DALLAS — With Raymond Felton slated to miss the first four games of the 2014-15 schedule and fellow veteran Devin Harris thriving in a reserve role a season ago, the stars may be aligning for newcomer Jameer Nelson to be the Dallas Mavericks’ starting point guard on Opening Night.
...
Felton’s suspension brings the Opening Night battle down to second-year guard Gal Mekel, Harris and Nelson.
...
Meanwhile, Harris may once again be called upon to lead the Mavericks’ second unit, especially after the Dallas bench took a hit with the free-agent departure of Vince Carter.
Harris missed the first 41 games last season but battled back from toe surgery to average 7.9 points and 4.5 assists in his 40 outings. He also provided the Mavs with a huge lift off the bench during their first-round playoff series, averaging 11.4 points and 3.9 assists as the Dallas team pushed the eventual NBA champion San Antonio Spurs to seven games.
Still, despite re-signing with the team this summer, even Harris envisions himself coming off the bench this upcoming season after earning the trust of Mavs coach Rick Carlisle by providing instant offense and perimeter defense.
“We’re deeper at the point guard position than we were a year ago with Jameer, myself and Raymond Felton, a lot of veteran guys, and I think we’re deeper,” Harris explained in an interview last week with SiriusXM NBA Radio.
He added: “They haven’t really defined it as who’s going to start. I know [Carlisle] wants to use a three-guard rotation to play a little (more) uptempo than we did last year. I think he likes me coming off the bench, which I’m fine with, and maybe closing out some games. But I think he’s going to use all three of us in different types of roles.”
Which brings us to Nelson, who signed with Dallas this summer during free agency after spending his entire 10-year career with the Orlando Magic.
Nelson holds career averages of 12.6 points, 5.4 assists, 3.1 rebounds and 1.0 steals, making 556 starts with the Magic. He also left Orlando as the franchise’s all-time leader in assists with 3,501, ranking second in games played (651) and field goals attempted (7,033), third in minutes played (19,038), three-pointers made (874) and three-pointers attempted (2,335), fourth in scoring (8,184 points) and field goals made (3,109) and fifth in steals (619).