like (Jerry) Stackhouse’s and like (Erick) Dampier’s deal," Carlisle said. "Those two contract situations turned into (Shawn) Marion and (Tyson) Chandler. Those were two important building blocks to a championship."

Whether he meant to or not, Carlisle opened the door for speculation that the Mavs could be open to dealing Odom for a player of relevance. It would require packaging him with say, Shawn Marion ($8.6 million next season), for a high-dollar player another team wants to get out from under the contract, for example Pau Gasol in Los Angeles or Amare Stoudemire in New York.

The catch is that such a deal would make it difficult for the Mavs to then carve out enough cap space to offer a max deal to Williams. That is unless Dallas then moved the incoming player to another team in exchange for a player whose salary matched Marion's, as ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM's Jeff "Skin" Wade explained on Wednesday's Ben & Skin Show.

Such a scenario would rid the Mavs of Odom's cap hit, bring in a player at (most likely) a position of need and keep the Mavs in play to offer Williams the moon.

Such a plan won't be easy to carry through, but it certainly was curious of Carlisle to mention, unprompted, the possibility.

So let the speculation begin.

With the no-brainer contract becoming a done deal today, assuring that Rick Carlisle is signed up to coach the Dallas Mavericks through at least the 2015-16 season, the real work begins.

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When Carlisle arrived on the scene in 2008 as the successor to Avery Johnson, the roster included soon-to-be 30-year-olds in Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Terry and Shawn Marion, and a 35-year-old Jason Kidd. Wow, seems like spring chickens.

When Carlisle and the Mavs open training camp in October, the roster will include a 34-year-old Nowitzki and ...?

Who else is the $81 million question, or the $108 million question -- the amounts the Mavs or Brooklyn Nets will pay Deron Williams, respectively, whenever he chooses one over the other (interesting, of course, that Johnson coaches the Nets). Terry and Kidd are free agents and Marion isn't guaranteed to return.

Beyond Dirk, Carlisle doesn't know who will be on the 2012-13 roster in what promises to be a significant transition season coming of the 2011 championship followed by the first-round sweep out of the playoffs by the young hot-shots due north in Oklahoma City. It's not soft-pedaling things to say that the Mavs will battle mediocrity (36-30 this season) and even relevance, at least to the standard set during Mark Cuban's 12 years of ownership, if Williams opts to stay with the Nets.

Not that the perennial All-Star point guard promises a quick return to the Finals, but it would be a promising start. The free-agency list won't be laden with superstars or superstar potential to drape around Nowitzki.

Still, with or without Williams, Carlisle will indoctrinate a slew of new players into the system, a task he will no doubt attack with vigor, yet one that could be considered more daunting than the one he inherited even with the club having bottomed out emotionally in the first -round loss to the Chris Paul-led New Orleans Hornets in five games.

At least the Mavs took a game from those Hornets, the No. 2 seed then just like the Oklahoma City Thunder who swept Carlisle's Mavs to an early summer vacation less than two weeks ago. If the title team looked different this season, just wait until next season.

It will take a strong communicator to bring an unfamiliar group of players together and launch new era of winning basketball in Dallas. Carlisle proved he could bring a cast together during the championship season, coming off what had the makings of a devastating first-round playoff exit to the San Antonio Spurs the season before.

Carlisle believes the area he's grown the most over these last four years in Dallas is in communicating with his troops, a trait that cannot be undervalued in the NBA.

Or undersold, say, if Kidd relates his experiences with a flexible, open-minded Carlisle to a potential point-guard newcomer who happens to be friends with Kidd and shares the same agent.

"One of my strengths is that I’m an open-minded coach, I’m open to communication and I listen to the players," Carlisle said during the team's exit interviews on May 6. "I’m always working on being a better communicator as a coach and I work on that every single day and I’ve gotten better with it and I’ll continue to get better with it."

It could be the single most important aspect to the job as Carlisle is now officially on board to tackle the changing environment at the American Airlines Center.

From now until the start of NBA free agency on July 1, there will be enough tea leaves to read regarding Deron Williams' future to build a tea-leaf bridge stretching from Dallas to Brooklyn to Moscow.

Moscow?

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That's where the perennial All-Star point guard and his wife Amy are this week (and they tweeted their Ritz-Carlton room view of the Kremlin to prove it) after a brief stop in Turkey, where Williams played for Besiktas prior to the lockout. The couple was accompanied in Turkey by Nets owner/Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov and Nets general manager Billy King, the New York Post reported.

While in Istanbul, Williams watched former Jazz teammate and Russian native Andrei Kirilenko -- who has a relationship with Prokhorov -- suffer a devastating last-second defeat playing for CSKA Moscow in the Euroleague title game. Now it appears that Kirilenko and his wife, Masha, are playing host to the Williamses in their home country.

According to Nets Daily, Masha Kirilenko said last week that the two couples would be going to Russia together.

Tea leaves anyone?

"Last I heard he was partying overseas with Nets management, with Prokhorov and them," Mavs center Brendan Haywood said of Williams on Tuesday morning during an appearance on ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM's Ben & Skin Show. "If he's leaning towards Dallas, he's got a funny way of showing it. So we don't know what D-Will's doing. I think that's the million-dollar question everybody wants to know. I don't even know if he knows right now. He has a very interesting summer ahead of him."

So is Kirilenko on the Nets' radar as part of a plan to keep Williams? King recently denied reports that the team is close to agreeing on a deal for Kirilenko. King's main purpose for being in Turkey was to watch Nets 2011 second-round draft pick Bojan Bogdanovic, who plays in the Turkish League.

The Nets will surely spin the Williams couple's European vacation as a positive sign as Brooklyn desperately attempts to keep the North Texas native. The Mavs will be desperate to woo Williams back home -- he grew up in the Dallas suburb The Colony -- to pair with Dirk Nowitzki after owner Mark Cuban dismantled the title team to create cap space to make a run at a prized free agent such as Williams.

We'll see where the tea leaves -- and Williams and his wife -- land next.

ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM's Ben and Skin use their unique delivery to explain why the Mavs need to bring Deron Williams back to Big D.

ESPN Insider Chris Sprow discusses if the Dallas Mavericks are the favorite to land Deron Williams.

ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM's Ben Rogers and Skin Wade wrap up the 2011-12 season, break down the Mavericks pursuit of Deron Williams and discuss whether Dirk Nowitzki is too old to carry the team in the season finale of Mavs Pick & Roll.

Eras have a definitive starting point and a definitive ending point.

Clearly this current Dallas Mavericks' era could have a few starting points: The hiring of Don Nelson in 1997, the draft-day trade for Dirk Nowitzki in 1998 or the sale of the franchise to Mark Cuban in 2000. For the sake of this argument, we're going to suggest that the official start was the 2000-01 season, the launch of a decade-plus string of 50-win seasons and the first venture back into the postseason since the 1990s blackout.

And so may we now suggest that the current Mavs era -- with the first-round sweep at the hands of the Western Conference's baby superstars in Oklahoma City and an expected roster overhaul that could turn over everyone not named Dirk Nowitzki -- represents the end of a 12-season era. That era included three coaches guiding vastly different rosters -- with Nowitzki as the only constant -- to at least the West finals.

In those 12 seasons, the Mavs hit phenomenal milestones and set the standard for teams to come:

* The franchise's first championship in 2011

* Two NBA Finals appearances (2006 and 2011)

* Three West finals appearances (2003, '06, '11)

* 12 consecutive postseason appearances

* Franchise-best 67 wins in 2006-07

* 11 consecutive 50-win seasons (or the equivalent of a .600 winning percentage) all with Nowitzki, and the last eight with Jason Terry.

That last feat is also the signal of the end of this era. This season's team with its hastily fashioned roster finished 36-30 (.545), the first time since the the 1999-2000 season (40-42) that it did not reach at least a .600 winning percentage. It meant a struggle just to secure a playoff berth, finishing with the No. 7 seed and the same record as the No. 8 seed Utah Jazz, and just two games ahead of the lottery-bound Houston Rockets.

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"When you’re used to going a little farther and doing a little better, everything becomes a priority," Mavs president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson said. "The priority is for us to be healthy in the here and now, and also in the long-term, and to never go back to those 10 years of the Bataan Death March walks in the desert of no playoffs. That’s the plan."

Welcome to the new era.

The question ahead is whether the second decade of Cuban-style Mavs basketball will begin in earnest next season with local lad Deron Williams as Nowitzki's sidekick until the big man decides to step aside, or if next season only becomes something of a stopgap before regrouping in the summer of 2013 with a new plan to keep the successes coming.

At the moment, we can't even be sure if coach Rick Carlisle will make Dallas the longest coaching stop of his 10-year career. Carlisle appears headed toward free agency, having yet to strike a deal with Cuban for a fifth season and beyond. At times Carlisle has, strategically or not, talked about coaching the Mavs in the past tense. Other times he seems ready to embrace the uncertain future.

"I look at this summer for this franchise as a summer of opportunity and excitement," Carlisle said. "And I don’t think anybody should look at it any differently."

Surely the coaching situation will get resolved soon, seemingly with Carlisle signing a lucrative new deal to stay in Big D. Then all attention will shift to July 1 and the start of free agency, and whether the perennial All-Star point guard called D-Will will make 2012-13 the official launch party for the next era of Dallas Mavericks basketball.

Brendan Haywood knew he’d be an amnesty clause candidate as soon as he saw the new collective bargaining agreement. He certainly won’t be surprised if the Mavericks cut him loose this summer.

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It’s virtually guaranteed to happen if the Mavs can convince Deron Williams to join Dirk Nowitzki in Dallas.

“I have no control over that,” Haywood said during a Tuesday appearance on ESPN Dallas 103.3’s Ben and Skin Show. “I have enjoyed my time in Dallas. I was part of a championship team. If it happens, it happens, and I’ll have to move on and continue to try to advance my career somewhere else. If it doesn’t, I’ll be happy to be back. I don’t really have an opinion on that because it’s out of my control.

“I won’t be offended if they do, because I know what they’re trying to do. They’re trying to revamp the team on the fly, keep Dirk around, bring in another superstar, maybe two. And if that’s the case, they’ve got to free up everybody.”

Haywood is due to make $8.35 million next season and $27.2 million during the three remaining guaranteed years in the deal he signed in the summer of 2010. He’ll get that money no matter what, but like most of the Mavs, he isn’t sure where he’ll play next season.

“Basically, we might not be back next year and nobody knows just yet,” Haywood said. “That’s the business side of it. You’ve got to just go into the summer time, enjoy your time off, prepare for next season and if you’re there, put your all into it. If you’re not, put your all into another team.”

DALLAS – Just to be clear, Jason Kidd doesn’t consider himself to be a backup-caliber point guard at this point of his Hall of Fame career.

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Kidd would just be willing to back up Deron Williams and a “very short” list of other elite point guards.

The lockout-compressed season was rough on the 39-year-old Kidd’s body. He dealt with a variety of nagging injuries while averaging career lows in points (6.2), assists (5.5) and rebounds (4.1).

But Kidd, whose numbers ticked upward to 11.5 points, 6.1 rebounds and 6.0 assists during the Mavs’ brief playoff sprint, is confident he can help a team next season. He’s entering free agency looking for a good fit and a decent deal with a contender, not a bench to ride.

“I’m going campaigning for Most Improved Player next year,” Kidd deadpanned. “You guys are laughing. I’m serious.”

Kidd is completely serious in his belief that he can still contribute to a contender. If that means serving as a backup to an All-Star, Kidd said his ego can handle it.

However, Kidd admits that it would be a major adjustment considering his competitive fire.

“I would probably have to talk to Don Kalkstein a lot,” Kidd said, referring to the Mavs’ sports psychologist. “He helped me get the sportsmanship award, so he can definitely handle that job.”

On a serious note, Kidd said: “If I was young, it would probably be hard. But understanding and making adjustments, as a professional, you have to accept your role, and that's what I've done as I've gotten older, and so if that means coming off the bench, then I can handle that. That's just another challenge, and that's the way I would look at it.”

The challenge for the Mavs’ front office is recruiting a point guard good enough for Kidd to back up.

DALLAS – When the Mavs opted not to offer Tyson Chandler and Co. long-term deals, this summer’s free-agency crop was expected to be headlined by a few superstars.

The landscape quickly changed when Chris Paul exercised his player option for next season after being traded to the Los Angeles Clippers. It changed for the worse again when Dwight Howard surprisingly committed not to opt out of the final season of his contract with the Orlando Magic just before the trade deadline.

That leaves Deron Williams as the lone big fish. What happens if the Mavs don’t convince The Colony native to come home?

“You’ve got to have your A, B, C, D and E and so on, but you also understand that this is a global plate tectonic,” president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson said. “Things are moving and situations are fluid. You go into it with eyes wide open and hopefully you can come out of it with what you want.”

The Mavs want a player who can create offense on his own, a necessity to take pressure off of Dirk Nowitzki.

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A reunion with Steve Nash is a possibility. The Mavs declined to pay what it took to keep him in Dallas eight seasons ago because of concerns about durability, but he’s coming off a season in which he led the Western Conference in assists (10.7 per game) and shot a career-best 53.2 percent from the floor.

Everyone knows the chemistry with old pal Nowitzki would click. However, the Mavs would probably take a major step back defensively by adding a 38-year-old point guard who has always been considered a liability on that end of the floor.

Houston’s Goran Dragic, who made himself a ton of money as the fill-in starter for Kyle Lowry in the second half of the season, is a much younger option. Dragic, 26, Nash’s former backup, averaged 18.0 points and 8.4 assists while shooting 49.0 percent from the floor in 28 games as a starter this season.

Some other proven shot creators in the market: New Orleans’ Eric Gordon (restricted), Memphis’ O.J. Mayo (restricted), Minnesota’s Michael Beasley (restricted and off-court issues) and Boston’s Ray Allen (turns 37 in July).

The market for big men, which will be a big need if the Mavs use the amnesty clause on Brendan Haywood, is headlined by Indiana’s Roy Hibbert (restricted), Denver’s JaVale McGee (restricted), Brooklyn’s Brook Lopez (restricted), New Orleans’ Chris Kaman, Houston’s Marcus Camby, Philadelphia’s Spencer Hawes and Chicago’s Omer Asik. The Mavs might also explore taking a minimum-salary flyer on Greg Oden in hopes of resuscitating the former No. 1 overall pick’s career after it has been derailed by knee injuries.

“There’s a lot of good players out there,” Nelson said. “Whether it’s A, B, C, D, E, F, or keep the powder dry, which is always an option. Just because we have it doesn’t mean we have to spend it.”

Is putting a subpar supporting cast around Nowitzki for another year of the twilight of his prime really an option? Isn’t there a sense of urgency to maximize the chances of winning another championship while the best player in franchise history is still a superstar?

“Listen, how many years have we made it in the playoffs in a row?” Nelson said. “We don’t plan on putting out anything less than a championship-caliber team. That’s me and Mark’s history and that’s our commitment to our fans and this city.”

They’ve got their work cut out for them this summer, especially if they swing and miss on Williams.