FanHouse JoshHoward

FanHouse previews all 30 NBA teams in advance of the 2009-10 season.

It has become popular nowadays to take a movie or idea that was popular 20 years ago and revitalize it, tweaking it for a more modern touch, in order to attract both new and old audiences. It incorporates the base elements of the original and then features a modern "twist" in order to seem "hip."

In a lot of ways, that's the story of the 2009-10 Dallas Mavericks. They're not the same old Mavericks, but they're not the new Mavericks either.

Now with his seventh NBA team, Drew Gooden has played a variety of roles in his much-traveled NBA career. He is about to have a new one -- starting center for a Western Conference contender, according to a radio report cited by DallasBasketball.com.

When Gooden was signed as a free agent this summer by the Dallas Mavericks, it was widely assumed that he was coming mostly to provide depth in the front court for a veteran team still hoping to make a final push before it starts to rebuild.

That just wasn't true, apparently.

On Monday, Mavericks GM Donnie Nelson mentioned at a press event that incumbent starting center Erick Dampier could come off the bench this season. Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News followed up to report that it's not a set-in-stone matter, and that Nelson was just generally speaking about the team's flexibility.

That got Matt Moore and I thinking -- err, talking -- about the Maverick rotation. Our discussion (with a somewhat relevant Magic-Cavs vignette) is after the jump.

On Friday, Warriors captain Stephen Jackson put himself on the trade block. By late Saturday, dots were being connected, and Jackson was being rumored to be a possibility for the Dallas Mavericks.

Mike Fisher of DallasBasketball.com reported that, separate from the Jackson rumor, Golden State coach Don Nelson had been talking to folks in Dallas about potential trades. Of course, Nelson's son Donnie runs the Mavericks front office, which would make this wholly uninteresting ... if not for the ongoing war between the elder Nelson and Mavs owner Mark Cuban, which makes this sort of aisle-reaching notable.

So, is it Jackson that Nelson is trying to peddle? Or is something else going on?

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OK, sure, stacking Josh Howard, Jason Terry and former MVP Dirk Nowitzki around him was no more successful than surrounding him with Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson, but you know what they say: 18th time's the charm.

And it's in that spirit that Jason Kidd re-enters the NBA free agency market.

DALLAS -- The Mavericks were on the brink of ending their season and raising all sorts of questions about the direction of the team.

Dirk Nowitzki ended those questions for a few days on Monday night with a wonderful performance in a Game 4 victory over the Nuggets.

The Mavericks' 119-117 win over the Nuggets keeps their season alive until at least Wednesday. But it was Nowitzki who made it that way.

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Game 3 of Dallas-Denver ended not just with controversy, but also some angry midcourt action involving Mark Cuban, Josh Howard, Kenyon Martin, Kenyon Martin's mom, Mark Wunderlich, a local cameraman, a local photographer, security guards and other entourage. Above, you'll see Howard angrily yelling at Wunderlich, the referee in best position to call the intentional foul on Antoine Wright. You'll also see Cuban shove a news cameraman.

It's been a postseason full of questionable calls. And no one's really been happy with it. Most times when a team's fans call foul (or no-foul) on the officiating, you can attribute it to homerism and turning a blind eye to a team's mistakes.

Of course, there are exceptions.

The Dallas Mavericks held a two point lead over the Denver Nuggets this afternoon with six seconds left. The Nuggets inbounded and Carmelo Anthony bobbled the ball before recovering and swinging left. Antoine Wright approached Melo at the wing in full knowledge of two facts.

1. The Mavericks had a foul to give.

2. With a one-possession lead on defense with a foul to give, you always foul to interrupt the play.

Wright came at Melo with two seconds on the clock. And that's where things went a little haywire.

Cherry Picking recaps the previous day's NBA playoff action.

The Nuggets have been the most impressive team in the West to this point in the playoffs. They crushed the Hornets so badly that Byron Scott may lose his job and the roster might be overhauled before next season. And now, after a Tuesday night Game 2 victory over the Mavericks, Denver finds itself halfway to the conference finals.

Based on who they've played, though, should we really be considering them as a candidate for one of the best teams in the conference? All signs point to NO.

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The Mavericks went into their second game against the Nuggets trailing by one in the series, and played most of Game 2 without one of their top scorers. Josh Howard was able to hang around for only six minutes due to an ankle sprain, and the rest of his team was able to keep it close through three quarters before Denver pulled away in impressive fashion, to take a 2-0 series lead by a score of 117-105.

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