Fans of the Dallas Mavericks may find themselves wondering who all the new faces are when the team raises their championship banner to the rafters on Christmas Day as the curtain goes up on a shortened National Basketball Association (NBA) season.
Sure, NBA Finals most valuable player Dirk Nowitzki and evergreen guard Jason Kidd are back, but at least five members of last year's squad have departed in a stunning rebuild of the team that pushed aside LeBron James and the Miami Heat to claim the franchise's first title in June.
Gone are three key pieces of the championship-winning roster, including the defensive anchor and heart and soul of last year's team, Tyson Chandler, Caron Butler and J.J. Barea.
Coming in are Sixth Man Award winner Lamar Odom, Delonte West and eight-time All-Star shooting guard Vince Carter, whose above the rim antics have earned him the nickname "Vinsanity."
With the start of the season approaching, the winds of change continue to blow through Texas as Peja Stojakovic, one of the NBA's finest pure shooters, announced on Tuesday he would retire after 13 seasons.
On the same day, former New Jersey Nets first-round draft pick Sean Williams was rumored to be headed to Dallas.
But despite the changes, Dallas has one of the deepest and most experienced lineups heading into a 2011-12 NBA season that was cut to 66 games from 82 games because of the lockout.
Nowitzki and Shawn Marion are 33, Carter and Jason Terry 34 and Kidd, who helped design the team's championship rings, will turn 39 in March and all are sure to have their endurance tested by a compacted schedule.
It will be head coach Rick Carlisle's job to manage their time on the court while indoctrinating the new recruits into the Mavericks way of doing business.
"Depth is something that is going to be really important in a short season," said Carlisle. "Having depth and having good guys who can play is part and parcel to being successful.
"In my mind it is going to be the deepest team that can stay healthy is the team that is going to have the best chance of coming out of the (Western Conference)."
The Mavericks have won 50 games or more for 11 straight seasons, reaching the playoffs every year and advancing to the finals twice, including last year's championship campaign.
Finding that elusive championship chemistry took decades and now the Mavericks are hoping they have the right combination of elements again, bringing in proven talent who are at the point in their careers where winning titles is more important than money and personal goals.
Nowitzki remains the pillar around which the team has been built and the big German will again be counted on as the new arrivals adjust to their roles.
Odom, who won back-to-back NBA titles with the Los Angeles Lakers and Terry, also a winner of the Sixth Man Award, excel coming off the bench.
West offers a serviceable backup to Kidd while Carter will be counted on to rebound from a disappointing 2010-11 campaign when he averaged a career-low 13.5 points a game and get closer to his 22.2 points per game career average.
Carlisle admitted that repeating as NBA champions will be challenging but said he liked the look of his revamped roster and said that while the makeup of the team is different the players remain energized.
"When you don't have five guys back, who were all significant guys, we have to reformulate this thing," said Carlisle. "But the guys coming in are veteran guys, guys who have played in big games.
"These guys have been in the wars and know what it is about."
(Reporting by Steve Keating in Toronto; Editing by Frank Pingue)
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