Mavericks Media Day Quotes – October 2, 2006

Mavericks Head Coach Avery Johnson

Why have training camp in Denton, Texas?
For us, 18 guys in camp and looking at it last year with some of our stations, we just didn’t have enough space. A lot of times during training camp you use four or five different baskets and in our facility with as many guys as we have and the drills we want to run we just don’t have enough space. In Denton, we’ll be able to have five or six baskets going at one time and we’ll go more out of practice. I like the feeling of us going away and getting focused.”

How important is it to get that bonding?
“It’s very important. We got some guys coming in that have a lot of experience, and we have some young guys also so I think it’s going to be good for us to set the right type of tone in camp. Focus is a very important part of who we are.”

Talk about Maurice Ager?
“Who knows, he’s a rookie, he’s never played in an NBA game and we just don’t know yet. We like his talent though. We like his skills, we like his toughness. There’s a lot of things about him we like, but we haven’t seen him under any pressure yet. He played for a heck of a coach in college, and I had a chance to talk with coach Izzo about Maurice. He really likes him.”

Anything new you are going to try to instill this training camp?
“We’re still a defensive team, we just have to get better. There are a lot of little areas where we need to get better. We’re not reinventing the wheel, we’re not starting from scratch, but like a told the team earlier we’re not skipping steps. We’re still going to go through basketball 101.”

Mavericks guard Jason Terry

“This season is nothing different for us. We’re still a good team. I think we proved that last year. Defense definitely wins championships. We’re a much improved defensive team. This year we’ve added some veteran guys with some Finals experience. The goal is no secret, it’s to win a championship. You’ve got to play who’s on your schedule and we’re playing everybody so it doesn’t matter whose gunning for who. Our mind set hasn’t changed. We come in focused and see what happens. We’re back, it’s a new season and we feel good about ourselves. We have something to prove.”

Talk about the veteran players you guys have added this season?
“I’ve been in the league eight years now I’ve played against all these guys. They’ve been enemies for so long and now you’re on the same team with them. These are savvy veterans that we have brought in and we like our young guys also. We have our nucleus in tacked. It’s going to be fun and I’m excited.”

Avery’s seems to be pushing the bonding thing this training camp
“It’s all good for me as long as we don’t have roommates. It will be good to just get away for a little bit. Our practice gym isn’t as big as we would like it to be, and it will be fun to go somewhere with your teammates. That’s how we did it when I first came into the league. It will be good to implement our new guys into what we are doing, and get to know these new guys.”

Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki

How are you feeling?
“I took some time off after the Worlds. Didn’t really feel great at the Worlds because I didn’t work out enough to really be 100 percent in shape there so afterwards I took some time off. I got away a little bit. It was good, and I’m fired up now.”

Do you wish you could just go back to the Finals right now?
“Yeah, but unfortunately that’s not how it works. We all know that last season is over now and we have to start all over again. We have a bunch of new players that have to fit in and hopefully fit in the right way and I think we’ll have a great team, a very deep team. It’s going to be another fun year and hopefully with a lot of wins and not a lot of injuries. We have a great chance of being there again. We all worked hard in the summer and we’ll work hard this season.”

What do you guys really need to work on this year?
“I think all the little things we worked on all season worked great for us in the playoffs. We’re a better defensive team. On the offensive end we moved ball and played together. We need to improve on both ends. We’re all going to work very, very hard this season again."

Some photos from media day: