Though it's more of a formality than anything else, the Mavericks will pick up their option year on guard J.J. Barea ... President Donnie Nelson said the Mavericks will make it official soon. The deadline is the end of the month for teams (or players) to pick up their option years ... Barea, who has become a solid contributor the last two seasons, was signed to a three year deal in 2008 with the third season at the club's option. At $1.8 million next season, he remains one of the best bargains
The new way for teams to recruit a coach in the NBA is to visit the prospective hiree, not the other way around ... To that end, all the top officials from the New Orleans Hornets were in Dallas this morning to meet with Mavericks' assistant coach Dwane Casey about that franchise's open head-coaching position ... New owner Gary Chouest, whose purchase from George Shinn should be official soon, president Hugh Weber and General Manager Jeff Bower all visited Casey, who has been on coach Rick
Mavericks assistant coach Dwane Casey is one of several candidates who will interview for the New Orleans Hornets' head coaching position, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune ... Casey joined the Mavericks shortly after a head coaching stint with the Minnesota Timberwolves from 2005-07 ... Casey's name has also been discussed as a possibility for the Clippers' job and the 76ers' opening ... The Hornets' list of possible candidates also includes former Mavericks coach Avery Johnson, a
The Dallas Mavericks play the Phoenix Suns on Oct. 9 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in an outdoor preseason game in Indian Wells, Calif., and tickets went on sale today. Prices range from $10 to $100. For tickets, you can call 760-200-8000 or get information here ...
Jason Kidd did not come to American Airlines Center today for the Mavericks' end-of-season meetings and locker clean out ... No reason was given for his absence, so far, but coach Rick Carlisle and president Donnie Nelson have yet to address the media ... --Eddie Sefko ...
Jason Terry, who had said after Game 5, "No question, we're coming back," was partially right ... The Mavericks are back in Dallas as I type. They landed about 12:30 a.m. But what Terry really meant after Game 5 was that the Mavericks were "coming back" for Game 7 on Saturday. Obviously, that isn't happening ... So how does Terry sum up a season that ended with another first-round playoff loss? ... "To me, it's a failure if you don't win a championship," he said. "We failed. That was our goal.
As you can imagine, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wasn't in the best of moods after the Game 6 loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday night ended the team's season in the first round of the NBA playoffs yet again ... Cuban spent several minutes in a small room, sitting in a chair with his head down following the loss. Finally, he emerged and wasn't happy at a TNT cameraman in the locker room who had taped Cuban with his head down in the small room. Cuban asked a Mavericks media relations
SAN ANTONIO _ Closing time came early for the Mavericks, just like it has most seasons lately ... This time, they fought the bouncers to the bitter end. But they still got pitched out the playoff door by the San Antonio Spurs ... The Mavericks fought as hard as they have all season, but a hard-edged San Antonio defense at crunch time and another large game by that unknown Spur George Hill doomed the Mavericks' season ... The Mavericks went down 97-87 Thursday night at AT&T Center. The Spurs had
OKLAHOMA CITY _ The wake of the huge success of the All-Star Game has the wheels in Mark Cuban's head turning, wondering if the cavernous venue might make a good home for select Mavericks' home playoff or regular-season games ... Cuban said before Tuesday's game against Oklahoma City that he's planning on doing his due diligence to see if playing an occasional game in Arlington could be feasible ... "If we can make the economics work, we'd look at having a regular season or a playoff game over
Dallas Morning News columnist Tim Cowlishaw shared his thoughts about the Mavericks' big trade and whether or not the team could land LeBron James or a big free agent in the off-season ... Some highlights of Cowlishaw's thoughts: ... On the downsides of the trade: "I don't think it seems too good to be true. If you're looking for the downside, well, Butler's numbers are pretty much what Howard gave this team when he was at his best -- not this season, obviously. And Howard still played a fair