4 Dallas Mavericks

Given Mark Cuban's tempestuous nature, it's fair to ask when the young owner's patience will run out. After all, it's been nearly two years—two years!—since Cuban bought the Mavs and began spreading around his personal charm and his millions of dollars. Personnel changes have abounded. Wins have increased. Deals with foreign players have multiplied. Amenities in the locker room (oversized cubicles, personal CD players, etc.) have continued unabated. Thousands of e-mails have been answered. (Write the main man at mark.cuban@dallasmavs.com.) Still, one wonders if the Mavericks—as entertaining a band as will take the floor in the NBA this season—have enough to vault over Tim Duncan and Chris Webber, never mind Shaquille O'Neal.

"Well, we hope we're in better position to compete with the horses at the top, but a lot can happen over the course of a season," Cuban says. My, that's a measured response. For more, let's go to that cocky firebrand Danny Manning, one of four new additions to Dallas's 10-man rotation. "Of course we have enough," says Manning, now with his sixth team in 14 years. "Now it's a matter of showing it."

Among the things the Mavs will show is a deep bench. "Because of our depth, I guarantee Michael Finley will not lead the league in minutes played again," says coach Don Nelson. "Of course I said that last year." Other strengths? Finley, Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki are a Big Three as good as any since Bird, Parish and McHale hung it up in Boston. The Mavs will play a blood-churning, up-tempo style that will earn them fans in a league often bereft of offensive movement. To take maximum advantage of the new rules, they'll probably employ a variety of zones cooked up in the Mad Nellie laboratory. And they'll have an energetic Cuban hollering at the refs, dissing the other team and exhorting his own charges from a courtside seat in the new American Airlines Arena. (On second thought maybe the Mavs won't be so popular.)

Still, there's nothing to indicate that Cuban's Crusaders did enough in the off-season to propel themselves past the center-dominated powerhouses in the West. The way Nash sees it, though, short of cloning Wilt Chamberlain, there's nothing they could've done. "Nobody has centers like Tim Duncan and Shaquille O'Neal," Nash says, "so what's the use of worrying about it? We went out, made some changes, and we'll see if we can attack them a different way."

Oh, the Mavs have ways. No player in recent history has improved as quickly as the sweet-shooting Nowitzki, whose scoring average has gone from 8.2 to 17.5 to 21.8. Finley has established himself as an All-Star, with 20-plus-points-per-game averages in each of the last four seasons. The energetic Nash, having listened to Nelson's warnings that "you have to shoot more or you'll be sitting," is among the league's elite point guards.

The trio is so good, and mentioned so often collectively, that one wonders if Dallas suffers by not having a clear team leader. Nash says, "It's our team, but if you have to pick one, it's Michael's team." Finley demurs. Nelson says it's Nash's team because he's the point guard. By the end of the season it might well be Nowitzki's team; that's how good and versatile the seven-foot German small forward has become.

The Big Three will also have plenty of help. Acquire 35-year-olds Manning and Tim Hardaway as starters, and you're showing weakness; sign them to come off the bench, and you're deepening your team considerably. Nelson plans to push the tempo again (the Mavs were 35-11 when they scored 100 or more points last season) by frequently going to a small team of Nash, Hardaway, Finley, Nowitzki and either Juwan Howard or Manning.

In a season of change the Mavs would seem to have all kinds of advantages: Low-post scoring will likely not be as important, and Dallas doesn't have much of it anyway. Defensively, the legality of doubling opposing big men even when they don't have the ball would seem to enhance the importance of 7'6" Shawn Bradley. Yes, all signs point to the Mavs being right there...but not exactly there. "I want to win it all every year," says Cuban, "but if we don't, I'll try to fill those holes to get there. Hey, Shaq won't play forever." That sounds nice, but just to be sure, we'll check back later.

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