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Dirk Nowitzki made an appearance with the "Men in Blazers" at Grantland to talk basketball and a little soccer with Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund preparing for an all-German Champions League final.

Nowitzki offered Michael Davies and Roger Bennett his thoughts on the Mavericks' footballing equivalent, what Mark Cuban can learn from Dortmund, Jurgen Klinsmann's Teutonic streak and LeBron James's questionable claims to soccer.

You can listen to the podcast here.

The Mavericks will need a lot of luck to avoid owning the 13th pick of the NBA draft.

There is about a two percent chance that a Mavs ping pong ball will pop up in the top three picks during Tuesday night’s lottery. Dallas has a 0.6 percent chance to get the No. 1 pick.

President of basketball operations Donnie Nelson, who will represent the Mavs at the drawing along with assistant general manager Keith Grant, plans to do everything in his power to improve those odds. He plans to try to tempt the basketball gods by wearing his outfit from Game 6 of the 2011 Finals.

This is the first time the Mavs have had to attend the lottery drawing since 2000, months after Mark Cuban bought a team. They did have one lottery pick during the last dozen years, when Washington drafted Devin Harris fifth overall on the Mavs’ behalf as part of the trade that sent Antawn Jamison to the Wizards.

ESPNDallas.com will compare the Mavericks and Clippers in five facets -- other than money -- that could play a role in Chris Paul's free agency decision in a one-per-day series: owners/front office, coaches, co-stars, supporting casts and franchise tradition. We'll focus on Dwight Howard next week.

There’s one reason why Chris Paul might consider leaving millions of dollars on the table to say farewell to a 56-win team with a lot of young talent. His name is Donald Sterling.

PODCAST
Ryen Russillo and Adnan Virk talk about Dwight Howard's future and say while teams like Houston and Dallas may be able to offer Howard more from a basketball perspective, Howard's image will take an enormous hit if he decides to leave Los Angeles. Listen

Sterling spending money for two good seasons, made possible by the deal to acquire Paul from the Hornets, doesn’t erase three decades of being a penny-pinching NBA disgrace.

Put it this way: The Clippers have made half as many playoff appearances during Sterling’s 32-year ownership tenure as the Mavs have in 13 full seasons under Mark Cuban. Sterling’s squads have won a grand total of two playoff series, 11 fewer than Cuban’s teams.

Oh, and Sterling also happens to have been accused of racism, sexism, etc. in multiple lawsuits. In basketball and his other business, he’s simply an awful boss. Cuban, on the other hand, is widely beloved by those who have played for the Mavs for his willingness to do whatever is in his power to give his team the best chance to win. (He also happens to be friendly with Paul, as evidenced by Cuban and Dirk Nowitzki palling around with Paul at Tiger Woods' charity poker tournament in Las Vegas over the weekend.)

That’s why Cuban vs. Sterling is a point the Mavs must hammer in their talks with Paul.

Clippers president Andy Roeser and general manager Gary Sacks, who was promoted to his position last summer after Neil Olshey made a lateral move to Portland, deserve credit for putting together one of the league’s deepest benches. However, they’ve also been part of the problem franchise for two decades.

The mountains of Sterling’s dirt might be enough to plant seeds of doubt in Paul’s mind about staying in L.A. The Mavs brass would still have to sell him on their ability to build and sustain a legitimate contender with him as a centerpiece.

Cuban and president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson can point to their dozen-year playoff run with Nowitzki as proof of their credibility. Their challenge will be forming a plan for the future that could make CP3 believe that he’d win a championship in Dallas.

EDGE: Mavs by a mile.

The Mavericks aren’t in the playoffs for the first time since 2000, so we have to find something to fill the time this spring. Might as well keep up with the players from the Mavs’ title team who are scattered throughout the postseason. We planned to have updates as long as Mavs championship alums were alive in the playoffs, but frankly, Ian Mahinmi alone doesn't merit it.

Ian Mahinmi is the last member of the Mavericks’ championship team left standing in these playoffs.

With Mahinmi watching all but four minutes from the bench, his Pacers eliminated the Knicks in Game 6, ending a miserable series for two integral pieces of the 2011 title team.

Indiana’s Roy Hibbert dominated Tyson Chandler before the Knicks big man fouled out with 3:12 remaining. Jason Kidd was benched for the second half for the second straight game and went scoreless for the 10th consecutive game, dating to Game 2 of the first round.

Hibbert had 21 points, 12 rebounds and five blocks in the series finale. Chandler had two points and six rebounds, limited to only 23 minutes because of foul trouble.

For the series, Hibbert averaged 13.3 points, 10.3 rebounds and 3.2 blocks, compared to 6.2 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.7 blocks for Chandler. The Knicks were outscored by 23 points with Chandler on the floor in the series, including 17 in Game 6.

The 40-year-old Kidd had a historically horrible offensive performance during these playoffs. He averaged 0.9 points and shot 12 percent from the floor, the lowest postseason field goal percentage for a player with at least 25 attempts since 1947.

This might not quiet the outcry about Mark Cuban opting to break up the Mavs’ championship team – that’d probably require signing a superstar this summer – but it definitely deadens the angry mob’s factual ammunition.

Here is what Cuban feared: The Mavs would look a lot like the Boston Celtics or New York Knicks, veteran teams who weren’t good enough to be true contenders and have extremely limited avenues to improve because of their bloated payrolls and the restrictive rules of the new collective bargaining agreement.

Imagine if the Mavs paid the price to keep all of their championship pieces. Chandler, Kidd, Jason Terry, J.J. Barea and Caron Butler will cost a total of $35.1 million next season, which would put the Mavs in luxury-tax territory, handcuffing them this summer. Only Butler’s $8 million salary would come off the books in 2014-15.

With a Dirk Nowitzki as the lone star surrounded by an supporting cast of players who are primarily also on the decline, do you really believe the Mavs would have been a threat to come out of the West?

You can make a strong case that it’d have been better for the Mavs to have kept the title core together and at least be a playoff team than the mediocre mess the franchise put on the floor this season. But this really isn’t a Chandler vs. Chris Kaman conversation. It’s a risk/reward discussion.

In Cuban’s opinion, the potential reward didn’t justify the risk of sacrificing roster flexibility if they kept the championship team intact. Finances were only a factor in the post-lockout decisions as they related to limiting the Mavs’ upgrade options.

Cuban decided to dream big, putting immense pressure on him to pull off a superstar acquisition this summer. That ultimately needs to happen to justify stripping down the title team as a good decision.

But if you think the Mavs broke up a dynasty, you clearly didn’t watch much of the first two rounds of these playoffs.

DALLAS -- Dirk Nowitzki has half-joked that his German blood makes him pretty pessimistic by nature, but he's preparing to play the salesman role this summer.

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ESPN NBA analyst Jalen Rose joins Fitzsimmons & Durrett to talk about the NBA playoffs. Listen

Nowitzki has a month and a half to perfect his sales pitch for Chris Paul and/or Dwight Howard, but here's what he has in mind.

"I think I’ve got a couple of good years left if I stay injury-free," Nowitzki said Thursday after an event to promote AT&T's program to urge against texting and driving. "I feel like this is a great city. We all know that. I’ve said numerous times that this is one of the top five cities out of the 30 in the league to live in, to play in, for the owner, for the franchise. That’s definitely part of it. No state tax is nice. That’s always part of the pitch.

"And [Mark] Cuban and Donnie [Nelson] always found ways to make this franchise better, if it’s with deals or basically pulling deals out of the hat where nobody saw anything coming. I think Mark obviously has to be a big part of the pitch. And next year, I come off the books. We all know that as well. I’ve got only one more year of big money left, and then it’s pretty obvious I’m going to take a pay cut. If that helps us get even more talent in here, then that’ll be great."

At that point, the big German broke into a goofy grin and added, "That’s all I’ve got. … I’m trying, I’m trying."

Nowitzki, who will join Cuban, Nelson and coach Rick Carlisle on the Mavs' recruiting committee, recognizes that it'll be tough to talk Paul or Howard into taking less money to leave L.A. But he believes it's a possibility.

"By now, I’m sure they’re starting to think about, ‘What’s my future looking like?’" Nowitzki said. "So that’s where we swoop in and hopefully get something going, hopefully get a meeting scheduled somewhere in July and hit it out of the ballpark."

Want a reason to feel a little bit better about the Mavericks’ long shot of landing Chris Paul this summer?

PODCAST
ESPN NBA analyst Jalen Rose joins Fitzsimmons & Durrett to talk about the NBA playoffs. Listen

Here you go: The Clippers are seriously considering keeping head coach Vinny Del Negro, sources told ESPN.com’s Marc Stein and Ramona Shelburne.

This would be a classic Donald Sterling decision. He’d rather pinch pennies than put his team in the best possible position to win.

Why not part ways with a clearly overmatched head coach and grant Paul the right commonly given to franchise players to help pick an upgrade? Well, Sterling is still bitter about paying the remainder of Mike Dunleavy’s five-year, $22 million contract when Dunleavy was fired in 2010, so the comically cheap Clippers owner prefers to give his head coaches short-term deals.

Heck, if Sterling gives Mark Cuban a call, he can probably talk the Mavs’ owner into paying a chunk of Del Negro’s salary. It’d be worth it to increase the Mavs’ odds of acquiring the NBA’s premier point guard.

One of the silliest things you’ll hear this summer is that free agents don’t want to come to Dallas.

That’s become a meme that’s often repeated in discussions about Mark Cuban’s bold plan to create ample salary cap space by stripping down the 2011 title team. Never mind the facts.

The fact of the matter is it’s difficult to sign free agents if you don’t have salary cap space. That’s not exactly unique to Dallas.

The Mavs whiffed on Deron Williams last summer, although Cuban’s effort in that recruiting pitch resembled some of Josh Hamilton’s final at-bats in a Rangers uniform. Being 0-for-1 doesn’t constitute a trend.

The point isn’t to predict that the Mavs will land Chris Paul or Dwight Howard this summer. The odds are against Dallas simply due to the rules that allow for their current teams to offer an extra year and larger annual raises.

However, from weather to a winning culture, Dallas’ attractiveness as an NBA destination is an advantage to the Mavs. Being a top-five market without a state income tax is a bonus. The days of Kiki Vandeweghe refusing to play for the Mavs are ancient history.

The Mavs have earned a reputation as a first-class franchise during Cuban’s 13-year ownership tenure. That’s why Jason Kidd’s agent helped orchestrate a trade to bring the point guard back to Dallas in 2008. That’s why Shawn Marion’s agent played a key role in making a complicated sign-and-trade deal go down the next year. That’s why Tyson Chandler was crushed when Cuban declined to offer him a long-term deal. That’s why Howard had the Mavs on his very short list of acceptable trade partners when he was forcing his way out of Orlando.

That’s why there will be plenty of free agents who will want to talk to the Mavs in July, a list that perhaps includes the two biggest prizes on the market.

“Who wouldn’t want to play in an environment like this every night?” restricted free agent Brandon Jennings said during the Bucks’ trip to Dallas in February. “You’ve got an owner who’s so into his team and everything like that. Every time you see the Mavs, you see him cheering or going crazy. They won a championship. They’re about winning.”

That doesn’t necessarily mean that the Mavs will win this summer. But if they don’t, it’d be foolish to blame a mythical aversion NBA players have for joining the Mavs.

For the Mavericks to make the Chris Paul/Dwight Howard combo pipedream a reality, they’d have to hire a hypnotist.

How else would they be able to convince Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak to agree to a sign-and-trade deal that would ship Howard to Dallas for a couple of veterans with expiring contracts and spare parts?

For the sake of argument, let’s say that Howard forces the Lakers’ hand by saying that he’s leaving Los Angeles, no matter what. If the Lakers don’t agree to the sign-and-trade that would allow Howard to join Paul in Dallas – for the sake of argument, we’re making the huge assumption that Mark Cuban and Co. have successfully recruited CP3 – the big man will just sign with Houston or Atlanta.

Better for the Lakers to get something for Howard instead of letting him leave for nothing, right? Not really.

Let’s be real. If Howard leaves while Kobe Bryant is in the early stages of his comeback from a torn Achilles tendon, the Lakers have no chance to win a championship next season.

That wouldn’t change if they accepted a sign-and-trade deal that sent every player on the Mavs’ roster not named Nowitzki to Los Angeles. All that would do is prevent the Lakers from avoiding a massive luxury tax bill.

If the Lakers added Shawn Marion, Vince Carter and Mavs filler to a roster that features rehabbing Kobe, ancient Steve Nash and Pau Gasol, they’d be fighting just for a shot to sneak into the playoffs again while paying a luxury-tax bill in the neighborhood of $28 million, assuming they’d use the amnesty clause on Metta World Peace.

What about that would possibly appeal to L.A.?

If Howard leaves, the Lakers might as well unofficially tank the season. They could avoid the luxury tax altogether by using the amnesty clause on Gasol. Kobe could take his sweet time with his comeback.

In this scenario, the Lakers could be looking at a high lottery pick in a loaded 2014 draft, when they’ll also have a ton of cap space. Why would they want to end up with a middle-of-the-road pick after putting together a mediocre team with a nine-figure price tag?

Perhaps you could argue that the biggest obstacle blocking the Mavs from acquiring a CP3/D12 duo is the Lakers agreeing on a sign-and-trade deal.

You could also argue that the only hurdle between the Mavs from acquiring LeBron James is the Miami Heat agreeing on a trade. That doesn’t make it a legitimate possibility.

Grantland's Bill Simmons has finally completed his 13th annual NBA trade value rankings, a trilogy this year.

Dirk Nowitzki came in at No. 12. The Sports Guy's take on the big German:

One of my favorite NBA lists …

Dolph Schayes
Hal Greer
John Havlicek
Kobe Bryant
Tim Duncan
Paul Pierce
Dirk Nowitzki

That's the 15-Year Club — the only seven NBA players who spent their entire careers with the same franchise, played at least 15 seasons AND won at least one title. You don't just stumble onto that list — all seven are Hall of Famers, with 21 rings among them. Think about what the list means: excellence, durability, longevity, loyalty, championships … it's your best-case scenario for a basketball career, basically.

And you need a little luck along the way. I don't know how Schayes and Greer played that long with all the bad sneakers, bad food, bad medical care, scary travel, second-hand smoke and everything else that should have stopped them back then. Havlicek had a Secretariat-size heart and superhuman stamina. Duncan nearly signed with Orlando. Kobe's Lakers career nearly fell apart twice. Pierce was nearly traded 935 times. Dirk lucked out with a wealthy owner who always spent enough money to compete (so he never had to pull a KG), as well as one sizable break: During the summer of '04, Dallas was the consensus favorite in the Shaq Sweepstakes when Kobe forced the Lakers to trade Shaq the Lakers decided to trade Shaq, only Mark Cuban (astutely, as it turned out) made Dirk untouchable.

At the time, that decision was a much bigger deal than anyone remembers now. A rejuvenated, pissed-off Shaq guaranteed you one title, maybe even two. We all knew it. (As it turned out, Miami won in 2006, and probably would have won the previous year had Dwyane Wade not gotten injured.) When the Lakers could only get Lamar Odom, Caron Butler and Brian Grant's contract for him, I ended up creating the Vengeance Scale to figure out exactly where Angry Shaq ranked among the most vengeful people ever, ultimately assigning him an 8.7 (just behind Charles Bronson in every Death Wish movie). And yeah, I ridiculed the Mavericks for keeping Dirk over dealing him for Shaq, too, even calling Dirk "the German Bob McAdoo" (not a compliment). I never thought you could build a championship team around Dirk's offense. A lot of people felt that way. Looking back, resisting that enticing Shaq trade was probably Cuban's third-greatest NBA moment, trailing the time he stared down David Stern after Game 5 of the 2006 Finals, and, of course, this picture.

What happens with Dirk going forward? Kobe, Pierce and Dirk have one thing in common: They don't have to chase a title like Karl Malone did. Dirk controls his own destiny; if he wants to retire in Dallas, Cuban would be delighted. Kobe probably controls his own destiny, even if there's increasing buzz (no, really) that the Lakers would amnesty him if it guaranteed them Chris Paul and Dwight Howard. Sadly, Paul Pierce doesn't control his destiny — he's probably getting traded this summer by a team that wants to rebuild. That's the difference between being a star and being a superstar. But if you think Dallas isn't going balls-out after CP3 this summer to give their loyal superstar one last run, you're crazy. We might even see Mark Cuban skip a Shark Tank taping this time around! Don't count out Dirk Nowitzki just yet.

Click here to read the entire trade-value trilogy finale on Grantland.

Let’s focus on the long shots and forget about the miracles for now.

In other words, stop dreaming about the Mavs signing Chris Paul and Dwight Howard this summer. That isn’t happening unless one or both of them agree to take much, much, much less than max contracts, even if the Mavs managed to strip their roster of everyone except for Dirk Nowitzki and didn’t take any salary back. Or if the luxury-tax-paying Lakers agree to a sign-and-trade that frankly wouldn’t make sense for them.

PODCAST
Tim MacMahon joins Fitzsimmons & Durrett to discuss the possibility of Chris Paul joining the Mavericks and break down what kind of pitch Mark Cuban would have to make to the NBA's best point guard. Listen

But it is realistic -- not probable, but certainly possible -- for the Mavs to be able to add either the NBA’s premier point guard or the league’s best big man while keeping key complementary veterans Shawn Marion and Vince Carter.

It wouldn’t necessarily be simple, however. It would likely require cooperation from Carter or Marion -- both of whom are otherwise candidates to be moved in salary-dump deals despite the Dallas front office’s strong desire to keep them -- and maybe a little luck.

First, some pertinent figures:

PODCAST
Chuck Cooperstein joins Fitzsimmons & Durrett to talk about who he would rather have if forced to choose between Dwight Howard and Chris Paul. Listen

• The salary cap for next season, which will be announced June 30, is expected to be somewhere between $58.5 million and $60 million.
• The Mavs currently have $41,811,829 committed to next season’s salary cap: the guaranteed contracts of Nowitzki ($22,721,381), Marion ($9,316,796), Carter ($3,180,000), Jared Cunningham ($1,208,400) and Jae Crowder ($788,872); a cap hold of $1,655,300 for the 13th overall pick (pending lottery results); and six $490,180 cap holds to fill the required 12 roster spots.
• That means the Mavs would have between $16,688,171 and $18,188,171 in cap space – not including the non-guaranteed $788,872 salaries of Bernard James and Josh Akognon – without any maneuvering.
• Howard’s first-year salary for a max contract: $20,513,178.
• Paul’s first-year salary for a max contract: $18,668,430.

So how can the Mavs create enough cap space to sign one or the other without losing Marion or Carter?

SCENARIO 1: Move their young assets.

This could cover Paul. The Mavs would still need to do more to create room for a non-discounted Howard, who is eligible for a higher salary because max deals can be 105 percent of what the player made in the previous season.

If the salary cap is set at $60 million, the Mavs could create room for Paul simply by finding a team with cap space or a trade exception to take Cunningham off their hands. That would create an additional $718,220 in cap space, the difference between Cunningham’s salary and a cap hold.

A similar salary dump of Crowder would create $298,692 in cap space.

The Mavs also could create $1,165,120 in cap space by moving their first-round pick for no immediate return.

The sum of all three moves would be $2,182,032, so even if the cap is set at $58.5 million, it’s feasible for the Mavs to carve out enough room to sign Paul to a max contract without making any moves involving their veteran core.

Of course, the Mavs would much rather not give up all of their young assets, particularly a lottery pick and Crowder, a rotation player as a rookie.

SCENARIO 2: Stretch and re-sign Carter.

With contracts signed under the new collective bargaining agreement, teams can waive players under the “stretch provision,” spreading the cap hit paying the remaining guaranteed money on the deal over twice the number of years left on the contract plus one.

In this case, with Carter entering the final year of his contract, that would be a three-year period ($1,060,000 per year).

Add the cap hold, and stretching Carter would create $1,629,820 in cap space. Depending on where the cap falls, that could be enough to give Paul a max offer. Carter also could be stretched in addition to moves made to dump young assets to clear enough space to sign Paul or possibly Howard.

Renowned CBA expert Larry Coon confirmed that Carter would be eligible to return to Dallas if he cleared waivers. Theoretically, if Carter signed for the vet minimum, he’d essentially get a $1.4 million raise.

The decision to stretch Carter can be made at any time, so the Mavs could wait until they had a commitment from Paul or Howard.

The risk: Any team with enough cap space or a large enough trade exception could claim Carter, whose salary has been a bargain the past two seasons. He also could explore other options in free agency. (Think the Thunder would be interested in Carter as a much cheaper replacement for Kevin Martin?)

SCENARIO 3: Marion exercises his early termination option and re-signs for a reduced salary.

Call this the “Richard Jefferson scenario,” as he set the precedent by opting out and re-signing a four-year deal with the Spurs in 2010.

This could be the simplest way to create enough cap space to sign Howard to a max deal. It’s convenient that agent Dan Fegan represents Howard and Marion.

Marion’s ETO deadline is believed to be June 30, which would mean this decision must be made before the Mavs could meet with either of the superstar free agents. The Mavs also wouldn’t be able to agree to an extension with Marion at that point, although there could be expressions of a mutual interest in his return with an, ahem, unspoken understanding of what that might entail.

Say the cap is set at $58.5 million. Marion could sign a three-year deal worth $16.77 million, starting with a $5.35 million salary, to create enough cap space to give Howard a max deal.

That’d be a win-win situation. The Mavs would get their cap space, and Marion would nearly double his guaranteed money and get the comfort of knowing he’d likely finish his career in Dallas.

“There are a thousand different ways,” Mark Cuban said in April when asked about carving out enough cap space to sign one of the max-caliber players on the market.

But there aren’t that many that would allow the Mavs to keep their veteran core together, which directly affects how attractive a destination Dallas might be for a superstar this summer.

Which owner does Chris Paul want to trust with the prime of his career?

That simple, direct question will probably be at the center of the Mavericks’ July recruiting pitch to the NBA’s premier point guard.

PODCAST
Tim MacMahon joins Fitzsimmons & Durrett to discuss the possibility of Chris Paul joining the Mavericks and break down what kind of pitch Mark Cuban would have to make to the NBA's best point guard. Listen

There are plenty of sensible reasons for Paul to want to stay in L.A. The Clippers can offer much more money, are coming off a 56-win season and have a young co-star locked up long term, plus CP3 would surely have the typical franchise player’s right to fire Vinny Del Negro and hand-pick his next head coach if he so desired.

That’s why the Mavs must hammer the Mark Cuban versus Donald Sterling angle. And it needs to be a vicious knockout.

Cuban couldn’t ask for a better opponent. Mudslinging is awfully easy when there’s so much truthful ammunition.

First and foremost, of course, Cuban has to sell the Mavs and himself. He has to make Paul believe that they can build a perennial contender around him, much like the Mavs’ front office did for a dozen years around Dirk Nowitzki. Cuban’s combination of deep pockets, basketball passion and brainpower ranks right above Rick Carlisle’s coaching genius among the Mavs’ top selling points for Paul.

It certainly helps that Cuban has the track record of taking over a league laughingstock and making it one of the NBA’s most respected franchises. His commitment -- financially, emotionally and intellectually -- was a major factor in the Mavs reeling off 11 consecutive 50-win seasons and 12 straight playoff appearances, getting to the Finals twice and winning one championship.

Few franchises can measure up to that success, but it’s especially impressive compared to Sterling’s Clippers.

While Cuban helped lead the Mavs out of laughingstock status, the Clippers spent decades among the dregs of the NBA largely because of Sterling, who is widely considered the worst owner in major professional sports.

And that’s not nearly the nastiest thing said about Sterling, as detailed in the 5,000-plus-word 2009 ESPN The Magazine story headlined, "The disastrous tenure of the Clippers owner runs much deeper than losses." That delves into such disturbing subjects as the lawsuits stemming from Sterling’s attempts to avoid renting to black or Hispanic tenants, sexual harassment of his employees and the married man’s under-oath, unashamed admittance to having a proclivity for high-priced prostitutes.

When it comes to the Clippers, it isn’t necessarily accurate to call Sterling inept. He’s succeeded in his primary goal: Making millions of dollars in profit on a consistent basis. It’s just typically been at the expense of fielding a competitive team.

Since Paul’s arrival in L.A., the Clippers have had the first back-to-back winning seasons in franchise history. They also matched the previous franchise total of playoff series wins, advancing to the second round last season.

The first 30 years under Sterling? The Clippers had a grand total of two winning campaigns and 17 head coaches. Sterling, a billionaire who built his fortune primarily in real estate, became notorious in the NBA for his penny-pinching ways.

"I'm offering a lot of money for a poor black kid," Sterling once allegedly said regarding a difficult negotiation with No. 1 overall pick Danny Manning, according to former general manager Elgin Baylor’s wrongful termination lawsuit.

Another charming Sterling line from that lawsuit: "Look at those beautiful black bodies," which was allegedly often uttered while repeatedly parading a posse of women young enough to be his granddaughters through the Clippers locker room while players were showering. (That story has been confirmed by players, many of whom have been subjected to socializing with Sterling and such women.)

Sterling can claim that he’s changed his basketball ways. He can point to the Clippers’ payroll, which was more than $10 million above the salary cap but still under the luxury tax this season. The post-lockout trade for Paul was the most high-profile of several expensive moves the Clippers have made over the past couple of seasons, including signing Blake Griffin to a max contract that kicks in next season.

Questions the Mavs can pose to Paul: Do you really trust Sterling to continue to spend what’s necessary to give the Clippers the best possible chance to win a championship? How could you trust a man with Sterling’s track record in and out of basketball?

Cuban has proven he’ll pay extraordinary prices to compete for titles. The Mavs have made many creative moves to upgrade personnel during his 13-year tenure, and they usually cost him millions of dollars. Nobody west of New York has paid more in luxury tax over the years.

Of course, Cuban has drawn criticism for the cost-cutting stripping down of the 2011 title team. But that strategy of favoring financial flexibility can be easily explained to Paul, whom the Mavs have coveted so long that they tried to use the expiring contracts of Josh Howard and Jerry Stackhouse as trade bait to get CP3 and whatever bad contracts New Orleans wanted to dump from tight-fisted former Hornets owner George Shinn.

Cuban valued Paul so much that he was willing to take a massive risk, particularly in the court of public opinion, just to have the chance to make the perennial All-Star point guard a Maverick.

It could all be worth it if Paul’s decision comes down to Cuban versus Sterling.

As far as setting up the Mavericks’ summer goes, it was a phenomenal first round.

Dwight Howard’s team got swept. Chris Paul’s squad lasted only six games.

PODCAST
Tim MacMahon joins Fitzsimmons & Durrett to discuss the possibility of Chris Paul joining the Mavericks and break down what kind of pitch Mark Cuban would have to make to the NBA's best point guard. Listen

Enough seeds of doubt have been planted for the two superstars to at least seriously consider leaving their respective Los Angeles teams.

“I don’t know how this whole thing is going to play out,” Paul told reporters Saturday morning, fresh off the disappointment of getting eliminated by the Memphis Grizzlies, essentially echoing Howard’s comments about the Lakers’ premature playoff departure.

It took a year longer than the Dallas decision-makers hoped and anticipated when they made their difficult post-lockout decisions, but they’ll finally be able to make recruiting pitches to their two primary targets this summer. (Deron Williams, whom the Mavs whiffed on last summer, was Plan C.)

Landing either of the available superstars is still a long shot. (Landing both is a virtual impossibility.)

The Mavs hoped to have the chance to try to take Paul away from New Orleans or Howard away from Orlando. It’ll be a heck of a lot tougher to talk them out of leaving playoff teams in L.A., especially considering that the collective bargaining agreement allows their current teams to offer contracts that feature an extra year and 3-percent-higher annual raises.

But the opportunity is on the table for Mark Cuban and Co. We’ve got plenty of time to delve into the details and the potential details of the pitches over the next two months.

For now, let’s just deal with the basics of the dollars involved.

A max deal for Howard would start with a $20.51 million salary (105 percent of his salary this season). The Lakers can offer him a five-year deal worth $117.95 million. The Mavs and other suitors with enough cap space -- the Atlanta Hawks and Houston Rockets (with some financial maneuvering) are the biggest threats -- can offer a four-year, $87.6 million deal.

Paul is eligible to make a max salary of $18.67 million next season. The Clippers can offer a five-year, $107.34 million deal. The Mavs and others can offer a four-year, $79.71 million deal.

The Mavs, depending on where the salary cap limit falls within the expected range, will have between $16.1 million and $17.6 million of cap space without any maneuvering this summer.

Creating the cap space necessary to sign Paul could be as simple as waiving Bernard James and Josh Akognon, who have nonguaranteed deals, and dumping Jared Cunnngham's salary via a trade. It might not require the Mavs to move Shawn Marion or Vince Carter, two veterans whom they value.

It wouldn’t be so simple with Howard, although it could help that agent Dan Fegan represents both Howard and Marion, whose contract includes an early termination option he can exercise before free agency begins.

(One potential scenario: Marion opts out of his $9.32 million salary for next season and returns to Dallas after re-signing a three-year deal in the $18 million range. That could be a win-win situation with Marion doubling his guaranteed money and the Mavs keeping their veteran core intact while creating enough space to sign Howard.)

The finances are one reason for Paul to be the Mavs’ preference, but that’d probably be the case anyway.

Coach Rick Carlisle is on record as saying that point guard is the most important position in today’s NBA. Cuban is on record saying that boosting the Mavs’ collective basketball IQ is a major priority. The best way to address both of those areas is to sign CP3, who also doesn’t come with any baggage, unlike the league’s best big man.

Having said that, the Mavs should (and surely would) sign Howard in a heartbeat if Paul decides that he doesn’t want to come to Dallas.

At this point, pulling off one of the pipe dreams appears to be a possibility for Dallas this summer. They might be long shots, but at least the Mavs will have the ball in their hands on July 1.

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.

Mark Cuban, who has often been a vocal supporter of gay rights issues, considers NBA center Jason Collins' coming out of the closet a breakthrough moment in sports.

“Good for Jason. I hope this opens the door for other players to be honest about who they are,” Cuban wrote in an email reply to ESPNDallas.com.

Cuban told TMZ earlier this month that he would be “honored” to have on his team the first NBA player who came out publicly.

“I think things have changed, significantly, in that the players would accept him,” Cuban told TMZ. “All professional sports have had their homophobic missteps along the way; it's a new era, a new generation and the player would be accepted. I think we are starting, at least on the edges, to break down those barriers. This shouldn't be a big deal.”

The 34-year-old Collins is entering free agency. Known for being a great locker room presence and physical defender, Collins averaged 1.1 points, 1.6 rebounds and 2.2 fouls in 38 games for the Celtics and Wizards this season.

UPDATE: Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said Monday night that he has known Jason and twin brother Jaron Collins since he worked with them at a camp more than a decade ago, calling them "pure class on and off the court."

"I applaud Jason's announcement and view it as a further demonstration of his strength and character," Carlisle said via text message.

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.

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“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.