Dallas Mavericks gear up for title defence – NBA Update
The Dallas Mavericks are getting ready to defend their NBA World Championship this season and have recruited heavily over the last couple of days for that purpose. Among the new recruits is former Los Angeles Lakers star Lamar
Odom, veteran Vince Carter and point guard Delonte West, formerly of the Boston Celtics.
The new stars have given hope to the Mavericks faithful who were worried that their title defence could be crippled even before the season starts. The Mavericks won the NBA World Championship for the first time in their history
last season, beating the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals.
However, the prospect of Dallas picking up back to back Championships had been dampened by the loss of some key figures this offseason. Included among them is centre Tyson Chandler, who was the defensive lynchpin of the team and
has signed for the New York Knicks, backup point guard Jose Barea who will be playing for the Minnesota Timberwolves in the upcoming season and small forward Caron Butler who has been snapped up by the Los Angeles Clippers.
The Mavericks front office didn’t hang onto these stars because it wants to free up some salary cap space for next summer, when the free agency is set to be laden with super stars. That though doesn’t mean that the Mavericks are
going to lay back this season, as shown by the transfer activity over the last few days.
Dallas have replaced both Barea and Butler in the form of West and Carter, while they have also gotten hands on Lamar Odom, a former NBA World Champion. Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle is pleased to see that the franchise has shown
a strong interest in recruiting players and believes the depth of Dallas’ roster would prove decisive over the coming NBA season.
"Having depth and having good guys that can play is part and parcel to being effective," coach Rick Carlisle said, according to NBA.com. "The deepest team that can stay healthy and stay together is the team that's going to have
the best chance to come out of the West."
Carter also spoke to reporters after arriving at Dallas. The forward, who yearns for an NBA Championship before his illustrious career comes to an end, said he will do his best to help a proven side what they do best, and hopefully
end up winning it all.
"I think they've shown all of that," he said. "My goal is to fit in with what they've accomplished and who they are. ... If we can continue like they've done before - just leave the egos outside, it's not about how many points
you're going to score, it's how productive you're going to be for your team to win - with the firepower we have, we'll be fine."
The Mavericks are still believed to be in the market for a centre as they could use with an extra body after the departure of Tyson Chandler.
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