DALLAS -- The Dallas Mavericks brass have earned high marks and rightfully so for their solid moves this summer in revamping the roster, making additions like Al-Farouq Aminu, Tyson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Richard Jefferson, Jameer Nelson, Chandler Parsons, Greg Smith and Charlie Villanueva, who was officially added to the mix on Tuesday.
And the universal consensus among fans as well as those who follow the goings-on in the Association closely is that Donnie Nelson, Mark Cuban and Rick Carlisle deserve kudos for those solid moves.
Those newcomers were officially introduced on Tuesday afternoon at a press conference at American Airlines Center, a group Cuban even once referred to as "fallen angels" during the proceedings.
Carlisle, naturally isn't very big on labels, but when he sees the roster before him as the Mavs prepare to start preseason next Tuesday, he sees a group he can already call one thing-improved.
"Coming into this year, we know we're going to be a better team than we were last year just based on the analytics. Last year's team was not a great defensive team arguably and unfortunately we didn't perform that way a majority of the time," Carlisle said. "This year, we're slightly better I think and with Tyson (Chandler) back in the mix, he's promised me that he's going to will us into (being) a really good defensive team."
Some of his fellow NBA head coaches might preach continuity and the virtues of keeping a group of players together over a period of a few seasons, but Carlisle, who is heading into year seven here in Big D, admits he likes the challenge of integrating new players into his team each year, something which has been the norm with the Mavs over the past few seasons, at least since the club won the NBA title in 2011.
"It's exciting when you get an injection of new blood into your roster. We're becoming used to it each year now. We're getting a lot of new guys the last few years, which I like. I like the challenge of that," Carlisle said. "We think this team could be special. We know there's going to be a lot of hard work, but we're looking forward to it."
Point guard will be an interesting spot for the Mavs, with the influx of players like Raymond Felton and Nelson along with a returning Devin Harris. Some have already started wondering how Carlisle will divide up minutes among this talented trio, but that's far from his top priority as Dallas gets set to begin camp in six days.
"Yeah, we've got three or four guys that I really like. I see Jameer, Ray Felton and Devin Harris all playing both guard positions," Carlisle said. "With the way our roster's set up, we like attackers. We like guys that can make plays both with and without the ball. People look at it and make a lot of questions about the minutes. I'm not worried about it. I just want good basketball players that want to win and I think we have that."
But the Mavs aren't just deep at the point, they also appear to be pretty well squared away on the front line as well with the additions of Aminu, Chandler and Smith, three players Cuban is quite happy to now see wearing Dallas colors.
