It’s getting closer…

We are now 11 days away from the start of Dallas Mavericks training camp. Thank goodness that the offseason is finally winding down. I suspect that barring any major news (injuries, trades, things of that sort) we will not hear much from camp. The roster still needs to be cut down and hopefully that will happen via trade to make things more exciting. Nonetheless, the start is rapidly approaching and I couldn’t be more ready.

The much anticipated player introductory press conference was held at noon today at the American Airlines Center. All of the new Mavs were in attendance (excluding Kris Humphries; scheduling conflict) including Shawn Marion, Nathan Jawai, Quinton Ross, Drew Gooden and Tim Thomas. Jason Kidd even showed up to be “reintroduced.” In case you were wondering, Marion will wear #0, Jawai #21, Ross #6, Gooden #90 and Thomas #7. The Mavs roster has Humphries listed as #43.

The actual presser itself was nothing out of the ordinary. There were a couple of quotes that caught my attention…

Drew Gooden was asked how he felt about logging some minutes at the 5 spot.

“I came into this league as a three so I’m slowly working my way up the [ladder] I guess. It’s a new challenge for me. I think I’m at the point in my career where I can adjust. I’ve been playing against these guys for some time and I think I’ll be able to adjust to the position.”

Doesn’t sound like he is overly confident in his ability to handle rigors of being a big man. His bulk isn’t that of a prototypical center but hopefully the ever increasing smaller, athletic big men will be manageable for Gooden.

Shawn Marion was asked how he sees his game and Josh Howard’s game complimenting each other.

“I think with the lineup we’re going to go with it’s going to be evident that we can switch at a lot of positions because for the most part we’re all pretty much the same size so it’s going to make us very versatile at both ends of the court. We’ve got to get the chemistry right, get the feel of one another’s games and going out and having fun playing with each other.”

It will be interesting to see how Josh transitions to being the starting two guard. I’m sure it will be a seamless transition and that he will eventually strive (if he can stay healthy of course). I’m anxious to see how they interact while on the floor simultaneously.

But the biggest news of the day was the unveiling of the new alternate jerseys. As many had predicated, they are royal blue. I was a huge fan the green alternates but change isn’t always a bad thing. Here is a picture of Jason Terry sporting the new rags…

As you can see, they have the same design as the old green version but are now a nice shade of blue. Would you be willing to spend your hard earned coin on one of these beauties? Mavgear.com can hook you up.

As for now, we must continue to wait. Hopefully, football can fill our basketball void until the time comes. It may feel like any eternity but it’s actually closer than you think. But for now, I’ll just let you wake me up when September ends.

Until next time…

Peace. Be Good.

Tags: Dallas Mavericks, Drew Gooden, Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, Josh Howard, Kris Humphries, Nathan Jawai, Quinton Ross, Shawn Marion, Tim Thomas