Western Notes: Williams, Mavs, Randle

The Mavericks say that they look at each game as a recruiting opportunity for future free agents, Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News writes. “It’s an all-year-round process,” small forward Chandler Parsons said. “Every game you go into — I know Ryan Anderson is a free agent, I know Kevin Durant is a free agent. You have relationships with guys and you understand when they’re free agents. I just try to be myself and go about the business of playing and winning games. But at the same time, you definitely have an understanding of what’s going on and what’s coming up each summer.”

“You don’t recruit individual free agents,” Mavs owner Mark Cuban said. “You define your brand as a team and attractiveness as a team to all free agents. We don’t do something geared to one guy. We try to show: ‘Here, this is who we are and this is what we stand for and this is our culture.’ That’s our recruiting message. We don’t try to be anything to anybody. We try to be ourselves and hope that that’s a good fit. You can’t try to alter who you are for one free agent. It just won’t work.”

Here’s what else is happening out West:

• Lakers coach Byron Scott says his relationship with young power forward Julius Randle is like that of a father and son, and the coach believes that Randle requires some tough love from time to time, Mike Bresnahan of The Los Angeles Times writes. “The thing that I told him is that he’s probably never had adversity in his life on a basketball court because he’s been so good everywhere he’s been,” Scott said. “This is the first time that he’s had to face it. I told him, ‘You’re going to have to deal with it. And the way you deal with it is going to determine how great you’re going to be as a basketball player.’”
• Elliot Williams, who inked a 10-day contract with the Grizzlies this past week, believes he can provide a spark with his fresh legs and defensive abilities, Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal relays. “I can fit in pretty well defensively,” Williams said. “I know most of the guys already from staying here in the offseason and playing with them in the offseason. I’m familiar with the team and I’m looking to come in here and make an impact.”