It looks like the Mavericks are going to churn the bottom of their roster.

They drafted Maurice Ager in the draft. Ager is a 6'5" shooting guard. He is known for his ability to drive to the basket, as well as a jumpshot. Ager is also considered a tough-nosed player who can play in your face defense. He will replace the departing Adrian Griffin. (Griffin was not considered quick enough to cover the best shooting guards in the league, while his lack of offensive punch left a hole in their lineup on the offensive end. It was hard to play him when other offensive liabililities like Desagana Diop were on the court.)

Ager's drafting also made Marquis Daniels expendable. They traded Daniels to the Pacers, who would not have gotten playing time (unless an injury occured). In return, they got 31-year old 6'10" power forward, Austin Croshere.

Croshere can spot up for the three. While not a great rebounder or defender, he can get inside and give the team rebounds. He is considered dependable and has a certain amount of tough-mindedness. Croshere will back up Dirk Nowitsky, and fill the role that was filled by Keith Van Horn these past two years.

Croshere has a little more meat on the bones than Van Horn, so he should give more on the rebounding and defensive front. That isn't saying much, of course. Van Horn is a better natural shooter, but Croshere is a solid career 34% three-point shooter. His overall shooting totals are nothing to brag about, though. Neither is athletic, but we are talking about the 3rd or 4th guy off the bench, so these guys are usually specialists.

The Mavs have made an offer to 31-year old guard Mike James, who played for the Raptors last year. James is a scorer and a shooter at guard, and torched the Mavs in last year's playoffs (when James played for the Houston Rockets, who took the Mavs to seven games). He would back up Devon Harris at point guard.

Like Harris, James is not a natural ball distributor. He's probably a better shooting guard, a la Jason Terry. But the Mavericks need more shooters coming off the bench, and the addition of James and Ager should do the trick nicely. James is considered an "Avery type" player, meaning he has mental toughness.

The Rockets and Timberwolves are also courting James. I tend to wonder if the Mavs will acquire James. He loved playing in Houston. More importantly, the Rockets have a $4.2 trade exception. That means the Rockets could trade a draft pick (and only a draft pick) for James, then sign him for higher than the mid-level exception. Teams can sign players on their roster for more than they can sign free agents. Since this would give the Raptors something in return for the loss of James, they might be willing to do the trade.

From the Dallas perspective, if this deal falls through, then the Mavs will still have their mid-level exception ($5.5 million) to pursue a veteran point guard backup.

If this works out, the Mavericks should improve their bench from last year. James and Croshere are solid, stable veterans who can hit shots from the outside, which should help with scoring from the bench.

Since Ager is also a shooter, it looks like the Mavericks have diagnosed one major problem in the Finals--the Heat could cheat too much onto Nowitsky and Terry, because they often only had three scorers on the floor at any given time. All in all, Nowitsky and Terry were the only pure shooters they had, which made it easier for teams to scheme the Mavs. (Some might argue Stackhouse is a shooter, but he's more of a slasher/scorer type in my mind.)

So this would present a bench of Dampier, Croshere, Stackhouse, Ager and James. That should be an improvement over last year. How much is left to be determined, but when you are two games from the title, you only need a subtle change to put you over the top. My guess is this group is a little better...and decidedly better, if the rookie (Ager) can contribute next year.

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Make instruments to plague us." - King Lear