There are officially no ties in Dallas to the dark days of the Mavericks. The Mavericks waived Michael Finley on Monday to save $51 over the next three seasons. With Shawn Bradley’s retirement earlier this summer and Finley being waived there are no more player who came from the era when 20 games was considered a good season and you could get floor seats from a scalper for less than $25.

I’ve been a fan of the Mavericks since the Reuonion Rowdies days of the late 80s. In the past, I thought of Finley as the gel that kept the Mavericks together. While Dirk and Nash got all the attention, Finley quietly led the team and held the whole thing together. Over the past few years, however, Finley’s stats have steadily declined while Dirk’s stats and leadership have grown.

I think the Mavericks are better off without Finley. He hasn’t been producing and his starter position could have been filled easliy by the likes of Stackhouse, Jameson, or Howard. Now we can look to the post-Big 3 era. I believe the Mavs have the best core of players they have ever had. It was a bitter end last year, losing to the Suns on our court, but I think having Avery Johnson as the head coach for a full training camp and season will pay off in a big way.

November 1 can’t come soon enough!!!

If you’ve been following the Mavs for awhile like me, you know that Dirk Nowitzki has often spoke highly of his coach back home in Germany. Well, according to the AP his coach has been in jail for 3 weeks and was recently denied a request to be released. He’s being investigated for tax reasons.

My personal thought is that this will probably not affect Dirk too much. He’s grown a lot over the past few years. The only way this could play negatively in the Mavs season is if his coach is in jail for an extended potion of the regular season. Only then should we worry.

Read the story here.

Being a Mavericks fan, I’m already biased against the Houston Rockets. But Jeff Van Gundy made a stupid mistake. He whined about the refs to the media (which is nothing new if your a Mavs fan). Here’s what he said about Yao Ming and the fouls that have been called on him: "When you review his fouls, he looked — you’ve got to give Mark Cuban credit." You can read the whole story in the Houston Chronicle here.

It’s been a long drive home so far, but the trip was well worth it. My dad got tickets to Game 5 in Houston today and we made the drive down to watch the Mavs beat the Rockets and make it a best of 3 series (and reclaim homecourt in the process).

I guessed the Mavs would win in 5-6 before the series started. I firmly believe the Rockets are done. They had their chance, now it’s Dirk’s turn to shine and put this series away.

David DuPree has been lavishing praise on Dirk Nowitzki lately. I noted before that DuPree has already labeled Dirk as the 4th best defensive big man in the NBA. Now, DuPree is talking about Dirk as being one of the best overall players and a serious candidate for MVP. Check out his USA Today article here.

I heard about this on Randy Galloway today. According to a system developed by David DuPree, Dirk Nowitzki is the 4th best defensive center/power forward in the NBA. I agree that Dirk is a lot better at Defense this year than he’s been in the past, but I’m not sure if he’s shot up that far. I think the flaw in the system is that it relies too much on free throws and rebounds. Free throws really have nothing to do with defense and rebounds don’t automatically make you a defensive stud. Anyway, it’s interesting that Dirk is getting some credit for improving his D.

Check out the article here.

I used to be a big Michael Finley supporter. When the Mavs went to the Western Conference finals in the 2002-03 season, I thought the Mavs were Finley’s team. While Dirk and Nash were flashy and got all the attention, Finley was the sizzle that kept the team going.

The Mavs are no longer Finley’s team. Since 2000-01, his rebounds, free throws, assists, and points per game have all dropped every season. At the same time his three point attempts have gone up. I have vivid memories at Reunion Arena (the former home of the Mavs) of Finley taking the ball to the lane and throwing down a monster dunk. It was a commom occurence. Now, it’s very rare to see him take the ball to the hoop at all.

To see what I’m talking about you can look no further than the last three games (before the game against the Lakers in which Finley didn’t play since he was hurt). Finley scored 4, 11, and 13 points. During that stretch he took 1, 2, and 1 shots in the lane (he was 1-4). In the game against Phoenix he missed a 3-point attempt with 1:21 left in the game and 14 seconds left on the shot clock with the Mavs up 6. Bad decision. He should have drove the lane to try to draw a foul or kick out to someone else for an open mid-range jumper.

I don’t write this just to pick on Michael. I really wish he would play well. He used to be aggressive and drive the ball. Now he’s a long-range jump shooter who doesn’t draw any fouls. I think the Mavericks and Finley himself would benefit greatly if we would see the old Finley more often.

One last note. I read the first article ever saying that the Mavs are a legitimate contender. Check it out here.