Dallas Mavericks instructed to mingle
Johnson tells ex-Nets to sit apart during team lunch on road
01:05 AM CST on Monday, February 25, 2008
By EDDIE SEFKO / The Dallas Morning News
esefko@dallasnews.com
MINNEAPOLIS – Back in grade school, the teacher sometimes made you sit boy-girl-boy-girl. And while it may have been a little uncomfortable at the start, everybody eventually got used to being around each other.
So at the Dallas Mavericks' team lunch on Saturday at a Minneapolis restaurant, the teacher had to change the seating chart.
Avery Johnson wanted to make sure to break up a certain trio.
"We had the three Nets sitting together," Jason Kidd said, "so he kind of told us to break that up and go talk to somebody else.
"It's good because you get to know the guys."
Kidd ended up sitting next to Jerry Stackhouse, J.J. Barea and Erick Dampier.
"Everybody has different personalities, and you try to push the right buttons with different guys," Johnson said. "Things are more meaningful to some guys than others. You just try to get a feel for them."
Kidd also had dinner on the trip with Dirk Nowitzki, the pair going out in New Orleans just hours after the trade for Kidd was complete.
"We just hung out and talked basketball," Kidd said. "I told him as much people think I'm here to help him, he's here to help me, too. It works both ways. But [the key] is just to have fun, to enjoy each other and show that on the court. When that happens, it spreads.
"One thing that's already happened is that everybody's starting to pass the ball. Everybody's touching the ball, and that makes us more of a dangerous team, where they can't just load up on Dirk."
Personnel moves: Of all the centers who might make sense for the Mavericks to pick up, one name that makes even more sense is Brent Barry.
OK, so he's not a center. But he is one of the best 3-point shooters in the game, and the Mavericks – like a half-dozen or so teams – have looked into acquiring him.
"Whether it's Boston, Phoenix or LA or whoever, we make the same calls to good players that they make," Johnson said. "Everybody that we talked to is in kind of a wait-and-see mode. We'll know more in the middle of next week."
Tuesday is the day that a lot of players who were waived on trade-deadline day will clear waivers.
Jamaal Magloire is among several candidates to be acquired to fill the backup center spot behind Erick Dampier. Numerous teams are believed to be in the running for Magloire.
"Damp's going to play the bulk of the minutes," Johnson said. "Those other 12 to 18 minutes, how are we going to do it? I'd like to try to use Juwan [Howard] a little. I haven't given Malik Allen a chance yet. At the end of the day, it's going to be 12 or 14 minutes."
Alternating Brandon Bass and Nowitzki also is a possibility.
No matter where the Mavericks go, Johnson acknowledges that they probably will give up some defense in the paint with whoever replaces DeSagana Diop.
"We've got shot-blocking, but we've got no scoring," Johnson said of Diop before he was traded. "We may have to try to get some scoring and know that our defense may suffer. But there are a couple of different things we can do to buy time when we don't have a center in there."
Briefly: Kidd had six assists in the first seven minutes Sunday and finished with that many at the end of the first quarter. The Mavericks' record for assists in a quarter is 10, done by Kidd in his first stint with the team. ... Kidd played in his 1,000th NBA game. For the second game in a row, he set a Mavericks' season high for assists in a game, with 17. ... The Mavericks improved to 4-16 when tied or trailing going into the fourth quarter.
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Dallas Mavericks instructed to mingle
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