Dallas Mavericks Tickets

Dallas Mavericks

2008 Outlook

The Dallas Mavericks struggled to earn a playoff spot in the 2007-08 season despite a winning percentage over 60 percent. The Western Conference and the Southwest Division were loaded with great teams that meant one bad week and you could go from first to the lottery. The Mavericks took a gamble in the middle of the season by trading young up-and-coming point guard for Jason Kidd. The trade sacrificed the future for immediate championship contention for a couple years. Throughout the rest of the season the Mavericks tried to find chemistry between shooting forward Dirk Nowitzki, forward Josh Howard, sixth man Jerry Stackhouse, and the newly acquired Kidd.

Team History

The Dallas Mavericks were founded in 1980 by an ownership group that included James Garner, who played the character in the television series Maverick for which the team was named. The team spent the first few years collecting the talent that would find early success for the new franchise. These players included guard Rolando Blackman, forward Mark Aguirre, center Sam Perkins, and guard Derek Harper.

The Mavericks had perennial playoff teams in the mid-80s that even challenged the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals in 1988. The team then began trading away the talent that made the Mavericks one of the highest scoring teams in the NBA and drafted troubled players, such as Roy Tarpley, who were extremely talented, but were afflicted with drug and alcohol problems.

The next five years were spent at the cellar of the West, with a team composed of aging stars. The Mavericks would use this time to draft the three Js-Jamal Mashburn, Jim Jackson, and Jason Kidd. The talented trio was never able to play together and in the 1996-97 season the Mavericks overhauled the entire roster with 27 different players seeing action during the season.

Mark Cuban took over in 2000 and started the era of big trades and big salaries, but first he built the team around Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki, and Michael Finley. The triple offensive threat and a seemingly new cast fo high priced secondary players bought tremendous success to the franchise for four seasons, but consistently fell apart in the playoffs. Cuban rebuilt the team around Nowitzki, letting Nash go to free agency and trading Michael Finley. The new roster that featured Nowitzki, Jerry Stackhouse, Devon Harris, and Josh Howard reached the playoffs in 2006 as favorites, but fell to the Miami Heat. The next year the Mavericks had the best record in the NBA, but were defeated in the first round by the high scoring Golden State Warriors. The Mavericks are now set for a title run in the immediate future if Jason Kidd and Nowitzki can bring the team together. See the super-talented team play live with Dallas Mavericks tickets from TheSeats.com.