Full-Court Press

All-Rookie Team, y'all

T-Mobile NBA All-Rookie First Team
Portland's Brandon Roy (58 points)
Toronto’s Andrea Bargnani (57)
Minnesota’s Randy Foye (48)
Memphis’ Rudy Gay (39)
Toronto’s Jorge Garbajosa (37; tie)
Portland’s LaMarcus Aldridge (37; tie)

All-Rookie Second Team
Paul Millsap      Utah          36
Adam Morrison     Charlotte     35
Tyrus Thomas      Chicago       26
Craig Smith       Minnesota     21
Rajon Rondo       Boston        10 (tie)
Walter Hermann    Charlotte     10 (tie)
Marcus Williams   New Jersey    10 (tie)

Sam Vincent: Popular fella

Sam Vincent, who completed his first season as a Mavericks assistant coach, has been given permission to talk with the Charlotte Bobcats in their quest to find a new head coach.

Bobcats managing partner Michael Jordan has talked about finding the “next Avery Johnson,” in terms of hiring a former player or young coach on the rise.

Vincent played seven seasons in the NBA, including with Jordan in Chicago in 1987-89.

Vincent has a variety of coaching experience overseas and he led the Fort Worth Flyers to the best record in the NBA Developmental League two seasons ago before joining the Mavs' staff.

The Bobcats have interviewed a number of assistants, including veteran coach Paul Silas.

Mavs lead assistant Del Harris could also be on the market. Harris has been with the Mavs under Don Nelson and Johnson since the 1999-2000 season. His contract is up this summer. Harris has not interviewed for the Bobcats' position.

Along with Silas, the Bobcats have already interviewed former player and longtime assistant Lionel Hollins, New Mexico State coach Reggie Theus, former Heat coach Stan Van Gundy and former player and assistant Mario Elie.

-- Jeff

The Dirk dilemma

Everybody is still coming down pretty hard on Dirk Nowitzki, but I think a key fact is being forgotten here.

when you look at the mavs' roster, he is the only player who commands a double-team, which is, for the most part, the truest test of a player's stature and ability.

think about players who command double-teams: dirk, tim duncan, lebron, kobe, wade, shaq in his prime, etc. the champions of that group played with other players who commanded doubles or, at the very least, extra attention.

but no coach in the league is scheming to shut down josh howard. that's because random all-stars such as howard, mehmet okur, caron butler, etc., occupy a level way below truly elite players.

so, if you really want to see dirk shine, give him another play who opposing coaches have to scheme for. then watch him shine.

-- joe garza, mavs lite

Silly Conan O'Brien ...

.... He had this to say about the Mavericks:

"I'm sorry to say this is our final night in the Bay Area. On the bright side, we did last one more night than the Mavericks."

-- on his last night of a week of "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" telecasts from San Francisco.

Hmm, Conan is 6-4. Could he provide some help in the backcourt?

More award warnings

The NBA has more awards announcements on the way, just don't ask us when the MVP thing is going down.

Tuesday: All-Rookie Teams
(Will Adam Morrison make a sympathy appearance?)

Thursday: All-NBA Teams
(The first of the uncomfortable Dirk honors?)

-- Joe Garza, Mavs Lite

Who do the Mavs need?

In the aftermath of the first-round debacle, it's obvious the Mavs need a few things:

1) a player with mad heart and attitude.
2) a player who refuses to be stopped.
3) a player who can score at will.
4) a player who can live at the free-throw line and post up.
5) a player who is not afraid to take huge shots.

friends, this is that player.

Laugh, if you will. Cite his defensive shortcomings. Talk about how he has to dominate the ball. But judging by how the Mavs played against Golden State, they need somebody to dominate something.

Here are his postseason single-game career highs:
46 points
17 rebounds
11 assists
5 blocks
21 free-throw attempts
21 free throws made

Does that sound like someone the Mavs need? Sure, it does. And he's tired of losing and wants no part of a rebuilding project with his current directionless, mess of a team.

What's the downside? He's signed through 2011 at an average salary of $18.8 million per. Ouch. 

-- Joe Garza, Mavs Lite

Poll predicts Dirk will be named MVP

Dirk Nowitzki is the projected MVP based on a poll of the award's voters conducted by The Arizona Republic. Nowitzki received 57 first-place votes from the 96 voters (out of 132) who responded to the survey. Two-time winner Steve Nash of Phoenix had 37 first-place votes, with Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant getting the other two.

Nowitzki would be the first European in league history to be named MVP. He averaged team highs in points (24.6) and rebounds (8.9) during the regular season, leading the Mavs to a league-best 67-15 record.

Though the Mavs were ousted from the playoffs Thursday, Nowitzki is remaining in North Texas should the announcement come this week. He finished third in the voting last year, the best showing ever for a Maverick.

The Phoenix-based newspaper correctly predicted both of Nash's previous MVP honors.

ART GARCIA'S MVP BALLOT

1. Dirk Nowitzki, Mavericks

2. Steve Nash, Suns

3. Kobe Bryant, Lakers

4. LeBron James, Cavaliers

5. Tim Duncan, Spurs

Mavs Obit Part II

Movers and shakers? Let the speculation begin. As the Mavs slink off to a disappointing off-season, here are some players whose names you might hear bandied around in relation to the Mavs. They're all long shots to join the team, but that doesn't make it any less fun to talk about.

Some guys to look at: Mike Bibby, Jermaine O'Neal, Jason Kidd, Rashard Lewis, Ray Allen, Andrei Kirilenko and Kevin Garnett.

The upsetting ingredients: Oh, that Nellie. From the moment he walked into American Airlines Center with his band of "schmoes" and a big bag o' psychological mumbo-jumbo, Golden State coach Don Nelson turned this series upside-down and the Mavericks inside-out.

"Nellie's full of it," is all Dirk Nowitzki could say when the top-seeded Mavs trailed No. 8 seed Golden State 3-1 before eventually bowing out 4-2 Thursday night.

Report Card: Dirk Nowitzki. Regular season: A, Playoffs: D. Followed up an MVP-caliber regular season with the worst playoff run of his career. More alarming than losing his shot was the loss of confidence. Status: Signed through 2010-11*

Josh Howard. Regular season: A, Playoffs: B. Developed into an All-Star and had the most consistent playoff run, although he didn't ratchet up his game when those around him faltered. Status: Signed through! 2010-11**

Quote board: What the Mavs are saying: "Now I realize that not everybody can fulfill his dream, not everybody is going to win the championship. That shows how hard it is in this league to win a championship." -- Dirk Nowitzki, projected MVP in an Arizona Republic poll of award voters.

"Ninety-nine percent of what went wrong is my fault. Don't blame the players, blame it all on me. It's not Dirk Nowitzki. It's not Jet Terry. I'm the coach of the team, and I'm supposed to figure out how to make them make shots and layups and free throws, don't blow assignments on defense. It has nothing to do with anybody but me." -- Avery Johnson.

Today's S-T coverage: Mavs obit Part I

Mavericks get a bad rep: Avery Johnson changed the culture of the Mavericks once, turning a "soft" team into a championship contender. The encore may prove more challenging.

After back-to-back playoff collapses, there's a new reputation: The Mavs can't close the deal.

"We're at a point now where we weren't able to do what our motto was about, and that was finish," Johnson said Saturday afternoon from inside the team's locker room at American Airlines Center. "We weren't able to finish this season the way we wanted to. But do we have bad players? No. Do we have a malfunctioning system? No. Do we need to take a look at our players and coaches and system? Yes."

Galloway: Blow up the Mavericks? Too late for that. Nellie just did. A better idea would be to blow up the goofy I'm-the-smartest-guy-in-the-game owner of the Mavericks.

Again, too late for that. Nellie just did. One more time, Mark: Shut the bleep up.

Over the past two weeks, Mr. Cuban verbally trashed the coach of the other team on almost a daily basis, doing so while watching that same coach use his basketball expertise to game-by-game systematically destroy the very foundation of Cuban's entire organization.

The point is, Mavs can use some help: Jason Terry might have played his last game as the Mavericks' point guard.

When the Mavs traded for Terry three seasons ago to replace Steve Nash, they knew they were rolling the dice that the streaky shooting guard could become a precision point guard.

While hardly a total failure, that experiment could be reaching its conclusion as Devin Harris' improvement has coach Avery Johnson scrutinizing the future.

Nowitzki needs to show he can man-up: Avery Johnson woke up a Little Genius on Thursday and went to bed as Big Nellie's Scolded Pupil. A legit Coach-of-the-Year contender a couple of weeks ago, we supposedly learned Avery cannot hold Don Nelson's whistle because his Mavericks were badly outplayed and ousted by No. 8 Golden State.

Puh-lease. Go sell crazy elsewhere. I already have plenty. Avery was and remains one of the best coaches in the NBA. Did he have an "ish" first round? Absolutely. Get in line, though. Everybody in Mavsland did.

Regular season highlights fade to black: A 67-win regular season is lost on most of the Mavericks. A shocking, first-round playoff exit after an NBA Finals appearance the year before will do that to a team.

"We had a great regular season, and our expectations were very high for ourselves," Dirk Nowitzki said. "[The expectations] were high starting the season, saying we want to win the championship, and everything else was a disappointment."

Dirk's parting shots

For all of the heat Dirk Nowitzki taking, he isn’t one to run and hide. He’s as stand up as they come.

Here’s some of the best stuff from No. 41 earlier today:

-- “I understand the business by now. If you play well and you win, you’re the greatest. If you lose, you’re the worst player in the league. I understand that. I’ve been in the business for nine years now. It’s obviously not the position I want to be in, but it’s nothing I can change now. I believe everything happens for a reason and I can learn from this experience again.”

-- “That’s the kind of person I am. I always take stuff very, very hard on myself first. I don’t need media people to tell me that I did bad. I know that I didn’t play my best in the playoffs and that’s disappointing to me the most.”

-- “You can’t point any fingers at this point. It’s everybody’s fault, all the way to the 15th man. Anytime you lose as a team, you go down as a team.”

-- “We kept the focus and the pressure and the intensity high for basically all the regular season. once you get to the playoffs, you should be able to raise the intensity another level. But I think the way we pounded through the regular season, it was hard for us to go to another level.”

-- “We played every game to win. That’s what you’re supposed to do. I don’t think we had another level to go to in the playoffs.”

-- “We had to play that way to get the No. 1 seed. That’s always something you want to reach, you want to play to get the home-court advantage in the playoffs. I’m not necessarily saying we did something wrong.”

-- “You’ve got to see the whole last two weeks with us not really having anything to play for and kind of letting loose a little bit, and the Warriors playing all the way down to the end got hot at the right moment. They caught us.”

-- “I did a pretty decent job in the regular season taking over when I had to and sitting back when I saw the team was rolling. For whatever reason this playoff series, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t put my stamp the way I wanted to.”

-- “I still think I have pretty good leadership skills. I just didn’t show it this playoff series.”

“I realize that I’m not 20 anymore. I’m approaching 30 hard. For me I needed a daily workout. People say during the season you push yourself too hard. I just don’t like off days. Even if I just come in and do a quick 20 minutes of cardio or shooting, I just need a little sweat to get going. It’s hard for me to say what my off-season will look like. I haven’t really thought about it at all.”

-- “I am going to play again for Germany with the national team in Spain.”

-- “Get away here a little bit and think of some stuff that I did wrong and we did wrong, and then I’ll go from there. the next couple weeks are definitely going to be tough.”

-- Art