Dirk Nowitzki does not know when he’ll ready to rock following late-season ankle surgery. He has, however, already started some rehab activity and is fairly confident he’ll be ready to help the Dallas Mavericks next year.
From Mavs.com’s Dwain Price:
“It’s been over two weeks now (since the surgery) and I’m moving around without (the walking boot) already pretty good at home,” Nowitzki said. “But once you step out (of the house), I’ll still wear the boot.
“It’s progressing good, but it’ll be awhile until I can run and do basketball activities. I already started rehabbing a little bit and riding the bike and lifting a little bit and doing some movement stuff. It’s going to be, unfortunately, a piece of work all summer, but hopefully it’s going to help me next season.”
This sounds weird to say about someone who will turn 40 in June, but Nowitzki is borderline essential to the Mavericks’ hopes of staging an instant turnaround. They’re in line for a top-five pick in this year’s draft, and they remain one of the few teams with access to serious cap space this summer. They’ll have an opportunity to add playoff-level talent, and Nowitzki’s transition to complementary capacity would be huge for an offense that will be dominated by a sophomore point guard, Harrison Barnes and, potentially, plenty of new faces.
To wit: Nowitzki just notched the second-highest effective field-goal percentage of his career and no longer monopolizes as many possessions. He’s more comfortable shooting off the catch, out of the pick-and-pop. He can still go and get the Mavericks buckets on occasion, but having someone who’s so willing and able to play off others is paramount to the integration of a bunch of new pieces. Dallas still needs him.
