• Tweet

• Tweet

Tyson Brings Defense

Tyson Chandler could be heading for his fifth different team since changing hats (Clippers to Bulls) on draft night of 2001.

According to sources from ESPN, there has been limited conversation between the Mavericks and their defensive stopper Chandler about an extension since Dallas won the championship on June 12.

Now, Chandler is ready to experience the open market, in search of a club that is willing to pay him top-dollar.

Sources say, a new deal could be received from possibly Sacramento or Toronto (according to ESPN’s Marc Stein via twitter) – who have already made plans to go after him when it’s time.

“Honestly, at this point, I’ll let my agent and the management hash everything out,” Chandler said during the recent Ben and Skin interview. “I try not to get involved with it, because then it becomes personal. I honestly try to stay out of it as much as possible and then at the last minute, when I need to make decisions, I’ll come in and me and my agent will sit down.”

“Tyson Chandler changed our season on a lot of levels,” Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said shortly after the season. “It wasn’t just his play. It was his enthusiasm, his energy. He just brought a certain exuberance to our locker room and he was always a guy who was talking about accountability. He was talking about it, preaching it and it got other guys in the locker room on board with keeping each other accountable.

“Because, if you don’t have a team that polices itself, you can’t win an NBA championship.”

Said Nowitzki: “Tyson, to me, turned everything around. … Looking back now, that was almost [like] a key signing. His positive energy, his defense, I think, is what turned this whole thing around. Every big game down the stretch, we did it with defense.

“Obviously we’d love to get a deal done with Tyson and keep him here in the long run. I’ve never played with a center as athletic, as quick and able to cover as much ground and play with his energy. He was a pleasure to play with.”

“In an ideal world, we keep it intact and make another run,” Mavs president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson said earlier this month. “But … none of us knows what the market is going to be like. So it’s just, ‘We’re in a holding pattern.’”

Let’s see if Chandler will hold out for more money and go to a city like Sacramento or Toronto, rather than stay in Dallas to defend the title.