Sunday, March 28, 2010

Roddy inspiring memories of Finley

I remember back to a crazy 1998 night in Reunion Arena when the lowly, pre-Cuban Dallas Mavericks shocked the world and Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls, 104-97, in front of the largest crowd in the history of the arena. That night a young guard still in his infancy with the Mavericks, Michael Finley, led the way. His amazing quickness, elite athleticism and dynamic scoring ability resulted in 32 points in the stunning upset.

There was no Steve Nash or Dirk Nowitzki. Before the "Big Three", Finley stood alone as The One, the clear cornerstone of the Dallas franchise. Coupled with the future league MVPs Nash and Nowitzki, he helped lead the Mavs to a decade of success. And while he hasn't been a part of the organization since 2004, the Mavs haven't had a player with the abilities of No. 4 since.

Until last night? It's entirely possible.

Rookie guard Rodrigue Beaubois continued displaying his hot hand, dropping 40 points for Dallas in a runaway win over the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night, 111-90, in Oakland. And while Beaubois isn't a physical carbon-copy of Finley, standing seven inches shorter and weighing more than 50 pounds less, if you squint your eyes watching Beaubois, you'll see more than a hint of Finley.

Obviously Dirk is the franchise player, the greatest Maverick ever, and more important to any other player in terms of the success of this franchise for the next five years, at least. But it certainly can't hurt to have someone like Roddy B emerging from the depths of the bench as a surprise Tonto to Dirk's Lone Ranger act.

Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, Caron Butler and Shawn Marrion are now all key cogs in this machine, but since the club said goodbye to Marquise Daniels, traded away Devin Harris for Kidd during the 2007-08 season, and sent Josh Howard to Washington earlier this season, it's been fair to wonder about the youth of this franchise.

Roddy the rookie is the youth movement for this franchise. And while head coach Rick Carlisle now has to figure out where to find more minutes for the youngster, who is more deserving with each performance, it's nice to see someone other than J.J. Barea who isn't already carrying an NBA AARP card.

Here's the current Mavericks 2009-10 roster by age:
Team Roster
NO.NAMEPOSAGEHTWTCOLLEGE2009 - 2010 SALARY
3Rodrigue BeauboisG226-0170 $1,075,440
11Jose Juan BareaPG256-0175Northeastern$1,657,500
92DeShawn StevensonSG286-5218 $3,883,929
13Matt CarrollSG296-6212Notre Dame$4,700,000
4Caron ButlerSF306-7228Connecticut$9,780,970
33Brendan HaywoodC307-0263North Carolina$6,000,000
0Shawn MarionSF316-7228UNLV$6,635,068
41Dirk NowitzkiPF317-0245 $19,795,714
31Jason TerrySG326-2180Arizona$9,075,000
14Eduardo NajeraPF336-8235Oklahoma$3,000,000
7Tim ThomasPF336-10240Villanova$825,497
25Erick DampierC346-11265Mississippi State$12,115,500
2Jason KiddPG376-4210California$8,100,000

2 comments:

Unknown said...

very interesting - I saw one typo

David S. Barton said...

forget the typo the Mavs could beat the Lakers in the playoffs
davegoblue.blogspot.com

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