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

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

Would Dirk Nowitzki request a trade?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Every athlete should have it as good as Brendan Haywood. Eleven seasons into a serviceable, yet hardly spectacular career, the 7-footer out of North Carolina has already pocketed some $44 million in career earnings. At a time when some 32-year-old vets are wondering if they've got another payday coming, Haywood is locked into a generous deal afforded by owner Mark Cuban for three more seasons that will take his career earnings north of $72 million.

It's a good living if you can get it.

Yet, for that kind of dough the Dallas Mavericks might have expected more than 3.3 points, 3.3 rebounds and 15.3 minutes -- with perhaps a hard foul thrown in along the way -- during four playoff losses to the Oklahoma City Thunder. The irony is that the Thunder were considered the favored first-round opponent over the massive front line of the Los Angeles Lakers that would pit Haywood on Andrew Bynum.

Haywood couldn't stay on the floor against OKC's Kendrick Perkins, who scored 13 points in Game 2 and averaged 7.7 rebounds in 27.3 minutes a game before leaving early in Game 4 with a hip injury. In those first three games, Haywood played a total of 36 minutes, shot 3-of-11 from the floor and had nine rebounds.

Go back to the series before that, yes, the NBA Finals. Haywood injured his hip in Game 2 and didn't play the rest of the way as Dallas secured the title in six games.

Haywood twisted an ankle and sprained a knee late this season and maybe those ailments had something to do with his ineffective play. Perkins even suggested prior to Game 4 that something must be bothering the Mavs' big man.

Since his arrival in February 2010 when Haywood started on a double-double roll, invoking praise by some as "best center in Mavs history," to OKC's first-round rough-up, his popularity among fans has hit an all-time low.

And now, thanks to the amnesty clause negotiated into the new collective bargaining agreement, Haywood's future in Dallas is certainly in doubt.

The Countdown rolls on at No. 11 ...

BRENDAN HAYWOOD
Pos: C
Ht/Wt: 7-0, 263
Experience: 11 years
Age: 32 (Nov. 27, 1979)
2011-12 stats: 5.2 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 21.2 mpg
Contract status: Signed through 2014-15
2011-12 salary: $7.6 million
2012-13 salary: $8.3 million

His story: In hindsight, the handsome, five-year contract (the sixth year is non-guaranteed) the Mavs handed Haywood following the 2009-10 season doesn't look so great. Of course, when Dallas did the deal it didn't know that a few weeks later Tyson Chandler would land in its lap via a trade with the Charlotte Bobcats. Haywood took Rick Carlisle's early offseason promise that he would take over as the starting center with Erick Dampier on his way out. Except Dampier's expiring contract turned into a resurgent Chandler, who came off a successful Team USA stint and instantly changed those starting plans. The Mavs will point to their defensive statistics this season as proof that Chandler wasn't missed as some would have thought. Others will point to athleticism, attitude, leadership and a stretch from March 2 through May 5 in which Haywood managed one double-digit scoring game and averaged 4.2 rebounds as proof that the Mavs took a significant dip at the center position.

His outlook: This is where things get interesting. If the Mavs are to sign Deron Williams in July, they will have to amnesty a player to help create the appropriate cap space to offer a max deal. There are two amnesty candidates, Shawn Marion and Haywood, but Marion figured to be the leading candidate if only because it is so difficult to find a 7-foot center to plug into the starting lineup. But, as the season wore on and as Haywood's floor time dwindled in the playoffs, plus with Marion having a fine season -- particularly as a defensive stopper -- speculation raged that Haywood has taken the amnesty lead. Haywood even said during an appearance on ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM's Ben & Skin Show that he would not be offended if the team does cut ties. And why should he? The Mavs will still owe him the $28 million remaining on his contract and he'll pad it a bit more from whichever team should get him next.

The Countdown
No. 15 Lamar Odom
No. 14 Brian Cardinal
No. 13 Yi Jianlian
No. 12 Dominique Jones
No. 11 Brendan Haywood
No. 10 Coming Monday

Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle is one of three NBA head coaches on the newly restructured competition committee announced by the league Wednesday.

Carlisle, the current president of the NBA Coaches Association, joins Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers and Memphis Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins. Also on the committee are team owners Dan Gilbert (Cleveland Cavaliers) and Joe Lacob (Golden State Warriors) and general managers Bryan Colangelo (Toronto Raptors), Mitch Kupchak (Los Angeles Lakers), Kevin O’Connor (Utah Jazz) and Sam Presti (Oklahoma City Thunder).

Previously, the committee included the general manager from each of the 30 teams. That committee has been reconstituted as the new general managers committee. The league says it streamlined the competition committee because it wanted broader input on issues that could potentially improve the game.

One issue that could come up when the committee convenes for the first time during the NBA Finals is basket interference situations in the final two minutes of regulation and overtime. Mavs owner Mark Cuban requested that the league immediately make such instances eligible for replay review following a late-season loss at the Los Angeles Lakers in which Cuban and Carlisle believe Lakers forward Matt Barnes touched the ball in the cylinder but was not called for offensive goaltending.

The play counted as a 3-point basket for Pau Gasol and could have changed the course of the overtime finish.

IRVING, Texas -- Not every head coach is equipped with the patience level to co-exist long term with an owner who practically sits on the team bench during most games, chronically chastises referees and talks to his players on the periphery of the timeout huddle.

(See Don Nelson, Avery Johnson).

PODCAST
Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle joins "The Herd" to discuss his contract extension, Mark Cuban, Jason Terry, Dirk Nowitzki and the NBA playoffs. Listen

Rick Carlisle, however, seemed to come to Dallas in May 2008 not only prepared for it, but eager to embrace owner Mark Cuban's intense and unorthodox style of watching his team play. Carlisle probably figured Cuban isn't going to change so it'd behoove him to work with it instead of against it. And it's probably one big reason why Carlisle, 52, agreed to a new four-year contract Tuesday that next season will push him past Nelson as the longest-tenured coach under Cuban's watch.

There are other reasons why Carlisle wanted to remain in Dallas when other lucrative coaching opportunities would quickly have presented themselves. At the top of the list is that Carlisle trusts the track record of Cuban and president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson. He believes they will always provide the resources to compete, or at least aggressively pursue those resources -- a belief that will be put to the test during this offseason of potentially unprecedented roster turnover.

"I can’t think of another owner and GM that has been able to reinvent a franchise more times in a short period of time than Mark and Donnie (Nelson)," Carlisle said, noting how the duo acquired Jason Terry and Devin Harris after losing Steve Nash to Phoenix in free agency. "We’re at a point now where we’re going to make some things happen. I see things happening in a variety of different ways. I don’t see it being only free agency or only being trades or only being the draft. I think we’re going to be very active with all three modes of getting a team better."

As inventive as the front office has been through the years, Carlisle has proved equally adept on the bench as an in-game tactician and making himself flexible and open-minded enough to capture veteran egos. This season's disappointing 36-30 record, the first in a dozen seasons in which the Mavs did not finish with a .600 winning percentage (the equivalent of 50 wins), came under the most unusual of circumstances given the NBA lockout, the dismantling of the title team, the short training camp, injuries and the Lamar Odom saga to name a few.

As the offseason beckons with cap space to burn for the first time in Cuban's tenure, Carlisle said he and his staff will be active the next month scouring every position on every team to identify potential trade targets. But, Carlisle acknowledged, the architects of the next Mavs team will predominantly be Cuban and Nelson.

"We all kind of place our eggs in their basket knowing that they’re going to do the work, they have the resources, but this is going to be work," Carlisle said. "We’re going to have to do a lot of homework. We’re going to have to be opportunistic and resourceful and we’ve got the greatest fans in the NBA and we want to put the best team on the floor we can for them."

IRVING, Texas -- During his Game 4 news conference following the first-round sweep to the Oklahoma City Thunder, Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle raised some already curious eyebrows when he started talking about his time with the club in the past tense.

For a man without a contract, was he using calculated language? Was Carlisle planting the seeds for his departure?

PODCAST
Mavs coach Rick Carlisle dishes on his new four-year deal, how the team plans to attack free agency, his input on the decision-making process and much more. Listen

Well, the coach with the new four-year contract as of Tuesday said he wasn't trying to send hints through his verb tense.

"I was reflecting just simply based on my first contract. There was nothing meant by it," Carlisle said after spending an hour on the airwaves with ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM's Galloway & Company. "One thing I’ve learned through all this is owners are special people and they’re all different, they all have a different way of operating their business. The way it all happened was fine."

And now comes the hard work in what promises to be an intriguing offseason. The Mavs are entering an unprecedented summer under Cuban. For the first time in his ownership, Dallas will have cap space and plans to be aggressive. Obviously, Brooklyn Nets point guard Deron Williams tops the list when free agency starts on July 1.

Carlisle said next on his agenda is gathering his coaching staff and painstakingly combing through the 29 other rosters and studying every possible potential free agent and desirable players through trades, plus draft prospects with the Mavs set to pick 17th.

"I see us being very active in all three areas -- the draft, free agency and trades," Carlisle said. "And it’s going to be a long summer because we’re going to be involved in everything. And so it’s one of the reasons I’m excited because I think there are going to be some terrific opportunities out there. We’ve got to get the team younger, we’ve got to get the team better."

In other words, stay tuned.

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

Moscow?

PODCAST
Mavs C Brendan Haywood discusses flopping and the foul called at the end of the Sixers-Celtics game, updates us on the latest with Deron Williams and more. Listen

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

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

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

Tea leaves anyone?

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

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

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

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

Mavericks forward Shawn Marion, who finished eighth in Defensive Player of the Year voting, went under the knife Friday and, for all you pre-Med MFFLs, shared the experience online via Mobli and then posted to his Twitter account (@matrix31).

He underwent a minor procedure to have a lipoma, a common benign fatty tissue, removed from the back of his shoulder. Marion didn't actually record the outpatient surgery, although he says he wishes he could have. He did provide a photo of the removed fatty tissue in a jar and a groggy, post-op Mobli.com video from the car on his way home explaining what just went down.

(Be warned, the mostly harmless video needs two bleeps for inappropriate language).

Marion arrived back in Dallas on Monday night, he tweeted, but don't expect Marion, who turned 34 on May 7, to sit still for long this offseason. His plans include his usual globetrotting as a man always on the move.

"I'm going to do it all, I enjoy my life, so I'm going do to what the hell I want to do," Marion said in his humorous showboat style during the team's exit interviews. "Its just that simple."

There's no telling yet if Marion will be a man on the move this summer from a professional standpoint, too. Marion has two years remaining on his contract. He could ultimately be included in a potential sign-and-trade deal as Dallas seeks to get younger, and he is one of two candidates along with Brendan Haywood that the Mavs can amnesty.

Or the Mavs can bring back their top perimeter defender and a core veteran leader.

"I can't sit here and tell you what they're going to do, what they decide not to do," Marion said. "It's up to those guys upstairs (Mark Cuban and Donnie Nelson) to make it happen."

Contract disputes are about money. The person seeking the contract always wants more than the person handing out the contract wants to give.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and coach Rick Carlisle might not yet describe this lingering contract situation as a dispute, but the bottom line is that Carlisle has yet to ink a new deal. Neither side is talking about it, so it can only be assumed that money is a central issue.

Carlisle earned $4.5 million in the fourth and final year of his contract this past season. That ranked him seventh at the start of the season, according to Forbes, among the league's highest-paid coaches. Three of the top six on the list didn't make it out of the season. Mike D'Antonio ($6 million, tied with San Antonio's Gregg Popovich for second) resigned from the New York Knicks, Nate McMillan ($5.5 million, fourth) was fired by the Portland Trail Blazers and Flip Saunders ($4.8 million, sixth) was fired by the Washington Wizards.

According to Forbes, Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers is the highest-paid coach in the NBA, earning $7 million this season. He's in his 13th season as a head coach and eighth with the Celtics, who hold a 1-0 lead on the Philadelphia 76ers in the East semifinals. Rivers and the Celtics won the 2008 championship and returned to the Finals in 2010, losing to the Los Angeles Lakers in seven games.

Is Carlisle looking for Rivers-type money? Or perhaps the $6 million that Popovich, a four-time championship coach, is pocketing this season? The NBA's Coach of the Year has the Spurs in the West semifinals on the heels of a first-round sweep.

In Carlisle's third season in Dallas, he molded a group of title-less veterans into unexpected champions, providing Cuban and the franchise with its first title. While the Miami Heat, the team the Mavs dispatched in the NBA Finals in six games, rewarded coach Erik Spoelstra with an extension in December prior to the start of the season, Carlisle's reward never came.

Cuban dismantled the title team and the season was a struggle from start to finish. Dallas ended it 36-30 in the regular season and then was swept out of the first round by the Oklahoma City Thunder under coach Scott Brooks, who is also coming to the end of his contract and will command a bigger payday.

Cuban claims it's simply not his business style to grant extensions (the 2006 extension he gave Avery Johnson backfired). But now that the season is over and still no deal exists, it figures that either the two sides are negotiating a workable salary or that Carlisle, who would be a hot commodity as a free agent, is keeping his options open.

After all, the Mavs' future, in terms of its roster as Dirk Nowitzki turns 34 in June, is as unsettled as ever in Cuban's dozen years as owner.

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

The offseason certainly arrived much sooner than anyone could have predicted, just like Lamar Odom's premature exit from the Dallas Mavericks.

The 6-foot-10 forward kicks off our offseason blog series that ranks the 2011-12 Mavericks roster in order of importance for the front office to bring back. Four of last season's six free agents found new homes with the exception of Peja Stojakovic, who called it a career after winning his first championship, and Brian Cardinal, who re-signed but made virtually no impact on the season.

Eleven months ago, the title team proved difficult to rank in importance and I started the Countdown with DeShawn Stevenson as the least important. It drew quite a few raised eyebrows from those wondering how I could possibly consider the defensive bulldog and surprisingly valuable 3-point shooter the least important member of the title team to bring back.

In retrospect, the choice probably violated the spirit of this series. I chose Stevenson not because I didn't think he was an asset and worthy of returning for a chance to repeat, but because the Mavs traded for shooting guard Rudy Fernandez, a move that, to me, signaled that Stevenson wouldn't be back. Who would have figured that neither Stevenson nor Fernandez would start the season with the Mavs?

This time around the lead-off man in these rankings is a no-brainer. Odom's career-worst season has to go down as the most disappointing season in the league and one of the more frustrating ones for a franchise in recent memory.

With that, on with the series:

LAMAR ODOM
Pos: SF/PF
Ht/Wt: 6-10, 230
Experience: 13 years
Age: 32 (Nov. 6, 1979)
2011-12 stats: 6.6 ppg (35.2 FG%), 4.2 rpg
Contract status: Signed through 2012-2013
2011-12 salary: $8.9 million
2012-13 salary: $8.2 million ($2.4 million guaranteed)

His story: There's a certain reality TV show on a certain entertainment channel starring a certain Kardashian sister and her basketball-playing husband that can provide the background of what went wrong in Odom's four short months with the Mavs. What didn't go wrong? Dallas thought it was getting a versatile forward who would help ease the pain of losing Tyson Chandler by supplying his unique skills that had helped the Lakers win back-to-back titles. Owner Mark Cuban says he'd make the trade all over again that brought the emotionally bogged-down Odom to Dallas for a draft pick and a trade exception. And hey, when the stunning trade went down Dec. 11, most thought the Mavs had just pulled off a coup and wondered why in the world the Lakers would seemingly just hand over last season's Sixth Man of the Year to the team that swept them out of the playoffs. Now we know.

His outlook: Odom is actually under consideration for a spot on Team USA for the London Games because of the rash of injuries that have taken out star players like Derrick Rose and Dwight Howard. Cuban actually said he'd love to see it, but only because he has such disdain for Olympic basketball, so he figures the two were meant to be together. Where Odom lands next season will be a far more intriguing story to follow. For starters, Dallas will try everything it can to dump him off on a team with loads of salary cap space such as Toronto or Sacramento and throw in $3 million to offset the $2.4 million guaranteed on Odom's deal next season. If the Mavs can't dump him in a trade, they'll waive him and be responsible for the $2.4 million, which will eat into their cap space this summer. Such a result will not please Cuban. No matter what, Odom will be long gone from this organization. A return to the Lakers is not likely since they can't add him to the roster for a full year after the date he was traded, Dec. 11. Could he land with the Miami Heat, one of his former teams that obviously will be a contender for years to come? Well, if he wants to sign for a fraction of his actual 2012-13 salary, then it's possible. Of course, no team might risk much more than a couple million anyway. How about the team with which he started his career, the Los Angeles Clippers? Possible. Caron Butler is signed for two more years at small forward, but Kenyon Martin and Reggie Evans are free agents.

The Countdown
No. 15 Lamar Odom
No. 14 Coming Tuesday

Jeremy Schaap examines the growing trend of NBA owners speaking out about on-court actions.

The Mavs’ front office doesn’t believe that Tyson Chandler would have made that much of a difference in Dallas this season.

So it’s safe to assume that Mark Cuban and Donnie Nelson aren’t kicking themselves for letting Corey Brewer go for essentially nothing.

Still … it was impossible to watch the skinny swingman light up the Lakers last night and not think that the Mavs could use that kind of youth, athleticism and energy on their roster.

Brewer’s shining moment during his brief time with the Mavericks was sparking a comeback from a 16-point deficit at the Staples Center in Game 1 of the West semifinals sweep of the Lakers. He was even better in Thursday’s Game 6, scoring 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting while playing his typical tenacious defense during 19 minutes in the Nuggets’ series-tying win.

Dallas shipped Brewer to Denver along with Rudy Fernandez, who never reported to the Mavericks, in December, getting a 2016 second-round pick in return. It was a classic salary dump after the Mavs deemed the young wings expendable after signing Vince Carter and trading for Lamar Odom.

The Mavs rid themselves of a malcontent in Fernandez. They got rid of a good guy in Brewer.

But dumping Brewer was all about the money. He had a $3,059,000 salary this season, which would have been doubled for Cuban due to the luxury tax. Brewer is due $3,243,000 next season -- not a bad price at all for a rotation player, but a ton to pay a benchwarmer.

The Mavs believed Brewer would have been a benchwarmer in Dallas. The Nuggets found a niche for him, and he’s earning his money in the playoffs again.

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

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

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

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

* The franchise's first championship in 2011

* Two NBA Finals appearances (2006 and 2011)

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

* 12 consecutive postseason appearances

* Franchise-best 67 wins in 2006-07

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

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

PODCAST
Do the Mavs owe Dirk anything? If the Mavs don't land a big fish this summer would they trade Dirk so he doesn't finish his career like Steve Nash? Ben and Skin weigh in. Listen

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

Welcome to the new era.

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

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

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

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

DALLAS -- Remember the crazed inmate in "Escape from Alcatraz" who chopped off a finger in the workshop? He could lop off another and still count on that hand the current NBA head coaches with a championship ring -- or rings in one case -- appreciating in safety deposit boxes.

Gregg Popovich, Doc Rivers... and Rick Carlisle.

Among 30.

NBA teams simply don't let go of proven head coaches, especially not a year removed from molding a group of title-less veterans into unexpected champs. So why Carlisle is now Day 4 into the offseason without a deal in place to coach the Dallas Mavericks next season and beyond is perplexing, if not entirely nonsensical.

If this is Mark Cuban's stubbornness to stick to his business model of postseason, end-of-contract evaluation, well, that's fine, it's his team. But the season is over.

Cuban might have felt his hand was forced six years ago in showering big dough on the Little General when he signed off on a five-year extension following the 2006 Finals flop, a bizarre meltdown of a series for team, owner and former coach Avery Johnson alike.

The circumstances surrounding Johnson's extension were far different. Johnson was coming off his first full season as an NBA head coach and still had three years left on his deal. Carlisle entered his 10th season as a head coach with the '11 title -- the franchise's first -- in his hip pocket and one year left on his deal.

A slam-dunk extension, right? Obviously not.

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DALLAS -- Before Saturday's Game 4 finale, owner Mark Cuban suggested that there is no plan in place yet as to how the franchise will attack this summer. Of course it's been assumed that the Mavs, who Cuban has made sure will have cap space for the first time in his ownership, will go after a "big fish" free agent, as president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson has termed it.

And, of course, the only truly big fish is local lad Deron Williams.

Cuban said pursuing the "big fish" is not necessarily the case. Dirk Nowitzki, on Sunday during the team's exit interviews, certainly seemed to suggest that going deep-sea fishing is the goal come July 1.

"I don’t know what Mark and Donnie want to do or want to go after. I heard Mark say yesterday that he doesn’t really have a plan," Nowitzki said. "We’ll just have to wait and see, but usually I think that’s the goal, right? You have cap space so you can actually sign somebody decent. Hey, we’ll just have to wait and see and let this sink in."

Nowitzki, has two years left on the deal he signed prior to the 2010-11 season when he gave Cuban a hometown discount to be able to better pursue high-caliber free agents in his twilight years. He has said numerous times this season that he was disappointed that the team did not retain center Tyson Chandler but that he understood why Cuban made that decision.

After getting swept out of the playoffs for the first time in his dozen consecutive postseason appearances, Nowitzki sort of modified his take to reserve judgment until the summer to see if the Mavs indeed lured a "big fish." The 7-footer will enter his 15th year in the league next season and turns 34 in June.

"Concerned? Yeah, we need to get better. That’s my only concern," Nowitzki said. "As the Mavericks, usually we pride ourselves over the last decade not to play for the seventh seed or the eighth seed or just to make it into the playoffs. Our goal was always to be obviously one of the top four in the West, get home court and make a deep run. That was always our goal. It’s not just making it into the playoffs."

Nowitzki said landing a "big fish" is one goal, but that landing an agile, athletic center who can defend and rebound is key. Nowitzki said the blueprint was clear last season with Chandler. Those type of players don't grow on trees in this league and it won't be easy to fortify a front line around Nowitzki.

"My lateral movement ain’t the greatest, so to have a guy next to me that covers a lot of ground, that can guard on the perimeter as well as the post and block shots … Tyson was great at that last year," Nowitzki said. "It’s probably going to stay that way the rest of my career. My lateral movement probably ain’t improving from 34 to 36."