DALLAS -- Here are five observations of the Dallas Mavericks from training camp:

	Steve Nash was a workout warrior over the summer, not a gym rat.

1. Don't expect a fast start from Steve Nash. Don't expect a second straight 82-game season out of him, either. For the first time, Nash totally swore off basketball in the summer and went for the Gwen Stefani abs program instead. After a summer of fitness work, Nash is down in the 170s in weight and determined to maintain his strength and stamina into May and June. The Mavericks, though, are intent on holding Nash out of the occasional game whether he's healthy or not, because playing the full 82 left him looking spent by the time Dallas made it to Round 2. Another side effect of the fitness fascination: Nash isn't stroking the ball like he can yet, in spite of his usual diet of nighttime shooting sessions after morning practices. "I look like I haven't played basketball in five months, which is true," Nash said. "But I feel better and stronger than I ever have. It's just a matter of getting my rhythm back. I think it's better to be at my best in April than in October." Nash and fellow Mavericks stalwarts Dirk Nowitzki and Michael Finley are interested to see whether coach Don Nelson really intends to make good on his annual proclamation about scaling their minutes back. "This time, I think he's serious," Nowitzki said. "He's said it to us three times already." Finley, to be fair, did drop two minutes on average last season (to 10th in the league) after ranking right at the top for four straight seasons.

2. Can you win too many games by 10 points or more? To a degree, the Mavericks think so. Thirty-one of Dallas' 57 wins last season came by margins of at least 10 points, leading to the in-house feeling that the Mavericks develop bad playoff habits because of their free-scoring ways in the regular season. The thinking is that the Mavericks routinely build even bigger leads that they don't worry about protecting because they simply keep scoring and still win comfortably. Of course, that approach -- exacerbated by their defensive frailties to start with -- makes it considerably tougher to clamp down when they have to in the playoffs, when games are rarely decided by 10-point margins. The coaches are pleading for a 48-minute focus this season, because Dallas simply wasn't serious about defense like it had been the previous season.

3. Maybe nowhere else but Dallas would Shawn Bradley get another chance. From his teammates, that is. The eye-rolling from fellow Mavericks was openly evident during games for the first time last season, when Bradley (albeit after some offseason knee trouble) showed up for training camp paunchy, believe it or not. Locker-room chemistry, however, is one of the Mavericks' best assets. And the forgiving inhabitants have given Bradley a (relatively) clean slate after seeing him work all summer.

4. No one in the Mavericks' inner circle expects Nelson to stop coaching at season's end, even though his contract calls for only one more season (this one) of X-and-O work before a full-time move to general manager. As long as progress isn't stifled, Cuban is content to re-evaluate every offseason and let Nelson keep coaching as long as he wants. Nelson's overall contract runs for eight more years after this season, and Cuban has said repeatedly that he doesn't care about titles so long as Nellie stays involved. In the Mavericks' new configuration, a GM-only role wouldn't figure to be very fulfilling for Nelson any more, since Cuban and rookie president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson also handle a good chunk of the GM duties. Before Cuban arrived 2½ years ago, Nelson remarked that "I need to be coaching a 50-win team at my age." Now, at 62, he has one. And with an army of assistant coaches around him, Nelson apparently intends to coach as long as he enjoys it. The only real change in this area is that Cuban no longer speaks of the need to establish a formal "plan of succession." Cuban simply says he has plenty of in-house options -- Donnie Nelson, Del Harris and Sidney Moncrief for starters, with perhaps even Rolando Blackman or Brad Davis or Derek Harper (who's back with the club as a TV analyst) as future prospects -- when Nellie wants to stop. Cuban will also certainly consider the available big coaching names when the time comes.

5. With the Mavericks, at least since the Nelsons and Cuban became a unit, you always expect a February blockbuster. There was Juwan Howard. Then Nick Van Exel and Raef LaFrentz. So who's next? Cuban's stance, for now, is that "I hope we don't need (to make) one." Management vowed after the Sacramento series to keep the core together and, so far, it has. Of course, Van Exel still expects to be the next one dealt -- and not just because the New York media churns out a daily Van Exel-for-Latrell Sprewell scenario. "I want to be here, definitely," Van Exel said. "But I'm just a realist, knowing that they need a bigger presence, a mean guy inside, to get to the next level." If they do end up moving Van Exel, it won't be because of chemistry concerns; he fits in well here and helps ease the burden on Nash. To give that up, the Mavericks' big chip for the next February on the calendar, they're going to have get something that clearly advances the program. Is that Sprewell? A swingman? I don't see it.

Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. E-mail him at marc.stein@espn3.com.