Phoenix Suns: Steve Nash, Suns Can Learn a Lesson from the Dallas Mavericks
The Dallas Mavericks are NBA champions.
The team led by a "soft" superstar in Dirk Nowitzki.
The team that blew a 2-0 series lead in the 2006 NBA Finals to lose in six games.
The team that had never won a title before beating the newest Big Three in the 2011 NBA Finals.
The Phoenix Suns, and 28 other franchises, for that matter, can learn a valuable lesson from the 2010-2011 Dallas Mavericks.
A team with one bona fide superstar talent (Dirk Nowitzki), surrounded by a group of ring-less NBA veterans proved far more desperate and deserving of basketball's ultimate prize than some of the game's most recognizable faces (LeBron James and Dwyane Wade).
Despite missing the postseason for the second time in three seasons, the Phoenix Suns can take a lot from the Dallas Mavericks' success.
Phoenix is led by an NBA superstar and former league MVP (Steve Nash) and has a plethora of up-and-coming young talent on its roster.
Many experts doubt the Suns because of the age of their core players (Steve Nash, Grant Hill and Vince Carter), but realize that nine players on Dallas' playoff roster were 30-plus years old.
A critical piece to Dallas' championship team was former Phoenix Sun Shawn Marion, who found renewed energy this postseason with the Mavericks.
The 33-year-old Marion averaged nearly 14 points per game for Dallas in the finals three seasons after being traded out of Phoenix for an over-the-hill Shaquille O'Neal.
Future Hall of Famer Jason Kidd, 38, shot 43 percent from beyond the three-point line in the finals, making clutch shots for Dallas time and time again.
Jason Terry, the Mavericks' 33-year-old sixth man, averaged 18 points per game in the finals and posted a game-high 27 in the series-clinching contest, leading Dallas through Nowitzki's early-game struggles.
Every player contributed in some way, shape or form for the Dallas Mavericks in these playoffs.
Just one season ago, the Phoenix Suns were on the verge of doing the same.
A veteran bunch led by Steve Nash, Grant Hill and Amar'e Stoudemire were two games away from an NBA finals appearance but suffered a devastating Game 5 loss in the Western Conference Finals to the Los Angeles Lakers that would prove fatal to their season.
Obviously the Phoenix Suns have moves to make this offseason, bringing in new players and waving goodbye to others (Vince Carter).
But if there is one thing that the 2010-2011 Dallas Mavericks proved over the past two months, it's that chemistry and teamwork go a long way towards crowning a champion.
Patrick Clarke is a Featured Columnist for the Phoenix Suns and a student at Towson University.
