Stoudemire out first two games, but likely to debut Sunday for Mavericks

For those Dallas Mavericks fans patiently waiting to see Amar’e Stoudemire on the court with their favorite team, they’re going to have to exercise some more patience.

Signed Wednesday by the Mavs to a prorated free agent contract worth $485,670 for the rest of the season, Stoudemire sat out Thursday’s game at Oklahoma City and also will not play in Friday’s home game against the Houston Rockets. The 6-foot-10, 245-pound center/power forward went through a shootaround with his new teammates Thursday morning at Chesapeake Energy Arena, but both he and the Mavs don’t believe he’s ready to be tossed into a game.

The Mavs hope Stoudemire can play in Sunday night’s home game against the Charlotte Bobcats.

“We need this time to get him integrated, get him acclimated,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “He was not eligible to do anything on the floor until [Wednesday] afternoon at 4 o’clock, and we were already at the airport and done with practice.

“So we’re going to point toward Sunday. It’s not 100 percent sure, but that’s our goal and we look forward to getting him involved.”

Stoudemire and the Mavs noted that he’s physically fine. But the 13-year veteran has endured a dozen injuries since he entered the NBA in 2002 and has missed 250 games during his career, including 17 this season with the New York Knicks.

“It just takes a little time to get acclimated,” Stoudemire said. “I want to make sure I’m sharp and ready to go from the start.

“I feel two days is always great to learn the offense, learn the defensive strategies and get more acclimated with the team and go from there.”

Carlisle said he plans to use Stoudemire mostly as a backup to center Tyson Chandler, but he’ll also be available to back up power forward Dirk Nowitzki. The Mavs just hope there won’t be much of a drop-off in rebounding when Stoudemire comes in to spell Chandler.

“We don’t want to throw him into the fire too quickly, but I’m excited he’s here,” owner Mark Cuban said. “I think he’s going to help us a ton.”

“It’s not a secret we’ve been looking for a big ever since we lost B-Wright,” Nowitzki said. “I think this is exactly what we’ve been looking for, what we’ve been hoping for when we traded B-Wright.”

No deals for Mavs

Several NBA teams made a flurry of moves before Thursday’s trade deadline, but none of the trades involved the Mavs.

Cuban said his team never came close to making any deals, but that didn’t stop him from watching the action.

“We were always like the sixth deal on the board,” Cuban said.

Briefly

▪ Cuban said the Mavs will sign Bernard James to a second 10-day contract after the deal he signed last week expires following Friday’s game against Houston, and then sign him for the remainder of the season.

▪ The Mavs hopes to sign Stoudemire to a contract when he becomes a free agent on July 1, Cuban said.

This story was originally published February 19, 2015 at 11:34 PM with the headline "Stoudemire out first two games, but likely to debut Sunday for Mavericks."