11/27/12: Mavericks chat with SportsDay beat writer Eddie Sefko

Howdy folks, got some logistical problems going on. Shootaround ends at 11....we'll check out what's going on with the Mavericks and report bak asap after the practice. And by the way, if you feel depressed about the Mavericks, you should see the Philadelphia people. Three people asked me on the way to the arena if Andy Reid had been fired yet. I was checking things on the phone and apparently, they thought Eagles football was all I cared about. Anyway, be back shortly.

Beyond that, the pickings are going to be slim because Dwight Howard is going to stay in LA and the Mavericks won't be going as hard after Andrew Bynum.

Don't see any reason why the Suns would give up Gortat for anything the Mavericks would have to offer, unless you are willing to gve up Jae Crowder, Mayo and some picks. Gortat would be a hot, hot, hot commodity if the Suns indeed put him on the market, which I'm not sure they will.

No way Carlisle gets the blame for this. He's not the one who can't stop perimeter penetration off the dribble. He's not the one who can't get a rebound to save his life. He's not the one who is throwing away the ball too frequently. This is who the Mavericks are right now. The rest of the league is so bad that they can float around .500. But that's about it. When Nowitzki returns, and it's still looking like mid-December, then maybe this team can make some headway. But teams like Golden State, Houston, Utah and Denver are all going to be in the same boat for a while. This is not going to be easy. But the Mavericks might be able to find out which players they want to keep going forward beyond this season.

Just talked to Shawn after the shootaround and I can assure you he is a warrior. He's not exactly healthy right now, but he's going to play. And he's going to play as hard as anybody on the team. He's not going to go on forever. And if the Mavericks could get some help around him, his intangibles would increse. He's never going to be the big-time scorer again, but it's reasonable to see him continuing as a 12-point, 8-rebound guy for a couple more years. And a guy who will try hard at the defensive end, something not everybody can say.

There are a ton of road games, but not all of them are death-march difficult. Really, it shouldn't matter who Nowitzki returns against. It should matter when he returns. As long as it's not a bunch of back-to-backs, he should come back when he's darn good and ready, whether it's against the Suns, the Lakers, the Celtics or the Spurs.

Very likely. But the Mavericks really can't even talk about trades until Dec. 15. That's the day when all of their new players become eligible to be traded. It's some 45-day rule from the start of the season, or something like that. Anyway, things will start brewing around the first of the year, I suspect. And if Mayo continues playing like he is, the Mavericks will have some decent assets. But don't expect some sort of monster deal to happen that's going to save the day. It's just not out there this year, I don't thin.

Pony Up!!!!!!!!! But alas I'll be chained to the laptop through the holidays, soldiering on with the Mavericks

Nobody wants Collison to be a keeper more than me. The guy has great quickness, is a good ballhandler and is fearless. Not as good a defender as the Mavericks would like. But he's working on it. But it's tough to say right now whether he's the long-term solution at point guard. Mayo obviously is great on the offensive end. But he too has limitations on defense. That's what the next 65 games are going to be about -- figuring out who stays and who goes. And they'd like to be a playoff team while they're at it. As for Kaman, he's been what we all thought he would be. He's a 15-and-8 guy who occasionally will get you 20 and 10 and occasioally get you 8 and 4. He's still figureing things out, as he said last week. So let's get to the quarter mark of the season in a week or so before drawing any hard conclusions.