Chapter 6 The End of a Generation's Cornerstone

In the 1990-1991 season, the Mavericks were proud in the free market and successively obtained the two cores of the Nuggets last season, but in order to cultivate last season's No. 8 pick Randy White, the team reluctantly let go of Sam Perkins, who needed to renew his contract with a big contract, who signed the Lakers for 5 years and 15 million, Perkins helped the Lakers go all the way to the Finals, and played a huge role in the Finals.

Perkins played 6 seasons in the Mavericks, except for the first season, the other five seasons were the team's starting power forward, able to attack and defend, is an important piece of the puzzle for the first peak in the history of the Mavericks, Perkins currently scored 6766 points for the Mavericks 8th in team history, 3767 rebounds is the third.

And Randy White, who had high hopes from the team, slapped the Mavericks in the face with facts, last season it was a slap with his left hand, and this season it was a slap with his right hand, opening the bow left and right, and slapping the Maverick's face hurt.

White played 55 games last season, starting 2 games, and only averaged 12.9 minutes per game, while this season White played 79 games, started 29 games, and played an average of 24.1 minutes per game, with a usage rate of 20.8% compared to 21.0% last season, and a shooting rate of 39.8%, which was 2.9% points higher than last season, but still failed, and the victory contribution value rose from a miserable minus 0.2 last season to a pitiful 0.7 this season.

The Mavericks have a 4-1 record in the first five games, but the season reimbursement of Leaf and Spree has cast a shadow on the team's journey this season.

After losing the first game of the season, the Mavericks won four in a row, and finally when playing Magic, Blackman used all his strength to score 36 points, but still couldn't stop the team from losing by 6 points, and in the next game, Haber tried his best to score 30 points, but the Mavericks still lost to the Heat.

Fortunately, in the third game, the Mavericks won against the aging Lakers, and after two consecutive defeats, they won a difficult victory.

In the next game, Blackman's perfect performance of 32 points on 12-of-18 was celebrated by the Timberwolves to win by 1 point, and then Blackman's 10-of-18 performance of 30 points was still lost to the Spurs to win the Mavericks by 3 points, and in the next game, the Mavericks lost to the Jazz by 11 points. After three straight losses, the Mavericks still relied on Blackman's 13-of-20 performance to win the Clippers.

Goddess of Bad Luck: Come on, come in and have fun. (Two consecutive defeats!) )

Maverick: No! I won't! (W)

Goddess of Bad Luck: Come on, handsome guy, come in and have fun! (Three in a row!) )

Maverick: No! Absolutely not! (W)

What's next...... After winning the Clippers, the Mavericks suffered another four straight losses!

Goddess of Bad Luck: "Handsome guy, I have a big girl here!" ”

Maverick: Get out of the way! I won't compromise! (Victory Lakers)

Goddess of Bad Luck: Handsome guy! There are foreign yo! (5 in a losing streak)

Maverick: Alright, now let's talk about the price (eight in a row...... )

After the whole season was played, I turned around and looked at it, 28-54, third from the bottom in the West, and even the newly recruited NBA Raw Melon Magic and Timberwolves are better than the Mavericks......

To tell the truth, this season's Mavericks, if it weren't for Blackman and Harbour supporting, I don't know what kind of bird they would be able to play, and Haber's average points per game have continued to rise for eight consecutive years. This year, he averaged 19.7 points, 7.1 assists and 1.9 steals per game, but it was strange, Haber just couldn't be selected as an All-Star, and he couldn't get into it alive or deadThe "Lost Pearl" is combined into a lineup, and it is called the "Haber Lineup". ”

Since we have said this, let's improvise a few examples of players and peak statistics that are familiar to us but have not been selected as All-Stars in their careers, and let's just talk about those that are too long ago after the 80s.

The guard, Mike Bibby, averaged 21.1 points and 5.4 assists per game at his peak. Mike Conley, at his peak, averaged 21.1 points and 6.4 assists per game.

Quarterback, Catino Mobley, averaged 21.7 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game at his peak. Kevin Martin, who averaged 24.6 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game at his peak,

Small forward, Corey Margetty, at his peak, averaged 22.2 points, 6.0 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game. Josh Smith, at his peak, averaged 18.8 points, 9.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.7 blocks per game.

Al Jefferson, at his peak, averaged 23.1 points, 11.1 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game. Lamar Odom, at his peak, averaged 17.1 points, 9.7 rebounds, 4.1 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.0 blocks per game.

Center, Andrew Boggart, peaked at 15.9 points, 10.2 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game, and Marcus Camby, peaked at 12.1 points, 11.5 rebounds and 2.2 blocks per game.

Isn't it surprising that these well-known stars have not been selected as an All-Star for the rest of their careers, and in addition, there are people such as Richard Jefferson, Andre Miller, Montaeris, Jamal Crawford, Jalen Rose, Stephen Jackson, TySean Prince, etc......

Well, let's get down to business.

At the end of the season, Alex Inglish announced his retirement, if this is a blow to the Mavericks, then the Mavericks have not yet started the new season, they were hit with a heavy blow, and the hopeful star Tapley who was reimbursed last season did it again, Tapre did two consecutive urine tests, and the third time he directly refused the NBA's test, and was directly identified by the NBA as drug addiction and banned, at this time Tapre was not yet 27 years old, and since then Tapre has been mixed in various leagues and leagues, and has also played in Greece, The next time Tapree appeared in the NBA, it was four seasons later, and he was selected to the first team in his rookie season, and won the honor of the best sixth man in the Mavericks' first season in 1987-1988, but because of drug abuse, a generation of talented stars fell.

The Mavericks got the No. 7 pick in the first round in 1991 because of last season's sparse season, thinking that in the early days of the Mavericks' team, the Mavericks drew three cornerstone players in one draft in one go, Aguirre, Blackman and Vincent, maybe they were so lucky at that time, for this year, they used up all their luck in the next ten years, except for Harbour and Sam Perkins, the others simply chose one and one and two and one pair, and finally chose a Tapley, and also took drugs, And those players who don't look down on themselves and who are almost given to others for nothing have all made a name for themselves, and with this look, it's strange that the team can get better.

Not surprisingly, the Mavericks drafted forward Doug Smith from the University of Missouri.

Smith is 208 cm tall, plays the No. 4 position, is physically strong, can play and resist, but the technical roughness is rough, and he has no shooting ability, as a rookie, Smith obviously does not have the ability to play the starter, and the Mavericks sent a second-round pick to the Heat and got power forward Terry Davis.

Davis is 206 cm tall, the starting point is not high, is an undrafted pick, standard black and hard, has good rebounding ability, was signed by the Heat in 1989 to enter the NBA, basically played 15 minutes per game as a rotation player, got 5 points and 5 rebounds, it is worth mentioning that Terry Davis is also the father of active player Ed Davis.

With the team's starting big center James Donald is 34 years old and has fallen off a cliff this season, and Tapley was blocked by the NBA, the once qualified interior collapsed instantly, and Terry Davis seized the opportunity to become the team's starting power forward, On January 13, 1992, in the Mavericks' 3-point defeat to the Pistons, Davis singled out the Mavericks' interior and scored 14 points, while grabbing a career-high 21 rebounds and 8 frontcourt rebounds.

Although she was noticed by the goddess of bad luck last season, this season, the goddess of bad luck still did not let go of the calf, and also called her friends to beat the calf......

In the first game, the Mavericks played away against the Spurs, after four quarters of the game, the Mavericks lost 41 points, and in the second game, Blackman and Terry Davis played exceptionally well, and fought a fierce overtime with the powerful Lakers, and finally lost by 1 point......

In the first 39 games, the Mavericks won only 13 games, and then bad luck followed.

Fatliffe was once again reimbursed for the season with a knee injury, while the team's decorated veteran, Brad Davis, was reimbursed for the season due to a back injury and finally announced his retirement.

Davis played for the Mavericks for 12 seasons, is the Mavericks built the team, the earliest players left, it can be said that he has witnessed the rise and fall of the team, although his career has not achieved any proud results, but he is conscientious, hard-working, friendly off the court first, respected by every teammate, when he retired, the number of appearances for the Mavericks 883 games ranked first in team history (later broken by Nowitzki, currently ranked second), and 4524 assists are second only to Derrick Haber, Ranked second in team history. In November 1992, just seven months after Davis announced his retirement, the Mavericks retired Davis' No. 15 jersey, and Davis was the first player in Mavericks history to be honored with a retired jersey.

Leaf and Davis both suffered injuries, and the Mavericks sent James Donald, a center who had a serious decline this season, to the Knicks before the trade deadline in exchange for a first-round pick, Donald played seven seasons with the Mavericks, the Mavericks' former rebounding leader (later broken by Nowitzki), and Donald suffered a serious injury after coming to the Knicks, the only center player in Mavericks history to make the All-Star team retired after playing only 63 games in the next four seasons. After retiring from the army, Donald married a girl from Jilin, China, and visited many schools in China, making his own contribution to the development of basketball basic education.

Haber missed 17 games this season due to a series of tangled wrist injuries, averaging 17.7 points and 5.7 assists per game, while the team's main firepower Blackman has seen a significant decline in efficiency this season, averaging 18.3 points, 2.7 assists, 3.2 rebounds and 0.7 steals per game is a new low or flat low in eight seasons, and his shooting percentage of 46.1% is a career low.

To sum up, it can be seen that the Mavericks are completely out of control in the middle and late stages of the season, the state of the main players is unknown, the rotation players have been injured one after another, eight consecutive defeats, eleven consecutive defeats, and a record of fifteen consecutive defeats, and 26 consecutive defeats away from home followed, the players are not just facing the game at this time, but just killing time, when the team's problems have just been exposed, it should be the head coach who comes forward to solve these things, but unfortunately, the head coach of the Mavericks, Adhubatu, is not good at doing these jobs, as I said before, he is on the Mavericks' post, It's a big mystery in the NBA, and he can't control it, and he doesn't have the qualifications to control it, and the Mavericks have only won 6 of their last 26 games.

In the 1991-1992 season, the Mavericks averaged only 97.6 points per game, which was the lowest in team history and the lowest in the season, and the 43.9% shooting rate was also the lowest in team history.

An extremely painful season has finally passed, the Mavericks management is determined to rebuild, this team at present, the most difficult place, is not that the team's record is too poor, but that the team team, there is no young player who looks like he can become a star, and his own two years of selected hopeful stars Randy White and Doug Smith, with facts to prove that they are just an ordinary role player, the record is too poor, basically also to eliminate the possibility of big names in the free market to take the initiative to join, So the only thing the team management can rely on is the draft.

So, before the 1992-1993 season, the Mavericks sent Blackman to New York in exchange for a Knicks 1993 first-round pick. Blackman's departure also officially marks the rebuilding of the original team's core.

There is no doubt that Blackman is the first star in the history of the Mavericks, and his name even overshadows Aguirre, because of Aguirre's introverted personality, Blackman is more deeply loved by fans, media and teammates, Aguirre and Blackman, the two earliest cornerstones in team history, led the Mavericks to the playoffs six times, the highest achievement was the Western Conference Finals, and forced the then defending champion Lakers to the tiebreaker, when Blackman left the Mavericks, he scored 16,643 points for the Mavericks to the first in team history (later broken by Nowitzki, Currently ranked second), 2748 assists ranked sixth in team history, 668 steals ranked seventh in team history, 3083 rebounds ranked eighth in team history, in addition, Blackman in the team's team history total free throws, total irons, total number of games, total number of goals hit are second only to Nowitzki, on March 11, 2000, the Mavericks retired Rolando Blackman's No. 22 jersey, becoming the second player to enjoy the retirement of the jersey after Davis, after Blackman left the Mavericks, He played two years off the bench with the Knicks, then went to Europe to pan for gold until 1997, when he announced his retirement.

Everyone is a professional player, and they are all young and vigorous people in their twenties and thirties, and no one wants to lose every day, so not only the team management, but also the players are eager to find a leader who can lead the team out of the quagmire, and the only hope for this is that in 1992, at the rookie conference, the No. 4 pick in the Mavericks' hand can turn over, it depends on this No. 4 pick, but according to the Mavericks' previous urine in the draft...... Everyone couldn't help but shudder......