Earlier this afternoon, I previewed the Mavericks' offseason, concluding that I have faith in Mark Cuban's ability to turn his team into a contender again. Dirk Nowitzki feels the same way, telling that Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that he believes Cuban's track record speaks for itself: "We had 12 seasons straight (seasons) of making the playoffs, so obviously we did something right."
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the NBA:
- The Warriors' best chance at gaining some cap flexibility in the short- and long-term would involve moving David Lee's contract, but there's not much leaguewide interest in Lee's contract at the moment, says Grantland's Zach Lowe.
- Patrick Ewing has reached an agreement to become the Bobcats' associate head coach, as part of Steve Clifford's staff, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Wojnarowski refers to the move as a Space Jam reunion, though I'd rather wait until owner Michael Jordan also hires Muggsy Bogues and Shawn Bradley before going that far.
- Wojnarowski also reports (via Twitter) that Nets coaching candidate Jason Kidd has targeted longtime NBA assistant coach Tim Grgurich to be part of his potential staff in Brooklyn.
- In other assistant coaching news, Sam Amick of USA Today tweets that former Pistons assistant Roy Rogers will join Jeff Hornacek's staff with the Suns.
- The Jazz are hosting a three-day free agent minicamp this week that will include Travis Leslie, Luke Zeller, and Lazar Hayward, among others. In this series of tweets, Bill Oram of the Salt Lake Tribune lists all 24 players expected to participate.
- In an entertaining piece at ShamSports.com, Mark Deeks outlines how Sasha Pavlovic is partially responsible for a bump in career earnings for Anthony Tolliver.