ESPN

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

PODCAST
ESPN's Stephen A. Smith chimes in on the Dallas Mavericks' season, their free agency plans and more. Listen

Brandan Wright is easily the most athletic big man the Dallas Mavericks have put on the floor since ... well, Tyson Chandler. Wright, the Human Pogo Stick or the Human Exclamation Point as a certain colleague of mine dubbed him this season, brought a high level of energy and excitement -- and a higher level of two-handed alley-oop slams -- as he earned more and more playing time.

The former lottery pick of the Golden State Warriors provided two areas that the Mavs' sorely lacked and will look to gain more of this offseasaon -- youth, he's only 24, and athleticism. He's a high-motor big man who can run the floor. He has soft hands and is an impeccable finisher around the rim with a nice array of moves -- he boasted a team-best 61.8 shooting percentage.

The biggest issue with Wright is where he fits. His natural position is power forward, but coach Rick Carslisle converted him to center because Dallas obviously has Dirk Nowitzki entrenched there and at the time they believed Lamar Odom would fill the bill when Nowitzki sat. At center, Wright started out on the depth chart behind Brendan Haywood and Ian Mahinmi, but as the season wore on the spindly-framed Wright at times logged more minutes than the others.

Until the playoffs.

And that's the conundrum with Wright. He hasn't developed a mid-range game to be able to play power forward effectively in Dallas' offense and he's not physically strong enough to consistently defend the center position. When he got his brief chance to play in the first round against Oklahoma City he had a serious case of butterfingers and the moment, the first playoff action of his career, seemed a bit too big. He played a total of 26 minutes in the series with a high of eight in the Game 3 blowout.

But at less than $1 million last season and next (assuming the Mavs pick up the team option), Wright is cheap, cheap labor and a talent worth trying to develop for the long run. In fact, he could be a talent the Mavs must develop for significant minutes next season because the center position at the moment is in total chaos.

Haywood is a prime candidate for the amnesty provision and Mahinmi is a free agent with no guarantee that he'll be back. Dallas won't dare go into the regular season with Wright as its primary man to patrol the paint, but he could certainly be relied upon to become a prime player.

The Countdown winds down a second week with No. 6...

BRANDAN WRIGHT
Pos.: C/PF
Ht./Wt.: 6-foot-10, 210
Experience: 4 years
Age: 24 (Oct. 5, 1987)
2011-12 stats: 6.9 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 16.1 mpg, 49 G
Contract status: Team option for next season
2011-12 salary: $915,852
2012-13 salary: $947,907

His story: Perseverance has Wright on the right track to remove his name from the long list of lottery busts and onto a more flattering one of productive rotation players. Drafted eighth overall in 2007 by Charlotte and traded to Golden State for Jason Richardson, Wright was buried on Don Nelson's bench and then injured his shoulder during an October 2009 practice. Surgery sidelined him the entire season and the next year the Warriors traded Wright to the New Jersey Nets. In his first three seasons, Wright played in 114 games so the 49 he got in this season was something of a landmark, a career-high he hopes to build upon. He's already been busy back in the gym, proving it by tweeting pictures. "I worked really hard to get back where I am," Wright said at the end of the season. "I'm blessed to have the opportunity to heal up from those injuries. This is a process and you’ve got to stick with it. When you start thinking like that (negatively), it's easy to start slacking off with rehab or getting back to where you want to be."

His outlook: Wright has to feel good that the Mavs will pick up his option (it would certainly seem to be a no-brainer). The real question is whether Carlisle will continue to try to mold him into a center or if power forward can be an option now that Odom is out of the picture and Shawn Marion (if he returns) might seem better off exclusively, or close to exclusively, at small forward. Wright believes he can develop a consistent mid-range jumper that could force defenses to extend out, providing the spacing the Mavs need to operate their halfcourt sets. He also needs to add muscle to his 210-pound frame (for a bit of reference, 6-5 guard Dominique Jones weighs 215 pounds) so he can hold his ground defensively at either the 4 or 5. If he can do that and sharpen his jumper, combined with his vertical jump and ability to finish at the rim, Wright could eventually live up to his lottery-pick status.

No. 15 Lamar Odom
No. 14 Brian Cardinal
No. 13 Yi Jianlian
No. 12 Dominique Jones
No. 11 Brendan Haywood
No. 10 Kelenna Azubuike
No. 9 Ian Mahinmi
No. 8 Vince Carter
No. 7 Rodrigue Beaubois
No. 6 Brandan Wright
No. 5 Coming Monday

For the 12th consecutive season -- and 12th time in his 14-year career -- Dirk Nowitzki has been selected to the All-NBA team. Nowitzki, who statistically did not have a season up to his standards, was still impressive enough to garner a spot on the third team.

It's his third career selection to the All-NBA third team and first since the 2003-04 season. The Dallas Mavericks' all-time scoring leader was a first- or second-team All-NBA selection in each of the past seven seasons.

"It is an honor to make the All-NBA team again,” Nowitzki said in a statement released by the team. "To be named among the best players in this league is always still very humbling for me. I also appreciate the opportunity to represent my teammates and the Mavericks organization on this list."

LeBron James and Kevin Durant were named to the first team at forward, with Kevin Love and Blake Griffin receiving second-team recognition. Carmelo Anthony joined Nowitzki on the third team. Former Mavs center and current New York Knicks star Tyson Chandler was also named to the third team. (complete list is below).

Nowitzki was the NBA’s eighth-leading scorer (21.6 ppg) during the regular season. He and Kobe Bryant are the only two NBA players to be named to an All-NBA team each of the past 12 seasons. Nowitzki remains the only Mavs player in franchise history to be named All-NBA first team (four times: 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2008-09).

This season, Nowitzki moved into the top 20 on the NBA’s all-time scoring list, surpassing Robert Parish and Charles Barkley for 19^th place. He also ranks third in scoring among active players behind Bryant and Kevin Garnett.

In four postseason games against Oklahoma City , Nowitzki averaged 26.8 points, 6.3 rebounds, 1.8 assists in 38.5 minutes.

Shawn Marion finished eighth in media voting for NBA Defensive Player of the Year. NBA coaches apparently didn't buy into the hype.

Marion didn't make the first or second All-Defensive teams, as voted on by the league's 30 coaches, and garnered just three votes overall and no votes for the first team.

The Dallas Mavericks'' 6-foot-7 defensive stopper who was often asked to guard four positions this season and at times the league's top point guards, finished 14th in the "other players receiving votes" category.

Dallas coach Rick Carlisle spent much of the second half of the season campaigning for Marion to be considered a top candidate for Defensive Player of the Year, an award former Mavs center Tyson Chandler won. Interestingly, the coaches (who can't vote for their own players) selected Chandler to the second team with Dwight Howard garnering first-team recognition.

Oklahoma City Thunder forward Serge Ibaka, far and away the league leader in blocks, earned first-team recognition after finishing second in Defensive Player of the Year voting.

Here are the All-Defensive teams:

FIRST
F LeBron James, Miami
F Serge Ibaka, OKC
C Dwight Howard, Orlando
G Chris Paul, Los Angeles Clippers
G Tony Allen, Memphis

SECOND
F Kevin Garnett, Boston
F Luol Deng, Chicago
C Tyson Chandler, New York
G Rajon Rondo, Boston
G Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles Lakers

Other players receiving votes, with point totals (First Team votes in parentheses): Andre Iguodala, Philadelphia, 19 (4); Joakim Noah, Chicago, 14; Iman Shumpert, New York, 13 (4); Paul George, Indiana, 10 (2); Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City, 9 (2); Josh Smith, Atlanta, 8 (2); Dwyane Wade, Miami, 5 (1); Thabo Sefolosha, Oklahoma City, 5 (1); Grant Hill, Phoenix, 5 (1); Tim Duncan, San Antonio, 5 (1); Avery Bradley, Boston, 3 (1); Marc Gasol, Memphis, 3 (1); Metta World Peace, L.A. Lakers, 3; Shawn Marion, Dallas, 3; Joe Johnson, Atlanta, 2, (1); Mike Conley, Memphis, 2; Derrick Rose, Chicago, 1; Jrue Holiday, Philadelphia, 1; Carlos Boozer, Chicago, 1; Luc Mbah a Moute, Milwaukee, 1.

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

DALLAS -- Whether Rick Carlisle returns to the Dallas Mavericks next season or takes his coaching chops somewhere else, no one can take away the day he raised the banner to the rafters.

PODCAST
Coop and Nate discuss the end of the Mavs' season and look ahead to what's next for the team. Listen

"It was great," Carlisle said during Sunday's exit interviews when he still kept talk of his contract status under wraps. "The raising of the banner is one of the most emotional moments I’ve had in 28 years in this league. Really, it’s hard for me to explain, but when I walked out there with my daughter, it was the beginning of a season no one believed was going to happen [because of the lockout], and the banner was there ready to be raised. I became very emotional and I was choked up about it, for a lot of reasons.

"Part of it is the personal journey you go through during that period of time and you think about the opportunity you were given to come into that situation and how grateful that you are, and also the great players you had to work with. And again, probably the foremost thing was just the experience that the fans got to go through when we were able to win it that year."

The lockout provided the Mavs the rare opportunity for multiple celebrations. They raised the banner before the season opener Dec. 25 and then had the ring ceremony a month later when J.J. Barea and the Minnesota Timberwolves rolled through town. Then there still several more more ring deliveries when departed members of the title team like Tyson Chandler, Caron Butler and DeShawn Stevenson came in with their new teams.

During each ceremony, Carlisle brought the player to midcourt with a heartfelt introduction.

"That was a great moment, giving the guys their rings was a great moment," Carlisle said. "It was just one of those years, every time we handed out rings, we ended up losing games. Not every time, what was it two out of four? Thank God Butler missed that shot. I never would have heard the end of that in a text message from him."

Butler nearly hit a game-winning 3-pointer in his return to the AAC with the Clippers. Hard to believe just 11 months ago, Butler, unable to play despite his frantic rehab to get back on the floor, was on the stage on Miami's home floor raising the championship trophy.

Now Butler has the best chance of any of the title-team Mavs to advance to the second round. And the Mavs have plenty of time to watch.

"Time goes by fast and it doesn’t seem like 11 months ago," Carlisle said. But look, as great as the championship run was, there always comes a time when you have to look forward and that’s where things are at now. I look at this summer for this franchise as a summer of opportunity and excitement, and I don’t think anybody should look at it any differently."

DALLAS -- Mavs president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson, perhaps sick of hearing that the franchise made a mistake by not re-signing center Tyson Chandler, suggested that the big man wouldn't have made much of a difference for Dallas this season.

In Nelson's opinion, the Mavs still wouldn't have been good enough to get past the young, improved Oklahoma City squad that just dismissed the defending champions with a first-round sweep.

"There’s no fans bigger of Tyson Chandler than the guys in that locker room and the guys in the management staff," Nelson said. "We understand what he brings to the table. But we also would not have won that series had he been here. We might have won more games, we might have put ourselves in a better position, but there’s no question that they’re a better team.

"We’d be sitting here today and you guys would be telling me, ‘Man, you guys are all locked up with no place to go and no flexibility, blah, blah, blah.' So it’s just what it is."

Nelson's take is not a consensus opinion throughout the organization. Shawn Marion's eyebrows shot up above his designer shades when informed that Nelson didn't think Chandler could have made a difference in the series.

"He really just said that?" Marion asked. "Tyson does things out there a lot of guys don't do in this league. Even if he's not scoring all the time, but it's just his presence out there, his demeanor, it can carry to wins."

Could it have carried to four wins in a series over this season's Thunder? We'll never know, but the Mavs' front office doesn't think so.

DALLAS -- Last week Charles Barkley joined ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM's Galloway & Co. and said adding Deron Williams alone to complement Dirk Nowitzki won't be enough to return the Dallas Mavericks among the Western Conference contenders.

Barkley said Nowitzki needs a big man in the middle.

After the Mavs went from championship to swept Saturday at the hands of the young Oklahoma City Thunder, Jason Terry, who might not be back with the team after eight seasons, said Nowitzki has plenty left in the tank, but that the Mavs must get him interior help.

"Dirk's so wonderfully amazing with his ability to play the game at high level night in and night out with the defenses that he faces," Terry said. "But, again, for Dirk to be successful and go to where we went to last year he has to have an active big to play alongside him. He has to. And he knows it. So, if he's involved in any kind of decisions I know that's what he's going to be looking for."

The comments by Barkley and Terry certainly sound like indictments of Mavs starting center Brendan Haywood, who had a miserable series and still has three guaranteed years and some $28 million remaining on his contract.

Haywood played a series-high 25 minutes, most of which came after Thunder center Kendrick Perkins left in the first quarter with a right hip strain. Yet, the 7-foot Haywood could only muster four points and four rebounds. He played a total of 36 minutes in the first three games and was benched to start the second half in Games 2 and 3.

In Game 4, the Mavs' interior defense was laughable, particularly in the fourth quarter when the Thunder scored 20 of their 35 points in the paint with the majority coming from James Harden. He drove past Dallas' guards at will and met little resistance as he attacked the lane and then the rim for 15 fourth-quarter points. He scored one fewer point in the quarter than the entire Mavs team.

Haywood played just the first 4:33 of the fourth quarter, long enough for Harden to put in six points and to be whistled for an offensive foul away from the ball. Ian Mahinmi finished out the game with little effectiveness on the defensive end to slow Harden. Mahinmi, who will become a free agent, did have 10 points and five rebounds in 14 minutes.

Because of his uninspired play during this brief series, the man who backed up Tyson Chandler last season and played just 25 minutes in the NBA Finals because of a hip injury sustained in Game 2 could fall victim to the amnesty clause this summer. It would allow the Mavs to rid their books of Haywood's remaining contract heading into next season. Shawn Marion is also a candidate for the amnesty clause, but the forward's value, particularly on the defensive end this season, can not be understated.

Although Carlisle twice went to Mahinmi to start the second half, the coach kept Haywood in the starting lineup all four games. It's uncertain at the moment if Haywood will be back in the starting lineup next season -- or back at all.

Here's three more things to consider as the Mavs head into a long offseason:

1. Half man, half awful: Vince Carter certainly had some moments this season and he even delivered a vintage jam in Game 4. But all in all, the Carter experiment didn't pan out. He had an abysmal series shooting the basketball. He made 3-of-10 shots in Game 4 and for the series he made 12-of-41 shots (29.3 percent). Carter did make 2-of-3 buckets from beyond the arc on Saturday, but he was 3-of-10 for the series. Carter is likely one of the few players that will return next season. He's under contract for the next two seasons.

2. Quiet Delonte West: He certainly provided Mavs fans with some entertaining play and antics, both on and off the court, this season, but his playoff series didn't leave much of a mark. West came off the bench for the first time in the series in Game 4 and had just two points and three assists in 18 minutes. West endured the unfortunate dislocation and fracture of his right ring finger in February and missed six weeks. As a free-agent-to-be, West said he hopes he's proven to the league that he's trustworthy of signing a multi-year deal. If that is the case, he will likely be signing somewhere other than Dallas.

3. What's next for Roddy B?: Rodrigue Beaubois played a grand total of 12 minutes in the four-game sweep. He got into Game 2 as something of an emergency sub when the Mavs fell behind by 16 points in the second quarter. It's been another rough season for third-year guard after coming back from a second foot surgery last summer. He said he can't be sure he'll be back with the Mavs -- he could be trade bait to create cap room if needed -- but Beaubois is excited to be healthy for the first time in three summers and capable of working out and working on his game. With the possibility that Terry, Jason Kidd and West won't be back, there could be real opportunity for Beaubois if the Mavs still believe he can be a contributor to the future of the franchise.

DALLAS -- If guard Jason Terry has played his final game with the Dallas Mavericks, he will leave feeling he and the remaining members of the championship team didn't get a fair shot to repeat.

Terry was the most vocal Mavs player throughout the season regarding owner Mark Cuban's decision not to re-sign key free agents from last season's championship team because of changes to the collective bargaining agreement. After being swept out of the first round by the rising Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday night, Terry, a free-agent-to-be for the first time in his career, said the personnel on this team wasn't good enough to contend.

"Every year I’ve been on the Mavericks team and we’ve had a realistic chance, it’s because of the personnel," Terry said. "Look at your personnel and what they surround you with, your core nucleus, and you can see if you have a realistic shot. For us, it was a long shot. Nobody’s going to downplay that at all. If you look at our roster to a man, it was a long shot this year. But we still made the playoffs, but we just didn’t have enough."

Terry said Cuban knows that this team didn't have a fighting chance to contend.

"Yeah, he knows it, the city knows, we all know it as players," Terry said. "But with the team we have, the nucleus we have, the core group of guys, we feel like we can beat anybody, that’s just us as competitors. But, again, you have to have the personnel. You have to have the personnel to get it done."

Cuban maintained from early in the season to as recently as right before the playoffs that this team was better than the one that bulldozed through the Trail Blazers, Lakers, Thunder and Heat to win the franchise's first title in 31 seasons. Cuban, citing changes to the CBA that focused his team-building strategy on cap space for the coming summer, did not bring back defensive-minded center and team leader Tyson Chandler, penetrating point guard J.J. Barea and gritty defender and 3-point shooter DeShawn Stevenson, among others.

Prior to Saturday's Game 4, Cuban said he had no regrets about not bringing back the title team and said he fielded the best possible team he could given the constraints of the new CBA.

The Mavs' key acquisitions included Vince Carter in the twilight of his career and Lamar Odom, whose emotional baggage got the best of him and forced Cuban to kick him off the team.

Asked if he believed last year's title team would have had a legitimate shot to repeat if left intact, Terry initially said he didn't know before quickly changing his tune.

"I do. Why not?" Terry said. "That’s the team I wanted, so I believe we’d be just as good as anybody. But you can hope and wish and think about that all you want, but the reality of it is the season’s over and we’ve got the future to look forward to. Thank God for my health and my family."

Terry received support from longtime teammate Dirk Nowitzki after the game. Nowitzki has mostly toed the company line when it came to talking about not bringing back the team.

“Knowing as players, we were for sure disappointed in December in free agency when we didn’t get the same team back,” Nowitzki said. “That’s for sure.”

Now Terry, after eight seasons in Dallas, and the Mavs head toward a crossroads this summer. Terry, 34, will likely be seeking a new home to end his career as the Mavs face an overhaul of the roster and their most uncertain future in Cuban's dozen years as owner.

"You know we like to make changes year-in and year-out, but not a complete overhaul," Terry said. "That’s what this is going to be, an entire different ballclub I would expect. But, the formula is there, the formula’s there. We set the bar very high last year with what we did and what we accomplished. They know the formula and it’s on them to put it back together."

Knicks center Tyson Chandler won the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year award Wednesday after finishing third in voting a year ago with the Mavericks.

Shawn Marion, whom the Mavs trumpeted as a legitimate candidate for the better part of the season, finished in eighth place, garnering two first-place votes, two seconds and one third. Oklahoma City Thunder forward Serge Ibaka, far-and-away the league leader in blocks, placed second with 41 first-place votes, just four fewer than Chandler.

Injured Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard saw his three-year run come to an end. He finished third.

DALLAS -- Tyson Chandler is the league's Defensive Player of the Year. Shawn Marion is not.

"I thought Marion was deserving, yeah," said Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle, who spent the better part of the second half of the season campaigning on his versatile small forward's behalf. "But hey, Tyson did a terrific job for New York and really helped change a lot of what they were doing, so defensively he’s deserving. There were a lot of guys deserving of consideration, but I felt Marion, because of the diversity of which he’s been doing it all year, guarding four, five positions, should have been in the conversation."

The Knicks last season ranked 22nd in defensive efficiency, a measure of points allowed per 100 possessions. With Chandler, obtained via a three-team sign-and-trade from the Mavs in the offseason, the Knicks surged to fifth in defensive efficiency, thanks largely to Chandler.

The Mavs credited the 7-foot-1 Chandler with changing the franchise's defensive culture, arguably the biggest key to winning last season's championship.

"Happy for him," said Dirk Nowitzki, who was so quick last season to tab Chandler as the team's MVP. "He deserves all the credit he gets. Last year what he did here, turning the team around and clog up all the holes that me and Jet (Jason Terry) create on defense, he did a great job for us and he was a big part of winning it all, so I’m happy for him and we wish him nothing but the best."

When the voting is announced it will be seen if Marion strong season in which he guarded virtually every position on the floor and is always tasked with guarding the opponent's top scorer. Through two first-round playoff games against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Marion has limited league scoring champ Kevin Durant to 35-percent shooting.

The Mavs maintained their strong defensive ratings for much of this season and Carlisle has largely credited Marion's stellar play for keeping it there despite Chandler moving on.

"I thought he had a great case," Nowitzki said of Marion's DPOY credentials. "You never say this guy is going to win this and this, it just doesn't happen this way in this league, but 'Trix is an all-around defensive weapon. He’s guarded 1s, 2s, 3s and 4s this year. He’s long, he can move his feet, contest shots, he's strong enough to guard some 4s. So, to us, he’s definitely our defensive player of the year."

OKLAHOMA CITY – Tyson Chandler’s rim-protecting presence played a major role in the Mavericks’ remarkable ability to finish games strong during the team’s title run. Now, the Mavs aren’t sure which center will be on the floor during crunch time on a game-to-game basis.

PODCAST
Coop and Nate break down the Mavs' Game 1 loss and discuss what needs to happen in Game 2 for the Mavs to equalize the series. Listen

Brendan Haywood, Ian Mahinmi and Brandan Wright have all been part of the closing lineup this season, which might explain why Dallas has gone from dominant to mediocre in such situations this season.

“Sometimes those are gut decisions,” Carlisle said. “Sometimes you lay them out and have a plan that you have in mind. All year long, it’s been kind of a feel thing with those guys.”

Wright played a grand total of 18 seconds in the fourth quarter. On the first defensive possession after he checked into the game, Wright committed a touch foul on Russell Westbrook’s game-tying and-1 layup and was immediately benched.

The Mavs built a seven-point lead after Haywood, the Mavs’ starter and best defensive center, replaced Wright. However, Carlisle opted to go with the more offensively skilled Mahinmi with 2:16 remaining, a decision that can be second-guessed after Dallas didn’t score a field goal the remainder of the game while the Thunder stole the win with a 12-4 closing run.

It’s a decision Carlisle didn’t have to make last season.

OKLAHOMA CITY – It takes a lot more than one good punch to knock out a champion.

Make no mistake, this one hurt the Mavericks. They had Game 1 stolen on the road, leading by seven points with three minutes remaining, before they let it slip away. Or before the Thunder seized the game, depending on one’s perspective.

Either way, Dallas is dealing with a 1-0 series deficit after Kevin Durant’s game-winning 15-footer bounced in the bucket. How will the Mavs respond?

“We’re going to keep coming at these guys,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “Trust me, we’re going to keep coming at them.

“We have a tough-minded team. We have a locker room full of champions and these guys have big heart. We put ourselves in a strong position tonight and we didn’t get it done. It’s on us. It’s on us. But we will not be deterred. We’re going to keep coming back at these guys. That’s what we have to do.”

The Mavs came back strong after every tough loss during their title run last year.

They didn’t let a historic collapse in the Rose Garden linger after the blew a 23-point lead in the second half against the Trail Blazers, evening the first-round series after four games. That was Portland’s last win of the series.

They answered Oklahoma City’s Game 2 win at the American Airlines Center by winning the final three games of the West finals.

They twice trailed in the NBA Finals, losing Games 1 and 3 to the Heat, but were celebrating at Miami Beach’s Club Liv after Game 6.

Granted, some key members of that team departed Dallas after the lockout, including emotional leader Tyson Chandler. But the majority of the Mavs’ rotation owns a championship ring, and newcomers Delonte West and Vince Carter have significant playoff experience.

“If a team can recover from it,” Dirk Nowitzki said of such a disappointing loss, “it’s an experienced one.”

DALLAS – Mark Cuban raised some eyebrows when he claimed that these Mavericks could be better than last season’s championship team, a suggestion he first made after the revamped Mavs stumbled to an 0-3 start.

Cuban is sticking to his guns as the Mavs, whose decision to let Tyson Chandler, J.J. Barea, Caron Butler and DeShawn Stevenson walk in free agency seems like distant memories, prepare for the playoffs.

“I think if you look at matchups, player by player, yeah,” Cuban said when asked whether he still believed these Mavs could be better than last year’s title team. “I mean, obviously we wanted one more piece that I thought we would have, but I still think we do (have a better team).”

That one more piece, of course, would be Lamar Odom. In December, Cuban believed that Odom would be a versatile weapon that would add dimensions to the Dallas offense that the Mavs have never had. In April, after Cuban finally gave up the fight to get Odom to commit to the Mavs, president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson compared counting on Odom to “going to war with wet gunpowder.”

Cuban acknowledges that the Mavs have taken a step back at center with Brendan Haywood replacing Chandler in the starting lineup. It’d be insane to argue otherwise, but Cuban insists it hasn’t been a drastic dropoff.

“He’s not Tyson in a lot of ways, but there’s some things that Tyson can’t do that Wood can do,” Cuban said. “I think not quite a push there, but I think Wood’s done a good job. And I think adding Vince [Carter], adding Delonte [West] gave us dimensions that we didn’t have last year. We’ve still got our big go-to guys.”

The Mavs’ offense has slipped drastically despite those new dimensions. The Mavs rank 21st in the NBA in offensive efficiency, down from eighth last season. They’ve managed to maintain their defensive efficiency from last season, ranking eighth both years.

When the Mavs allowed Chandler to sign with the Knicks, the conventional wisdom was that losing the team’s emotional leader and defensive anchor would be a crushing blow to the Dallas defense that improved so significantly last season. Chandler’s offensive impact as a tremendous screen-setter, finisher and offensive rebounder was overlooked but has been missed more.

The Mavs have by far the worst winning percentage (.554) of any full season during Cuban’s 12-year ownership tenure. At 36-29, they’ve lost more games in this lockout-condensed campaign than they did during the 82-game 2010-11 regular season. If the Mavs lose the regular-season finale in Atlanta, they’ll match the title team’s loss total from the regular season and playoffs combined.

Cuban is well aware of those facts. He just doesn’t consider the results of this irregular season – “dirty data,” he labeled it months ago – to be a true test of a team’s quality or a sign of things to come in the playoffs.

“Well, this isn’t quite a normal season,” Cuban said. “I’ll continue to say what I said, and you guys can reference that every team in the league has had a rough patch. When you have Wood miss [12 games], [Jason] Kidd miss [17] games out of 66, Dirk [Nowitzki] miss games, the L.O. drama, this isn’t a normal season. I’ve been pretty darn consistent.”

The Mavs have been pretty darn inconsistent. Cuban is counting on that to change when the schedule slows down to a normal pace and the games really count.

A scout's take on the Mavs, from Marc Stein's ESPN.com Weekend Dime, which is required weekly NBA reading:

"I see them as the Orlando of the West right now. Could they knock the Thunder off in Round 2? Sure. They could pull that off. But to battle through three rounds to get back to the Finals? I have my doubts.

"They're dangerous, don't get me wrong. They did win the championship last year. But I just haven't seen the support for Dirk [Nowitzki] and [Jason] Terry. There's a lot of pressure on those guys to perform. If they're a little bit off, Dallas starts to look ordinary.

"Rick [Carlisle] has them very, very well prepared defensively. They haven't missed a beat without Tyson Chandler and that's a real credit to the players and the coaching staff. I [also] really like the way Rick puts his players in position to make plays. He's an outstanding half-court coach. But I haven't seen the same hunger [as last season]. I don't think there's enough gas left in the tank. Dirk and Terry need some help.

"I thought [Lamar] Odom would be helping more by now. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, but he just doesn't look interested. Early on you could understand that there was some adjustment involved. And he seems like a pretty sensitive guy. But he just hasn't turned the corner. Whether it's because he's got other priorities in his life or the transition [from the Lakers to Dallas] has been too much, he doesn't look fully invested in the program."

DALLAS – Linsanity gained lot of believers the last time the Knicks faced the Mavericks.

There has only been one point guard to really light up the Mavs since Shawn Marion became the primary defender of that position. That was Lin, who had 28 points and 14 assists to lead the Knicks to a win over the defending champions in a nationally televised Sunday afternoon matinee at Madison Square Garden last month.

Tyson Chandler laughed after the game when he recalled how his former Mavericks teammates told him they had a plan to shut down Lin, the sudden phenom.

“I guess they were dead wrong in the scouting report,” Chandler said.

Or maybe Marion just had dead legs, which he admitted was a major issue the next week.

We also might not see the Lin-Matrix matchup nearly as much this game. Rodrigue Beaubois, who was on a personal leave during the Mavs’ trip to New York, will take his turns guarding his former summer league teammate. And Carmelo Anthony is back for the Knicks, so Marion might spend most of the night defending the perennial All-Star small forward.

“That's my guess,” Lin said of the Melo assignment for Marion. “We’ll just be ready for whatever they throw out at us. I think he’s a great defender. I actually didn’t think he did a bad job. He forced me into a lot of tough shots. I know he got some fouls and a lot of times he was attacking the pick, it wasn’t necessarily him. Whatever they throw at us we have to be ready for.”

The Mavs better be more ready for Lin than they were last month.

Records: Mavs (22-17); Knicks (18-19)

When: 7:30 p.m.

Where: American Airlines Center

TV: FSSW/NBA TV

Radio: ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM; 1270 AM (Spanish)

What to watch: The Mavs, losers of five of their last six games, desperately need a win but might not have much gas in their tank after last night’s down-to-the-wire loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Dirk Nowitzki played 38 minutes, Jason Terry 37 and Marion 36. Will they have enough life in their legs to finish strong if this game goes down to the wire? And can the Mavs figure out how to execute down the stretch even if the energy is there? They haven’t been good in clutch situations all season and have been awful lately, a reversal of the trend during their title run.

Key matchup: Mavs bench vs. Knicks bench – Dallas prides itself in being one of the deepest teams in the league, but the Knicks bench destroyed the Mavs bench last month at Madison Square Garden. Steve Novak lit it up for 14 points in 23 minutes. J.R. Smith had 15 points in his Knicks debut. Lamar Odom was especially dreadful for the Mavs, who were outscored by 17 in Odom’s 20 minutes. The Mavs’ bench is shorter than usual because of injuries, but there’s no reason the Knicks' reserves should be a dominant force.

Injuries: Mavs – C Brendan Haywood (sprained left ankle) is questionable; G Delonte West (fractured right ring finger) is out; C/PF Brandan Wright (concussion) is out. Knicks – G/F Bill Walker (elbow) is out.

Up next: Mavs at Phoenix Suns, 9:30 p.m., Thursday