The Dallas Mavericks lone NBA Championship came with Tyson Chandler serving as their emotional leader in the locker room. Looking to land a “big fish” free agent in the offseason and return to their winning ways, the Mavericks pulled off a trade with the New York Knicks to bring Chandler back to town.
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In a lot of ways, the move has improved the Mavericks odds of landing one of those “big fish” free agents. As for helping the Mavericks win more games and make a deeper playoff run, Chandler says he can be better than he was during the 2011 NBA title run.
“Absolutely, I think I can be better,” Chandler said, via the Dallas Morning News. “I finished the season healthy. I was already looking forward to this summer because I felt like there were so many things I could improve on. Then once I started in the gym, I’ve already seen in the six weeks or two months I’ve been working out so much improvement already that I’m truly excited.
“When this happened and I know I’m putting myself in a situation again to really have a shot at making a run, it just gives me more to work on and more excitement and more drive.”
That is good news for the Mavericks, they’ve struggled to find a decent replacement for Chandler ever since he turned down their large single-season contract for a long term deal with the Knicks. Chandler can also help the Mavericks out by doing some recruiting of his former Knicks teammate Carmelo Anthony as well.