Insider Special: 6th Man Watch

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Sixth Man Watch: Tricky Nick

By Terry Brown

Thursday, January 16 Updated 11:44 AM EST

What has Nick Van Exel done for you lately?

After winning their first nine games of the season to jump out to the NBA's best record, the upstart Dallas Mavericks traveled to Los Angeles to take on the three-time defending champs in what was billed as the biggest matchup of the young season on Dec. 6, 2002.

Nick Van Exel

Point Guard

Dallas Mavericks

Profile

2002-2003 SEASON STATISTICS

GM PPG RPG APG FG% FT%

28 11.7 2.9 4.6 .395 .861

They were smashed in the fourth quarter, 44-15, in a game they lost 103-101 after Dirk Nowitzki, Michael Finley and Steve Nash averaged 43.3 minutes among themselves and 18 points on 17 of 48 shooting.

Nick Van Exel scored a team-high of 25 on 9 of 17 shooting, including 5 of 8 from long range, in 35 minutes and was the only Maverick able to even hit the rim in the final two minutes of the game, giving Dallas its final lead, 103-101, with 1:04 to go.

After winning nine of their last 10 games to maintain their NBA-best 31-5 record, the upstart Mavericks traveled to Sacramento to take on the Kings in what was billed as the biggest matchup of the young season.

They were smashed 123-94 Wednesday night after Nowitzki, Finley and Nash averaged 31 minutes among themselves and 11.3 points on 13 of 36 shooting, including 2 of 7 from long range.

Van Exel scored a team-high 20 points on 8 of 15 shooting, including 2 of 5 from long range, in 31 minutes.

Other than that, Nowitzki has scored 22.4 points per game in 38.4 minutes as one of the league's leading MVP candidates while Finley has averaged 19.8 points per game in 38.8 minutes as the steady franchise cornerstone while Nash has put up 18.4 points per game in 32.6 minutes as the catalyst driving the NBA's most prolific offense.

And all good old Van Exel has done is average 9 points and 3.4 assists in 24.1 minutes in January after averaging 13.6 points and 5.5 assists per game in 30.4 minutes in December to drop his season scoring to 11.7 per game in 26.6 minutes and fall right off the list below.

Michael Redd

Milwaukee Bucks

Numbers: 14.6 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 1.5 apg, 1.2 spg, 73 triples, 45% shooting, 9 starts

Michael Redd hit two three-pointers Wednesday night in 22 minutes. He hit two three-pointers in the game before that in 22 minutes. He hit two the game before that in 31 minutes and three the game before that in 29 minutes. By the third game of the season, he had his first multiple triple game. He hit three in his next game and two in the following. Since then, he's also had two games in which he's hit five and another in which he's hit six. In all, he's averaging 1.97 three-pointers per game this season in 29.2 minutes. Off the bench. For a team already accommodating Ray Allen. There is just something about lefties that makes you want to see it before you believe it. Well, start believing.

Andrei Kirilenko

Utah Jazz

Numbers: 13.0 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 2.1 apg, 1.4 spg, 1.9 bpg, 15 triples, 53% shooting, 9 starts

Forget, for a second, that he's shooting better than 50 percent from the field and realize that Kirilenko is the defensive stopper your favorite player always wanted to be but was afraid to speak up in the huddle. One minute he's exchanging elbows with some muscle-bound forward before sliding over to cool off some red-hot shooting guard before volunteering to lock down that shifty point guard who's been bothering you all night. Oh, don't worry. He's going to get his shots, he's going to make his buckets. Which is more than we can say for the guy he's guarding.

Desmond Mason

Seattle Sonics

Numbers: 14 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 1.3 apg, 0.9 spg, 14 triples, 44% shooting, 5 starts

Grin and bear it. Our former Sixthman of the Year leading candidate is taking one for the team. His numbers in the last 19 games aren't much different than the those in his first 17 except for the fact that his team has gone 7-12 in those most recent games, including five consecutive loses with only two wins in their last 11 games. And while it may not be all of Mason's fault or even any of Mason's fault or somewhere in between, the Sonics are reaching critical mass and, well, like we said before, he isn't doing anything more or less about it.

Al Harrington

Indiana Pacers

Numbers: 12.6 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 1.4 apg, 0.8 spg, 10 triples, 47% shooting, 20 starts

There are three players drafted directly out of high school on the Pacer roster, a future Hall of Famer, an MVP candidate, MIP candidate and a coach who won back-to-back NBA titles by the time Harrington finished the fourth grade. So if it took about 20 starts in 38 games for the kid to make a little noise on a team with the best record in the Eastern Conference, we'd be willing to grant him a little leeway. That is, of course, provided he continues to pop for 30 or 40 points from time to time while boosting his scoring from 9 to 10 to 13 to 16 in consecutive months and discontinues this starting nonsense.

Stephen Jackson

San Antonio Spurs

Numbers: 12.1 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 2 apg, 1.2 spg, 55 triples, 43% shooting, 16 starts

Look, it isn't Jackson's fault that he started against the Sonics in place of Steve Smith and scored 18 points. It isn't his fault that he started again the next game against the Portland Blazers and scored another 18. It isn't even his fault that he not only started the next game against the Boston Celtics and scored another 18 points but also left a scant six minutes for Smith. And it sure isn't going to be our fault when we drop him off this list for starting against the Atlanta Hawks, Houston Rockets and Memphis Grizzlies next week and doing his best to get Smith to take his place here.