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Potential won’t help the Mavericks accomplish their mission of pulling off an instant rebuilding job.

They need their lottery pick to be prepared to be a significant contributor immediately. That makes age a virtue for Mavs draft prospects.

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ESPN.com senior NBA writer Marc Stein joins Fitzsimmons & Durrett to touch on the storylines in the NBA playoffs and offer a Mavs perspective. Listen

In the warped modern-day NBA culture, a player who spends three or four years in college is often looked at cross ways. Why wasn’t this guy good enough to be one-and-done or at least two-and-through?

That isn’t how the Mavs’ front office is approaching this draft, though. They don’t want to use the 13th overall pick, assuming they don’t luck out in the lottery, on a project to develop during Dirk Nowitzki’s golden years. They need a player who can be plugged into the rotation right away.

“There’s more known to taking a guy that’s a little bit older,” president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson said on a recent appearance on ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM’s “Galloway and Company,” pointing to second-round pick Jae Crowder’s success as a rookie after spending four years in college. “If you had your druthers, rather than take a younger guy that’s going to take more time to develop, taking seniors or taking guys that are a little bit older certainly has its place.”

That could make a pair of prospects particularly intriguing for the Mavs: Lehigh guard C.J. McCollum and Louisville center Gorgui Dieng.

McCollum, a 6-foot-3, 190-pound senior, is a scorer with the ability to penetrate who developed into a good long-distance shooter during his college career. The question is whether he can make the transition from college shooting guard to NBA point guard that Stephen Curry and Russell Westbrook pulled off so successfully, not to say he’s that caliber of player.

If he’s solely a shooting guard, McCollum could still fit well with the Mavs, particularly if O.J. Mayo doesn’t return to Dallas. The Mavs had a lot of success over the years with Jason Terry playing the 2 and running the pick-and-pop with Nowitzki. McCollum’s skill set is certainly suited to take advantage of the attention paid to Nowitzki on those plays.

Another thing to like about the 21-year-old McCollum: He’s shown that he’s not intimidated by big stages. He lit up Duke for 30 points, six rebounds and six assists in an NCAA tourney upset last year.

Dieng is also a proven big-game performer, as evidenced by his eight-point, eight-rebound, six-assist, three-block outing in Louisville’s win over Michigan in the national championship game.

The biggest knocks on Dieng: He’s already 23 years old and isn’t much of a threat to score.

However, the 6-foot-11, 235-pound Dieng does have attributes that have proven to work next to Dirk. He’s a long, athletic, intelligent defensive-minded big man with excellent intangibles, much like Tyson Chandler. His Joakim Noah-esque passing skills are a bonus.

McCollum and Dieng don’t project to be NBA stars. But they do appear ready to be quality role players right away, and they just happen to play positions that are major needs for the Mavs.

Here’s how Mark Cuban views the first NBA postseason that doesn’t include Dallas in a dozen years: "Mavs fans just want teams with free agents to get eliminated early."

Well, then Lakers-Spurs couldn’t have gone better, huh?

After all, Dwight Howard’s team got swept. Heck, Howard didn’t even stick around the whole four games, getting ejected early in the second half of the embarrassing finale. And then he called his season in Los Angeles "a nightmare."

Howard, as expected, is sending all sorts of mixed messages about whether he’ll stay or leave L.A. It’s at least enough of a possibility that the Mavs must be fully prepared to make their best recruiting pitch.

And, no, there isn’t any question about whether the Mavs would want to take on all that Dwight drama. Here’s a pretty good rule of thumb for NBA GMs: If you can get the game’s best big man in his prime, do it.

Howard has plenty of baggage, but he’s a perennial All-Star who averaged 17.1 points, a league-high 12.4 rebounds and 2.4 blocks in a down year while coming off back surgery and dealing with a bum shoulder. He represents the Mavs’ best chance of pulling off the "quick rebuild" that Cuban is determined to make happen.

(That’s assuming Chris Paul stays with the Clippers, which we’ll probably address after the other L.A. team’s playoff run is over.)

Let’s make another thing clear: A lack of cap space won’t be the reason if the Mavs miss out on Howard. They’d have to move Shawn Marion or Vince Carter to be able to give him a max deal, but it wouldn’t be difficult to dump the salary of a quality veteran entering the last year of his contract. (CBA expert Larry Coon details the Mavs’ cap situation to the dollar here.)

First and foremost, it’s a matter of whether Howard is miserable enough as a SoCal scapegoat to leave the Lakers’ five-year, $118 million offer on the table to take $87.6 million over four years from another team.

If that’s the case, then Cuban, Donnie Nelson, Rick Carlisle and that goofy German guy must make a strong enough pitch to persuade Howard to pick Dallas instead of other potential destinations, such as Houston or Atlanta.

All due respect to Dirk Nowitzki, who is more than willing to become the second fiddle to accommodate a twenty-something superstar, but the presence of one of the all-time best power forwards can’t be the Mavs’ primary selling point. Not with Nowitzki turning 35 this summer and James Harden just approaching his prime in Houston.

The Mavs must sell Howard on their ability to build and sustain a contender around him. They did it for a dozen years around Dirk, and they need to make Howard believe they can do it for a decade around him.

Cuban, who is making the great sacrifice of not scheduling any "Shark Tank" tapings during the July free agency period, has to paint a championship picture for Howard. The big man has to believe, with the Mavs scheduled to have a ton of cap space again next summer, that the front office can put the pieces around him required to get another ring.

Two major pieces are in place: Nowitzki and coach Rick Carlisle, who can help the Mavs’ cause by showing clips of some of the plays the Pacers used to run to get Jermaine O'Neal the rock during his All-Star days.

And the Mavs must play to Howard’s flaws, convincing him that he’ll be comfortable in Dallas for the rest of his career. It helps that the front office has a strong relationship with agent Dan Fegan, who also represents Marion.

Is it likely that Howard will leave L.A. for Dallas? Nope.

But, hey, what were the odds in October that the Lakers wouldn’t win a single playoff game? That stunning development – and all the drama that unfolded this season in L.A. – certainly improved the Mavs’ odds of landing the NBA’s best big man as their next centerpiece.

The Mavericks will explore all potential avenues of improving the talent on their roster, but upgrading at point guard is the top priority.

While Darren Collison confidently declared Thursday that he believes he could start for any team in the league, the Dallas decision-makers clearly don’t share that opinion. After all, they opted to start Derek Fisher and Mike James over Collison in a season that president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson described as a “point guard odyssey.”

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Donnie Nelson joins Chuck Cooperstein and Tim MacMahon to discuss the Mavericks' season and the importance of this summer. Listen

The Mavs might welcome Collison back as a backup, depending on the price. They’ll search this summer for a long-term starting solution at a spot that coach Rick Carlisle calls “the most important position in the league.”

“We’ve been spoiled with Jason Kidd and Stevie Nash before,” Nelson said during a Thursday appearance on ESPN Dallas 103.3’s Galloway and Company. “I think the quarterback position is just a really, really important one. I’d say that that’s up there.

“That’s no disrespect for anyone. Darren Collison did a terrific job with a tough situation, and we’d certainly be open to the conversation of him coming back, but (upgrading point guard) has got to be in my mind first and foremost.”

The pie-in-the-sky scenario: Sign Chris Paul. Of course, the odds of him ditching a talented, young Clippers team to come to Dallas to play with a mid-30s core are awfully slim. As Mark Cuban recently said, he’ll be rooting for teams with free agents the Mavs might target to lose early in the playoffs. Would Paul consider leaving the Clippers if they flame out in the first round?

PODCAST
Rick Carlisle joins Chuck Cooperstein and Tim MacMahon to discuss the Mavericks' disappointing season and what needs to happen for them to get back to the playoffs. Listen

Paul will be the perfect fit, but the Mavs must be prepared to find their point guard of the future somewhere else. They might be able to draft next season’s backup with the 13th overall pick, assuming they don’t get amazing lottery luck, but a team determined to drastically improve its basketball IQ isn’t going to hand the reins to a rookie to run the show for 30-plus minutes a night.

It’s time for the Mavs to find a proven veteran point guard to fill Kidd’s shoes.

“I don’t know exactly what style, but the guy’s going to have to be able to score,” Carlisle said on Galloway and Company. “The guy’s going to have to be able to come off screens and hit shots, because when you’re come off screens from Dirk, you’re going to be open because of the way guys play him.”

A quick look at some of the other potential long-term upgrades available in free agency:

Jose Calderon: The Mavs have been involved in trade discussions about Calderon, as recently as midseason, when he got dealt from Toronto to Detroit in the three-way Rudy Gay deal. Calderon, who turns 32 in September, is a pass-first point guard who is a very efficient offensive player. He has career averages of 7.2 assists and 1.7 turnovers per game and is an excellent shooter (.483 FG, .399 3s, .877 FT). His flaws: He doesn’t penetrate well and is a poor defender, especially against speedy point guards.

Monta Ellis: The 27-year-old is not really a point guard. He’s a scorer (career 19.4 ppg) who sometimes plays point guard. He’s dangerous off the dribble and trouble in transition, but Ellis jacks up a lot of long jumpers and doesn’t make very many. He attempted 328 3s this season despite hitting only 28.7 percent, the lowest of any player with at least 200 tries. The idea of Ellis running pick-and-pops with Dirk Nowitzki is intriguing, but can a guard who has never averaged more than six assists per game in a season be counted on to consistently deliver Dirk the ball in prime scoring situations? And Ellis doesn’t exactly have a great defensive rep, either, despite his high steals totals.

Jarrett Jack: Jack, who turns 30 in October, is coming off his best season, averaging 12.9 points and 5.6 assists as the sixth man for a playoff team with Golden State. He’s an excellent midrange shooter and very effective hitting floaters off the dribble. He has a low turnover rate, the kind of strength and toughness Carlisle wants in a point guard and hit a lot of clutch shots for the Warriors this season. But Jack is really a combo guard who has never averaged more than 6.3 assists per season and struggles defensively against quick point guards. Like Kidd, he’s actually better defending shooting guards.

Brandon Jennings: Can the former lottery pick flourish under Carlisle’s coaching? Would it be worth offering enough to the restricted free agent for Milwaukee not to match? The 23-year-old Jennings, who has butted heads with his Bucks coaches, is on the record saying he’d love to play with Dirk and for Cuban and Carlisle in Dallas. His shooting percentage might soar in that situation, but the fact that it’s 39.4 percent for his career is a red flag. So is his slender frame (6-foot-1, 169 pounds). Oh, and so is the fact the Bucks have occasionally benched him during crunch time down the stretch this season. But Jennings (17.5 ppg, 6.5 apg this season) has shown enough flashes of brilliance to at least make him intriguing.

Jeff Teague: He’s a restricted free agent on a playoff team that has a ton of cap space, so the Mavs would have to overpay to get Teague. The four-year veteran is a quality young point guard, averaging 14.6 points and 7.2 assists this season, but it’s difficult to envision the Mavs throwing a ton of money at him.

Mo Williams: The 30-year-old Williams is best suited as a scoring sixth man, not a starting point guard. He’s a good spot-up 3-point shooter and knocks down a lot of midrange jumpers off pick-and-rolls, but he’s never been more than an average driver or distributor. Plus, Williams has major durability issues, having missed at least a dozen games in seven of the last eight seasons, including 36 with the Jazz last season, when he averaged 12.9 points and 6.2 assists.

There are, of course, other ways for the Mavs to acquire point guards. Hey, maybe Cuban can come up with some kind of multi-team deal that lands Rajon Rondo in Dallas.

DALLAS – Dirk Nowitzki has made it clear that he can’t stomach the thought of finishing his career fighting just to make the playoffs.

That doesn’t mean he’s pondering ever putting on another NBA franchise’s uniform. He’s simply pointing out the importance of the front office making major roster upgrades this summer to give the Mavericks a chance to compete for championships again.

PODCAST
Rick Carlisle joins Chuck Cooperstein and Tim MacMahon to discuss the Mavericks' disappointing season and what needs to happen for them to get back to the playoffs. Listen

“Honestly, I can’t really see myself going anywhere else but here,” Nowitzki said at the beginning of his first playoff-free offseason since 2000. “Really, the pressure is on Mark (Cuban) and Donnie (Nelson) to get this franchise back to where it belongs, and they know that. Then we’re all good, everything’s fine.

“I mean, I belong to this city. That’s just the bottom line. I could never see myself playing for another franchise, putting another jersey on. That would be probably the hardest thing I’d have to do in my life. I want to stay here, but I also want to play at a high level with a good team that we can be proud of and represent this city and this franchise.”

Nowitzki, who intends to sign a two- or three-year deal when his current contract expires after next season, is willing to do anything he can to help the Mavs recruit free agents this summer.

Unlike most summers, he’ll be in Dallas instead of his native Germany the majority of the time. That’s largely because his wife, Jessica, is expecting the couple’s first child. However, Nowitzki said he planned to be in Dallas at the beginning of July for professional reasons anyway.

“It’s a big summer,” Nowitzki said. “I would have probably been here in July regardless to knock on Cuban’s bunker suite every other day and see what he’s got cooking.”

The ever optimistic Cuban recently noted that Nowitzki’s wife is much more attractive than him, so the future Hall of Famer must have some persuasive skills. Those will be tested in early July, with Nowitzki still holding out hope that he can help talk Chris Paul and/or Dwight Howard into leaving Los Angeles for Dallas – or at least help recruit more realistic talent upgrades.

“I can try, but I’m really not the most positive person,” Nowitzki said. “I guess that’s a German thing.”

Nowitzki can confidently talk in glowing terms about his experiences living in Dallas and playing for Cuban, Nelson and coach Rick Carlisle. Those three men would be a major part of Nowitzki’s basketball sales pitch.

“We have a great owner and a great GM in place. We have a great coach in place that coached us to win the championship,” Nowitzki said. “We’ve got a couple of veterans (Shawn Marion and Vince Carter) still under contract. We’ve got some veteran leadership already, and then we’ve got a lot of roster space.

“We’ve got some cap space and we can get some players in here that can help. I think all those three experienced guys, they’ve still got something left in the tank. Come on in, we’ll see how far we can ride it out.”

Nowitzki plans to ride it out in Dallas until he retires, which is at least three years away.

A combination of Bikram yoga, early morning track workouts and the copious amounts of drilling in the gym with longtime NBA guard John Lucas has helped keep the Mavericks' Mike James far fitter than most 37-year-olds.

And playing his way into the starting lineup for a team in a full-fledged playoff race has convinced James that he can play at the highest level for another season or two.

PODCAST
Marc Stein joins Fitzsimmons & Durrett to discuss the Mavericks-Lakers game Tuesday night. If the Mavs lose, are their playoff hopes over? Listen

"My plan is to play two more years and my hope is to be able to finish my career here in Dallas playing for Rick, Donnie and Mark and with Dirk," James said, referring to Mavs coach Rick Carlisle, team president Donnie Nelson, owner Mark Cuban and star forward Dirk Nowitzki.

"If there's one thing my career has taught me, it's (that) what I hope and what happens are sometimes two different things. But this experience since I've been here has made everything I've gone through extremely worth it. Now we just got to make these playoffs."

The Mavericks became James' 11th NBA stop in early January when he was called up from Dallas' D-League affiliate in nearby Frisco and signed to the first of two 10-day contracts. Well aware of the Mavs' seasonlong struggles finding consistency from their point guards, James joined the Texas Legends with the intent of convincing Dallas that he could still contribute. One game with the Legends did the trick, with James gradually working his way into the starting lineup by early March.

The move partly stems from Carlisle's belief that projected starter Darren Collison is more effective coming off the bench, but there's no denying the impact of the switch: Dallas is 10-4 with James starting.

Despite appearing in a mere 15 NBA games over the previous three seasons, James averaged 9.2 points and 4.7 assists in 26.4 minutes per game in March and shot 45.6 percent on 3-pointers.

"I said to my agent (Bernie Lee) the other day, if everything that happened to this point in my career happened to bring me to play for Rick at this stage of my life to prepare me for this, then it's been worth it," James said.

"I'm in the middle of this right now and all that matters to me is making the playoffs. I want this so bad, I can't express it. But in the summer when I take a step back and look at it, I think I'll be able to appreciate it more, the fact that I fought really hard to be a part of this team."

James has a natural bond with fellow vets Elton Brand and Vince Carter -- referring to Carter as his welcoming committee when he first got to town -- but likewise has a lot to say about playing with Nowitzki, who didn't do too badly in March, either.

Dirk's numbers for the month: 20.0 points per game on .548 shooting from the floor and .468 shooting on 3s.

"Being that I've been so many places and played with so many quote-unquote superstars, I think I have a pretty good handle on (that description)," James said. "And Dirk is the best I've ever played with or been around.

"He's hard-working, humble, intelligent and doesn’t miss anything. On off days, he's in the weight room or in the pool. He's so intelligent and driven to know his body and what he needs to do to get ready. I wasn’t here when he was hurt and I know it's been a challenge for him, but over the last few weeks, day by day, you can see his work paying off."

DALLAS – Lamar Odom, whose one-year stint with the Mavericks was one of the biggest disgraces in Dallas sports history, returns to the scene of the crime Tuesday night.

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DeAndre Jordan of the L.A. Clippers joins Fitzsimmons & Durrett to talk about the Mavericks, why Dirk Nowitzki was one of his favorite players growing up and how he enjoyed the success of his Texas A&M Aggies on the football field. Listen

The court of public opinion has found Odom guilty of first-degree basketball fraud for his antics last season, when his out-of-shape body went through the motions with the Mavericks while he left his heart and mind in Los Angeles.

Khloe’s little Lam Lam was acquitted on one count of attempted murder on the Mavs’ soul. After all, Odom can’t be reasonably accused of trying during his four months of failure in Dallas.

“It was like going to war with wet gunpowder,” Donnie Nelson said after the Mavs parted ways with the veteran in April, summing up the Lamar Odom saga in Dallas.

Alas, the punishment for Odom’s hoops felony is pretty light. Other than a permanently stained reputation for the former reality show star, all Odom has to deal with is the wrath of the American Airlines Center crowd during the Los Angeles Clippers’ lone visit this season.

It’s safe to assume that Mark Cuban will join a sellout crowd in giving Odom a cold welcome. Cuban admits to muttering bad things about Odom under his breath during the Mavs’ two road losses to the Clippers earlier this season. The boo-every-time-he-touches-the-ball treatment would be appropriate.

You can’t blame Cuban for still being furious about Odom’s fraud. Forget what seemed like a steal of a deal backfiring in the Mavs front office’s face. Odom made Cuban look like a fool for having his back over and over again to the point of being perceived as an enabler, especially during Odom’s bizarre post-All-Star-break sabbatical, when the owner met with Odom at the W Hotel to talk him into rejoining the team while the rest of the Mavs were in the midst of the lockout-compressed season’s most grueling stretch of games.

Cuban finally had his fill of Odom’s bull by April 7, well after home fans had started booing him. After seeing Odom loaf through four first-half minutes in Memphis that night, Cuban angrily confronted him in the locker room, repeatedly asking if he was “in or out.” Odom’s response of “stop playing games” didn’t satisfy the owner, who decided to send Odom home for the rest of the season, paying him to just go away.

Oh, and the Mavs aren’t done paying for the Odom ordeal.

Dallas still has to give up a first-round pick to complete the Odom trade. It’s now the property of the Oklahoma City Thunder, who acquired it in the James Harden deal from the Houston Rockets, who acquired it from the Lakers along with Derek Fisher (how fitting) for Jordan Hill.

The pick is top-20 protected through 2017, so the worst-case scenario is that the OKC gets a lottery gift from its Interstate 35 rival in 2018, just before Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook turn 30.

Maybe the Odom deal, which was made possible by the trade exception created in the sign-and-trade that sent Tyson Chandler to the New York Knicks, was the basketball gods’ way of punishing Cuban for breaking up a team coming off an NBA title.

The basketball gods certainly didn’t enact any vengeance on Odom. He landed back in Los Angeles with the contending Clippers, making the full $8.2 million salary in the final season of his contract to serve as a role player on arguably the NBA’s best bench. (The fact that Dallas was able to trade Odom for essentially nothing instead of having to pay his $2.4 million buyout was considered a minor win for the Mavs.)

Odom hasn’t exactly regained his Sixth Man of the Year from 2010-11. In fact, he’s averaging a career-low 4.1 points per game while shooting an unsightly 38.8 percent from the floor, numbers that are a continuation of his drastic offensive decline last season. However, Odom has been a contributor for the Clippers since getting in reasonably decent shape, averaging 5.8 rebounds in 20.4 minutes and playing good defense.

“He’s in a situation that’s really perfect for him,” Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said, taking the diplomatic route. “He’s a defender, rebounder and can play off of other people. He’s having a really good year for them.”

Mavs fans have every right to interrupt that “really good year” by making Odom miserable for one night.

DALLAS -- Mark Cuban, the Mavericks’ unofficial boo leader, didn’t hesitate to highly recommend that fellow MFFLs loudly direct their wrath at Derek Fisher on Sunday.

What about Deron Williams tonight?

Cuban is keeping his mouth shut on that one. Or he at least didn’t reply to an email inquiring about the subject. And he intentionally avoided making the trip to Brooklyn to see the Mavs play the Nets at the beginning of the month because, he explained, “I don’t need to be on the back page of the New York Post.”

That’s probably wise. No need for Cuban to give an opposing star any additional, fresh motivational fodder. (That worked out so well with Kobe Bryant, huh?)

Besides, Williams doesn’t deserve to be booed during his annual trip to the American Airlines Center, an arena the native of nearby The Colony described last year as his favorite in the NBA.

Unlike full-of-it quitter Fisher, Williams didn’t do the Mavs wrong. He just politely and professionally declined their halfhearted recruiting pitch and decided to move to Brooklyn with the Nets.

You can debate whether Williams made the right decision. You can argue that he’d have been better off as the centerpiece of a two-year rebuilding plan in Dallas instead of being stuck on a roster with bloated contracts in Brooklyn, which will be handcuffed by the CBA in its attempts to make the upgrades necessary to become a legitimate contender.

Cuban could have made those points in a face-to-face meeting with Williams in July, but he opted to have Michael Finley join Donnie Nelson and Rick Carlisle as the point men for the most important free-agency pitch in franchise history. Filming "Shark Tank" on the West Coast was Cuban’s priority, hence the halfhearted recruiting pitch.

If you’re still upset about Williams not coming home this past summer, boo Cuban, not the point guard.

Cuban is the one who has said that he didn’t really want Williams anyway -- and the whole "Shark Tank" deal seems to support that statement. (Cuban, who has taken some reality=show-related heat from Dirk Nowitzki, has vowed to keep his schedule clear for the first two weeks of July this summer.)

It was only after Cuban declared that he believed the Mavs were “better off” without him that Williams fired back, telling New York reporters that he might have signed with the Mavs if Cuban had only made the effort of meeting with him and answering his questions. That back-and-forth fizzled out quickly, and nobody else with the Mavs has any ill will toward Williams, whose concerns about being left to carry the Mavs by himself if Nowitzki went down seemed pretty prescient in the first two months of the season.

“He’s still a friend of mine,” Nowitzki said before the Mavs’ trip to Brooklyn. “Obviously, he didn’t come join us, but I wished him luck then.”

For the Mavs’ wish for a win to come true, they’ll probably need to contain Williams, who struggled through his own health issues for the first half of the season but is suddenly performing like an elite point guard again, averaging an efficient 23.4 points and 7.7 assists since the All-Star break.

No need for the AAC crowd to add any fuel to Williams’ fire with boos that would just make Mavs fans look bitter.

Better to save your venom for a deserving target. On a related note, Lamar Odom comes to town next week.

DALLAS -- Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who bid against the current Texas Rangers ownership group when that franchise went to bankruptcy auction in 2010, claimed not to know much about the controversy regarding Nolan Ryan’s reduced power and potential departure.

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ESPN.com senior NBA writer Marc Stein joins Fitzsimmons and Durrett to talk about the Mavericks and what it might take to fix their problems. Listen

Cuban has been through that kind of situation before. He went through a bitter divorce with former coach/general manager Don Nelson, who was none too happy when Cuban took away final say on personnel decisions.

But Cuban vows there will never again be any confusion about who is the ultimate decision-maker on the Mavs’ personnel moves.

“Me, because I have to write the check,” Cuban said during his pregame workout Wednesday evening. “So it’s my ultimate judgment, not so much on which guy, but does he fit economically into the big picture?”

That doesn’t mean Cuban ignores the input of president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson, coach Rick Carlisle and the Mavs’ other basketball minds. He values that very much, but these decisions ultimately come down to dollars, especially under the new collective bargaining agreement.

While Cuban doesn’t trust his eye for talent, he is confident in his ability to make decisions based on financial fit and the opinions of his basketball people.

“First of all, I never use my eye test, because I’m blind when it comes to that, so it goes by what Donnie and all our guys say,” Cuban said. “I just give my input, we discuss and we make a decision.”

By “we,” Cuban means he makes the decision, with a lot of help from his basketball people.

It wasn’t always that way. "Big Nellie" used to have free rein, but Cuban reconsidered that approach a few years into their relationship, stripping the coach of the ability to agree to player contracts and pull the trigger on trades without the owner’s permission.

“That’s when the head-butting started,” Cuban said, pinpointing the turning point as the rich contract given to blockbuster-trade bust Raef LaFrentz.

DALLAS – The Mavericks are seven games below .500 and have nine players who will be free agents this summer, assuming O.J. Mayo decides to test the market instead of exercising the player option in his contract.

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ESPN.com senior NBA writer Marc Stein joins Fitzsimmons and Durrett to talk about the Mavericks and what it might take to fix their problems. Listen

That could be a recipe for some selfish, dysfunctional basketball the rest of this disappointing season. But coach Rick Carlisle not so subtly reminds the players that they better play the game the right way if they want to have the option of returning to Dallas.

“If you wanna write us off and all that kind of stuff, go ahead,” Carlisle said. “But I’ll just tell you this: This is a great situation in Dallas. The guys in the locker room that are all free agents, every second they step on the court, they’re auditioning for Donnie (Nelson) and Mark (Cuban) as to whether they’re going to have a chance to be here after this year.

“I’ve been in a lot of other situations over the years. I haven’t ever been in a better one than this”

Cuban, Nelson and Carlisle have had three-quarters of the season to evaluate players such as Mayo, Darren Collison, Chris Kaman and Elton Brand. Mike James, the 37-year-old D-League call-up, has been with the Mavs a couple of months. Brandan Wright has been here for almost two seasons, Dominique Jones nearly three years and Rodrigue Beaubois is wrapping up his fourth season. (Anthony Morrow is the exception, having played only four minutes for the Mavs so far.)

Can those free agents-to-be really change the Dallas decision-makers’ opinions of them in the final six weeks of the season?

“If I don’t believe that, then I’m not being open-minded enough to be in this position,” Carlisle said.

Brand, a veteran who has readily accepted being a reserve for the first time in his career, points out that a selfish player shouldn’t have a chance to showcase his skills for the rest of the season. A me-first man ought to ride pine.

“We don’t have room to think about the business aspect of it – me, me, me; I need to get shots,” Brand said. “We just have to go out there and play with the minutes given. As you see, coach is not going to allow someone to be selfish out there. You get minutes by your effort, you get minutes by how you play out there and how you affect the game. If you’re looking selfish out there, you’re not going to play.”

The trade market went from “surprisingly quiet” to “crazy” for the Mavericks in a matter of hours, according to Mark Cuban.

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The day after the NBA trade deadline, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban joins The Ben & Skin Show to talk about the trades made and the Mavericks' future. Listen

The quiet comment came on the eve of the deadline. The crazy talk came the day after, with Cuban claiming that talks heated up for the Mavs in the hours before Thursday afternoon’s deadline.

The Mavs ended up only making a minor deal, sending Dahntay Jones to Atlanta for Anthony Morrow. At one point, however, Cuban says he thought the Mavs would be pulling the trigger on a blockbuster deal at the deadline.

“It was crazy,” Cuban said Friday on ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM’s “Ben and Skin Show.” “We thought we had a bunch of things done, literally a bunch of things done. We had teams get cold feet at the last minute. … Things that would have used cap room next year, would have had money next year, that were high-dollar guys, difference-maker guys.”

Cuban declined to discuss specifics, saying that he takes great pride if keeping trade discussions confidential.

Cuban’s comments are somewhat contradictory to those made by president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson after the deadline. Nelson indicated that it was the Mavs’ decision not to act on any trade proposals that would have required Dallas to sacrifice space under the salary cap this summer.

“Yes, we had some of those conversations,” Nelson said. “At the end of the day, we chose to keep our flexibility.”

Cuban and Nelson were on the same page when it came to the possibility of the Mavs being sellers in this season’s trade market. They both made it clear that there was no temptation to trade quality veterans such as Vince Carter or Shawn Marion.

“We weren’t willing to be a seller,” Cuban said. “We could have been, but I wasn’t willing to be a seller. Because I wasn’t willing to give up and there wasn’t anything (of value) that we were going to get back.”

The Mavs are committed to making a push for the playoffs despite their slim odds. Dallas remains 4 ½ games behind the eighth-place Houston Rockets despite going 10-6 since Jan. 10.

“It’s important for us again to not jolt this team with major change because we are in a playoff push and we are starting to play pretty darn good basketball,” Nelson said. “So we didn’t really want to mess around with the core. That was pretty evident from the outset. We feel that we accomplished that and addressed an area of need.

“We think that with Big Blondie (Dirk Nowitzki) back, we’re playing pretty good basketball. Let’s give it what for and see what happens.”

DALLAS – Dirk Nowitzki described the Lakers as a “perfect situation” for Dwight Howard earlier this season, which isn’t exactly the best way to begin the recruiting pitch in an attempt to bring the NBA’s best big man to Dallas.

Of course, there’s been a ton of drama in Los Angeles since Dirk made that comment while venting frustration and expressing doubt about the Mavericks’ plan to “build around hope.” With the Lakers on the outside of the playoff picture looking in and Howard continuing to butt heads with Kobe Bryant, there’s legitimate reason to believe that Howard will seriously consider leaving $30-plus million on the table and leaving L.A. this summer.

“I guess you never know,” Nowitzki told ESPNDallas.com this week. “That’s up to Dwight. You never know what’s in a player’s mind. I don’t know him. I guess we just have to wait and see how the season ends for them. That’s something that’s out of our control.

“We’ll have to wait and see what happens there. They’ve had some issues -- everybody’s following them -- but I still think they’re so talented. I still think they’re going to make a run at it.”

For the sake of discussion, let’s say the Lakers don’t make a run at it. Let’s assume that Howard gets so sick of the prima-donna power struggle with Kobe that he walks this summer.

Can the Mavericks convince Howard that Dallas is the best destination for him? Of the teams that can create enough cap space to sign him, the Atlanta Hawks and Houston Rockets would seem to be the stiffest competition.

PODCAST
Mavericks GM Donnie Nelson joins Galloway & Company to discuss the team's recent trade for Anthony Morrow and push for the playoffs. Listen

The Hawks and Rockets have a key ingredient the Mavs don’t: a franchise cornerstone in his prime who is locked into a long-term deal.

Atlanta’s 26-year-old double-double machine Al Horford could slide over to his natural power forward position and form arguably the NBA’s best 4-5 duo with Howard. Houston’s 23-year-old All-Star shooting guard James Harden and Howard might be the best one-two punch, period, outside of Miami and Oklahoma City.

The Hawks, Howard’s hometown team, also have fellow Atlanta native Lou Williams to provide scoring firepower off the bench for the next two seasons. Atlanta will have enough cap space to sign Howard and make other moves in free agency, perhaps including re-signing point guard Jeff Teague or all-around forward/Howard friend Josh Smith.

PODCAST
The day after the NBA trade deadline, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban joins The Ben & Skin Show to talk about the trades made and the Mavericks' future. Listen

The Rockets have a ready-made supporting cast with Jeremy Lin, Chandler Parsons and several recent first-round picks, plus whatever assets they could get if they move productive center Omer Asik.

What do the Mavs have to sell other than the chance to play next to Dirk, a Hall of Famer in decline, and the opportunity to play for an elite coach in Rick Carlisle?

“Same thing we always sell -- that our focus is winning first, second and last, and that we can go out and get whatever assets on the court and off the court that we need to, hopefully in unique ways that other teams can’t match,” Mark Cuban said, speaking in general about a potential summer pitch to a superstar but not specifically Howard.

Deron Williams didn’t take that bait last summer. He opted to move to Brooklyn with the Nets, swayed in large part by the Nets’ trade for Joe Johnson.

Of course, Cuban wasn’t part of the Mavs’ face-to-face pitch to Williams due to his commitment to film a reality show (“freakin’ Shark Tank,” Dirk calls it) on the West Coast. The Mavs’ billionaire boss told his TV producers months ago that he needed his schedule to be clear for the first couple weeks of July this summer.

Nowitzki, who would love nothing more than to pass the face-of-the-franchise baton to another star this summer, is also ready to play a supporting role in the recruiting process.

“If it gets to the point and Mark and Donnie want to fly somewhere, I’m in,” said Nowitzki, whose contract expires, along with Shawn Marion’s, after the 2013-14 season, making the Mavs potentially major players in that summer market as well. “If they need me, I’ll be here.”

The Mavs are really selling Cuban -- “Mark’s commitment to championships,” Donnie Nelson says -- as much as anything else in free agency. If given the chance, they’ll try to convince Howard that they can build a long-term contender around him, just like they did for a dozen years around Dirk.

“You look at what we’ve done over the years in terms of making the best use of our assets, whether they be players, cap space,” Nelson said. “We’ve been blessed and fortunate enough to make two runs to the Finals, and those teams were completely different in a lot of respects.

“You know when you’re playing for Mark Cuban that he’ll do whatever it takes to punch it into the end zone. I think those things are pretty evident. Players know that. They see. They’ve been around. They see what kind of run we’ve had over the past 13 years or whatever.

“This is a place that people want to come.”

This summer would be a perfect time to prove that to be true. It'd take a heck of a recruiting pitch to make it happen with Howard.

DALLAS – For all the talk about the Bank of Cuban being open, there were very few players the Mavericks would have considered acquiring if it meant sacrificing salary cap space this summer.

PODCAST
The day after the NBA trade deadline, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban joins The Ben & Skin Show to talk about the trades made and the Mavericks' future. Listen

They ended up trading for reserve gunner Anthony Morrow. His career 3-point percentage (42.5) explains why the Mavs were interested in Morrow. The fact that he’ll count $0 against the cap after the Mavs renounce his rights this summer explains why they were willing to trade for him.

It needs to be a big summer for the Bank of Cuban. The Mavs’ front office made sure they’d be positioned to be major players this offseason by not doing anything that would dampen their powder.

“Flexibility has always played well for us,” president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson said, perhaps forgetting about whiffing on Deron Williams and scrambling to put together a temporary supporting cast last summer.

PODCAST
Mavericks GM Donnie Nelson joins Galloway & Company to discuss the team's recent trade for Anthony Morrow and push for the playoffs. Listen

“We’ve had the good fortune of making two trips to the Finals, and those were two completely different teams," he said. "They only shared two common players. Flexibility has been an important piece for us. I think as the ceiling comes down a little bit on the new CBA, we’re in a good position to be really active in the market place.”

In other words, the Mavs don’t want to look at this summer as Dwight Howard or doom, although the dramatic big man will definitely be their top target. If the Mavs don’t win the Dwight sweepstakes, they still need to make moves that provide a foundation for the franchise’s future.

That could mean taking advantage of luxury tax-fearing teams desperate to dump salary. That could mean signing quality complementary players at affordable prices, constructing a supporting cast for the star(s) they can chase the following summer when the contracts of Dirk Nowitzki, Shawn Marion and Vince Carter expire.

“First of all, you guys make up the plans,” Mark Cuban said. “I tell you we’re going to be opportunistic. I tell you, based off of what we interpret in the CBA, that you can’t just go ahead and sign older players. The guys you do sign, if you make a mistake, it’s expensive to move them. Or you’ve got to give up a lot and not get a lot back.

“From there, we say we’re opportunistic. And that’s what you’ve heard me say every day since we walked in the door. You can’t expect any one thing to happen, because it never does. We have cap room; we’ll see what happens. We’ll try to be opportunistic; we’ll see what happens.”

The Mavs must begin building some continuity again, but they have to balance that goal with leaving enough financial wiggle room to acquire a player capable of being a franchise centerpiece for a contender.

But this can just be another summer of signing guys to one-year deals and acquiring expiring contracts. That wouldn’t play well with the Mavs’ frustrated fan base or with Nowitzki, who has vented repeatedly about the problems that come with so many new, temporary teammates and has made it clear that he doesn’t want to finish his career chasing the final playoff seed in the West.

“We certainly feel for all of our fans and some of the frustrations that have taken place this year,” Nelson said. “Whether it’s them or Dirk or some of the guys in the locker room or ownership on down to management or coaches, we are committed to bringing a championship back to Dallas. Whether it’s the short term or the long term, we’ll make it happen.”

DALLAS – If the Mavericks don’t make a trade before the Feb. 21 deadline, Mark Cuban insists it won’t be due to a lack of effort.

President of basketball operations Donnie Nelson and coach Rick Carlisle have both gone on the record recently with predictions that the Mavs will stand pat. Cuban acknowledges that could be the case, but he continues to actively search for opportunities to upgrade the roster of a 22-28 team while keeping the Mavs’ future in mind.

“It takes two teams to trade,” Cuban said Monday evening. “There’s a lot of deals we would make [laughs], but nobody seems willing to do what we want to do. You never know, but nothing imminent. The bank’s still open.”

The bank is still open, but Cuban will be very judicious when determining whether a deal is worth sacrificing space under the salary cap this summer. Tampering rules prevent Cuban from coming out and saying it, but the Mavs aren’t bowing out of the Dwight Howard sweepstakes unless they can acquire a building block in the next week and a half.

“It’s gotta be something really, really, really good,” Cuban said. “It’s got to be a futures type player that we can build around or really adds a lot.”

That doesn’t necessarily mean an established All-Star. It just has to be a player the Mavs project to become an All-Star, or at least one of their top three players. Cuban points to the Mavs’ acquisition of Steve Nash back in the day as an example.

“There’s been lots of players we picked up over time that weren’t All-Stars that turned into cornerstones,” Cuban said. “We’d take those. They don’t have to be proven. They’d have to be someone we think it’s just a question of time or system or coaching or whatever.”

Cuban said he continues to discuss trade ideas with Nelson on a daily basis. He also notes that All-Star weekend tends to be the time when the trade market really heats up.

“Anything’s possible and we’re always going to be opportunistic,” Cuban said. “Nothing’s changed.”

The Memphis Grizzlies and Toronto Raptors are reportedly looking for a third team to facilitate a trade that would send Rudy Gay north of the border.

The Dallas Mavericks make as much sense as anybody.

Yahoo! Sports reports that the Grizzlies and Raptors are searching for a team to take the $10.6 million expiring contract of Toronto point guard Jose Calderon. The Mavs have long been intrigued by the 31-year-old Calderon, who has consistently put up efficient offensive numbers throughout his career, and acquiring him wouldn’t sacrifice any financial flexibility this summer.

This could also present a prime opportunity for the Mavs to cash in on their cap space and army of expiring contracts by helping two teams pull off a blockbuster trade and adding a young asset or two in the process.

According to the Yahoo! report, the cost-cutting Grizzlies want a less expensive small forward to plug into the lineup for Gay and are likely to receive a young Raptors player and a future draft pick in the deal. Rookie shooting guard Terrence Ross is reportedly off limits, so it stands to reason that 23-year-old power forward Ed Davis could be the young Raptor included in the deal.

Chris Kaman’s $8 million expiring contract is extremely expendable, considering that he’s the Mavs’ third-string center at the moment. He can move to Memphis and back up Marc Gasol. Depending on how much the Grizzlies value scoring from their replacement small forward, the Mavs could also send Vince Carter or Dahntay Jones.

The 36-year-old Carter, who has one year left on his contract, has been a $3 million bargain this season. He’s been especially good in January, averaging 14.1 points on 47-percent shooting off the bench. The Grizzlies, currently fourth in the West standings, should want Carter if they’re serious about contending this season despite their salary dump.

The Mavs, who are hanging on to slim hope of extending their playoff streak to 13 seasons, should demand a significant price to include Carter in a deal. In this case, the 6-foot-10, 232-pound son of ex-Maverick Terry Davis ought to do it.

A speculative proposal: Gay goes to the Raptors; Kaman, Carter and the Toronto draft-pick compensation go to the Grizzlies; and the Mavs get Calderon, Davis and 19-year-old point guard project Tony Wroten.

That’d be a terrific deal for Dallas’ future, while shoring up a problem position in the present by adding a point guard who could split time with Darren Collison. And it wouldn’t compromise the Mavs’ hopes of being in the Dwight Howard sweepstakes at all.

Davis, a lottery pick from two years ago who can add plenty of polish, is putting up 9.7 points and 6.7 rebounds in 24.2 minutes per game. The Mavs can use all the inexpensive young size and athleticism they can get, and Davis is due $3.2 million next season in the final year of his rookie deal.

The 6-foot-6, 208-pound Wroten, the 25th pick in last year’s draft, might end up being a left-handed version of Dominique Jones. Or he could develop into a Jalen Rose play-a-like.

The scouting report on Wroten by former ex-ESPN Insider John Hollinger, who recently made a career change to join Memphis’ front office:

Wroten is one of the draft's most unique talents and he may be a great fit in Memphis with his ability to force turnovers and slash to the basket. He's huge for a point guard, but that's his natural position, as he can see the floor and get to the rim. He's a poor outside shooter, however, and he has a lot of rough edges to his game.

That scared teams off, but he's only 19 and he's potentially a monstrous defender with his size, hands and quickness. He's been compared to Rajon Rondo, both for good and bad, but he's a much bigger version of Rondo and could potentially play as a slashing, ballhandling shooting guard.

If the Grizzlies don’t value Carter enough to give up Davis in the deal, the Mavs could substitute Dahntay Jones, who has a $2.9 million expiring deal. In that case, it’d be a deal that should significantly increase Dallas’ playoff hopes this season while adding a first-round project and not impacting their future financial flexibility at all.

A deal in which the Mavs just give up Kaman and only get back Calderon also works if Memphis isn't willing to move Wroten, but that'd leave a gaping hole in the Grizzlies' lineup at small forward.

There are certainly other possibilities in a three-way deal between these teams. It’s a safe bet that Mavs GM Donnie Nelson is burning some cell-phone minutes with his colleagues in Memphis and Toronto exploring how much the Mavs might benefit by helping out the Grizzlies and Raptors.

Rick Majerus' solitary season on an NBA bench in 1986-87 was spent as a Milwaukee Bucks assistant to head coach Don Nelson and sidekick to then-Bucks assistant Del Harris. Nelson and Harris quickly became two of Majerus' closest friends in the game.

The longtime college basketball coach's passing Saturday was thus felt deeply in Dallas, where the Nelson-and-Harris tag team remains firmly entrenched after they reunited with the Mavericks from 2000 through 2007 alongside current Mavs president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson.

Said Harris on Sunday: "Rick will be known by his friends and those players who followed him closely by one short sentence: He cared.

"Regardless of how demanding he was, Rick proved his love for friends and players past and present in a myriad of ways. I have recorded and saved voicemails he has sent me and my son Dominic has saved encouraging letters Rick sent him from years past. Obviously I could go on and on.

"He had tons of friends (in the game). He was totally dedicated to his family, particularly caring for his mother after his father died. He called me the brother he never had and I suspect he used that expression a lot."

Majerus died Saturday at 64 after a lengthy battle with heart disease and a career filled with NCAA successes at Marquette, Ball State, Utah and Saint Louis. He was likewise close to Denver Nuggets coach George Karl and Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers, meeting Rivers as a kid and calling him "Doc" before anyone after seeing him at a Marquette summer camp in Dr. J T-shirt.

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