AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – Because Dallas is the place where his career took off, center Brandan Wright would like to re-sign with the Mavericks when he becomes a free agent this summer.
Originally signed as a free agent by the Mavs on Dec. 9, 2011, Wright is appreciative that owner Mark Cuban and Donnie Nelson, the team’s president of basketball operations, gave him a chance to find his game.Wright played with the Golden State Warriors from 2007 until he played 16 games for the New Jersey Nets in the latter half of the 2010-’11 campaign.Wright then hooked up with the Mavs, where he has been mostly healthy following an injury-proned start to his career.“I take a lot of pride in coming in here and getting my career resurgent after all the early injuries I had,’’ Wright said. “Donnie and coach and Cube gave me opportunities to get my career back started and get on my feet here and show my talents, so I’d love to come back here.’’Wright, who scored 12 points in Wednesday’s 112-108 victory over the Houston Rockets and 14 points in Friday’s 102-99 win over the Detroit Pistons, has been one of the Mavs’ best rim protectors all season.“He’s one of our big guys that give us a little different dimension,’’ coach Rick Carlisle said. “He was active [Wednesday] night, moved well in the paint, got the ball in the basket a few times.“He’s a quicker big guy that can help us in pick-and-roll coverages when we’re dealing with quick guys. We need him and we need everybody.’’Wright is hopeful that Nelson and Cuban also will figure out a way to keep him in a Mavs uniform. Meanwhile, he noted that he and the other Mavs’ soon-to-be free agent don’t even bring up the subject of free agency.“We know what the situation is,’’ Wright said. “We know we’ve got a lot of free agents and we’ve got guys that might leave and probably will leave, and we’ve got guys that probably will come back.“That’s just part of the business. It’s rare to see that many free agents on one team, but we’re doing the best we can.’’ Nowitzki wants another ringIf for no other reason that it’s personal, forward Dirk Nowitzki wants another NBA championship ring before he hangs up his sneakers for good.“Once you win it all it’s such a great feeling to see the excitement of the city and everything with the franchise,’’ Nowitzki said Friday. “It was an amazing feeling and I’d love to compete for it for the rest of my career.’’Nowitzki, 34, vividly recalls the offseason after the Mavs captured the 2011 title, when the franchise parted ways with Tyson Chandler, J.J. Barea, DeShawn Stevenson, Corey Brewer and Caron Butler — key pieces to that championship season. Several of the players who won the title and remained with the Mavs discussed how they didn’t get a fair chance to repeat as champions.“Just the turnaround was really quick, because usually it takes a couple of years for a championship team to get old slowly and then they just fade away,’’ Nowitzki said. “But with ours, some business decisions were made, so we were put in a position where we couldn’t repeat, unfortunately, with the same team.’’Dwain Price, 817-390-7760 Twitter: @dwainprice
