The Dallas Mavericks failed to make the playoffs this season for the first time since 2000 and forward Dirk Nowitzki was not happy about it.
And he's willing to do something about it. Nowitzki has offered to take a pay cut if it would help the Mavericks attract a player the caliber of Dwight Howard or Chris Paul, both of whom will become free agents.
"We'd love to get one of those two," Nowitzki told Dallas radio station KLRD-FM. "We'd love to get a player in here who can create his own shot and be a superstar-type player."
Nowitzki has one season remaining on a four-year, $80 million contract. He is due to make $22.7 million next season.
"I got one year left on this deal and then I'm coming off the books," said Nowitzki, who was limited to 53 games this season because of injuries. "So if that helps for us to be better I'm going to take a pay cut. That's part of the pitch."
The Mavericks could free up some money during the offseason if O.J. Mayo decides not to return. The most the Mavs could offer Howard or Paul would be $80 milllion for four years. Each could stay with his current team and receive a five-year, $100 million deal.
"Hopefully, some of those guys will decide to come, and if not, we've gotta have a plan B," Nowitzki said. "If none of those top free agents come, we gotta make some moves with sign and trades or something. We want to get back to the playoffs and be a factor. We owe it to these fans who come out every single night to support us.
The Dallas Mavericks ended their season with a 99-87 victory over the New Orleans Hornets on Wednesday night at the American Airlines Center.
With the win, the Mavericks finish the season with a 41-41 record.
Darren Collison came off the bench to lead all scorers with 25 points. Dirk Nowitzki added 16 and 9 rebounds. Shawn Marion was the only other Dallas player in double figures with 15 points.
All five starters for New Orleans scored in double figures.
The game was the 473rd regular season sellout at the AAC, the longest streak in the NBA. Nowitzki greeted the crowd before the game and expressed his appreciation, "Thanks for the all support throughout the whole year. We hope to see you next year,"
The Dallas Mavericks lost to the Memphis Grizzlies 103-97 Monday night at the American Airlines Center. With the loss, the Mavericks fall to 40-41 on the year and snaps a streak of 12 straight winning seasons.
Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki tallied a game-high 26 points (8-18 FGs, 2-4 3FGs, 8-9 FTs) in 36 minutes against the Grizzlies on Monday. He scored 20-plus points for the third time in his last four games (19th time this season). Nowitzki is averaging 22.0 points per game on 44.8 percent (30-of-67) shooting over his last four games.
Mavericks swingman Vince Carter totaled 22 points (8-11 FGs, 4-5 3FGs, 2-2 FTs) to go along with five rebounds and four assists in 29 minutes against the Grizzlies. He scored 20-plus points for the second time in his last three games (12th time this season). Carter is averaging 20.0 points, 8.0 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 1.7 blocks and 30.3 minutes over his last three games. He has shot 55 percent (22-of-40) from the field and 60 percent (9-of-15) from deep over his last three contests.
With a reverse layup at the 3:30 mark of the first quarter, Carter passed Clyde Drexler (22,195) for 27th place on the NBA's all-time scoring list. The basket gave him five points for the game and 22,197 points for his career. Carter finished with 22 points on the night and now has 22,214 points for his career. Elgin Baylor ranks 26th all-time in career scoring with 23,149 points.
Carter went 4-of-5 from beyond the arc against the Grizzlies on Monday. It was 15th game with four-plus 3-pointers this year (he had only one game with four-plus treys all of last season). Carter has now made 161 3-pointers on the season (161-397, .406). He needs two treys in the Mavericks' final game of the year to set a new career high for 3-pointers made in a season. The most triples he made in a single season was 162 with Toronto in 2000-01 (162-397, .408).
The Mavericks finish the season at home vs. New Orleans on April 17 at 7:00 p.m. CT
Dirk Nowitzki became the 17th player in NBA history to go over 25,000 points in his career on Sunday night in New Orleans. Nowitzki's 19 points helped propel the Mavs to a 107-89 victory over the Hornets and return to .500 on the season for the first time since December.
Nowitzki's milestone comes at a time when Mavericks fans have little to cheer about, with the Mavs out of playoff contention for the first time since 2000. Nowitzki's emphasis remains on winning games, "We'd love to finish with a winning record. This means a lot to this franchise. This franchise has been a winning team for a long time, and now the playoff streak is unfortunately over. But we can still make it a winning season and feel good about ourselves going into the summer."
Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle praised his star forward for reaching 25,000, "He's a player who has revolutionized the game in many ways. He's the only 7-foot-1 guy that has ever played the game the way he does, and that is by being good around the basket, being great in mid-range, being great a long distance away, driving it and having the ability to hit any kind of off-balanced, unorthodox shot possible. He's not only a great player, he's also a pioneer and innovator in this game, and he'll go down in history as one of the guys who really changed the game."
Dallas was led against the Hornets by Shawn Marion, who scored 21 points, and by the players off the bench, who outscored the New Orleans bench 44-23. Brandan Wright and Vince Carter each scored 16 for the Mavs.
The Dallas Mavericks defeated the Chicago Bulls 100-98 on Saturday. The Mavericks are now 36-37 for the season and a game and a half behind the Utah Jazz and L.A. Lakers for the eighth seed in the playoffs.
Although Saturday's win against the Chicago Bulls didn't boost the Dallas Mavericks in the standings. It showed one important thing, that they believe. That was the only way to describe going on a 15-1 run after being down by 12 points with a little over four minutes left in the game. That is the only way to describe the three pointer made by Dirk Nowitzki to give the Mavericks the lead with 02.9 seconds left in the game.
"Dirk was able to free up and took us out of the match. He's made a career out of doing thatm" said Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich.
Dallas had many struggles against the Bulls younger squad who were without many of their veteran players due to injuries. Bulls guard Nate Robinson gave them more trouble than they could have imagined making his first seven three pointers. The Mavericks were able to hold him scorelss in the last four minutes of the game especially in the last second when he missed a fadeaway jump shot to tie the game and send it to overtime.
"It didn't look good down by 12, but we made it tougher on Nate and made him put the ball on the floor a little more. We collapsed and got some rebounds and we had to speed the game up some," said Nowitzki, "We were able to get some quick scores and that's what you need when you're down."
Vince Carter led the 15-1 comeback scoring two free throws to bring the game to within 10 points. Carter finished with 17 points. Center Brandan Wright had a monstrous dunk in the run capping off a spectacular night scoring 17 points as he was once again named the starter for Sunday's game. Nowitzki scored the final three shots for the Mavericks, finishing the night with his season high of 35 points.
The Mavericks are headed on the road for the next four games in a tough road test that has the potential to make or break their season. The first challenge is against the Los Angeles Lakers, a team that the Mavericks are competing with for the eight seed. Tip-off is on Tuesday at 9:30 p.m.
