Photo by Jonathan_W on Flickr
Jason Terry really wants DeShawn Stevenson back in Dallas:
“What he did in this organization for us, you can’t put a price on it. Because me, watching the playoff series, not only the championship, but the first, second, third rounds, he defended his butt off and he set the tempo for us,” Terry said. “That kind of toughness you can’t buy. It has to be in you. He’s one of the few guys in this league that has that and it’s special, it’s unique and I believe it’s at premium. And, I think it’s something that we have to have on our team going forward.
It’s not the first time we’ve heard that JET wants Stevenson back (via Rob Mahoney), but it’s notable that he feels so strongly about it. If you showed me that quote out of context, I’d guess that Terry was talking about Tyson Chandler, not the guy I called a “trash-talking Keith Bogans†on a list of subpar rotation players. Despite earlier indications that he and the Mavs both want him to return, I’d thought he was a superfluous piece — if Rodrigue Beaubois, Corey Brewer, and the trophy-tatted Dominique Jones make newcomer Rudy Fernandez seem somewhat expendable, then certainly Stevenson would be too. Terry and Mahoney have made me reconsider this position.
Stevenson isn’t an ideal choice, but he is (1) an incredibly solid perimeter defender who is still somehow underrated despite his efforts on the league’s biggest stage against its biggest stars, (2) already familiar with Dallas’ system on both ends of the floor, and (3) likely to come at a reasonable price.
The Mavs’ championship run was predicated on Rick Carlisle and his staff getting the absolute most out of their players. They had upper-tier talent on the roster, but there’s a reason the Mavs were never considered a favorite. Carlisle and defensive specialist Dwane Casey discovered a formula that had the team functioning as much more than the sum of its parts, meaning that it will be incredibly tough for teams to copy them and a slight shift in personnel risks a larger-than-expected effect. Stevenson is not much more than league-average player, but his absence could change Dallas’s defensive identity. With Casey up in Toronto, it would be unwise to lose any of the pieces he deployed so expertly.
