Southwest Notes: Nowitzki, Cuban, Jones, Stephens

There was never a chance that Dirk Nowitzki would emulate Kevin Durant and Dwyane Wade and leave his long-time team, according to Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. Nowitzki agreed to a two-year, $40MM deal to stay in Dallas, and Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said he never thought the situation would end differently. “Dirk wasn’t going anywhere,” Cuban said. “Dirk and Dallas, Dallas and Dirk, they’re synonymous. I understand and respect why D-Wade did what he did but there was never any doubt [about Nowitzki staying in Dallas], Dirk gets what Dirk wants.” 

There’s more from the Southwest Division:

• Durant’s decision to join Golden State benefited the Mavericks, who were able to trade for Andrew Bogut and sign Harrison Barnes as the Warriors worked to clear cap space. Cuban likes the look of his new squad, Washburn writes in the same piece. “Yeah, Golden State south,” the owner said. “Harrison will get a chance to expand his game and [Wesley Matthews] will be fully healthy. Deron Williams, Harrison, Dirk, Andrew, that’s not a bad starting five, and we’ve got some of our guys coming back. So we’ll be all right.”
• Jameel Warney is trying to decide whether to attend training camp with the Mavericks or accept an offer in South Korea, tweets Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv. Warney, a three-time America East Player of the Year at Stony Brook, was part of the Mavs’ Summer League team.
• The Pelicans‘ Anthony Davis is happy to have Terrence Jones as a teammate again, he said in an interview with Nancy Armour of USA Today on NBA A to Z. New Orleans reached a deal with Jones on Thursday, signing the ex-Rocket for one year at the minimum salary. Houston elected not to submit a qualifying offer to the four-year veteran, making him an unrestricted free agent. ”He’s very physical and he can put the ball on the floor, great slasher and can drive to the basket,” Davis said. ”I think not a lot of bigs can guard him. I think me and him played very well with each other at Kentucky and hopefully we can do it here in New Orleans.” 
• The Grizzlies will bring former University of Memphis guard D.J. Stephens to camp, new coach David Fizdale said in an interview on NBA.com. The 25-year-old Stephens has three games of NBA experience with Milwaukee in 2014.