<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><span class="vitstorybody"><span class="vitstorybody"> ATLANTA – Juwan Howard had his pick of the NBA's blue-blood litter.</p> Boston was ready to welcome him with open arms. So were Cleveland and Miami.</p> Chicago? Yeah, the Bulls wanted him, too. And others.<span class="vitstorybody"><span class="vitstorybody"> But the 34-year-old forward looked at the Mavericks' roster and saw all the data he needed to make an informed decision on which team would be his employer this season.</p> "This roster is very deep, and you got a lot of players who know how to play," Howard said Thursday after meeting the team for his first practice. "More importantly, you got a lot of veterans, too. And it has been proven over and over again in this league that veterans help you win games.</p> "Veterans are the ones that help you win championships."</p> Veterans like Howard, coach Avery Johnson believes.</p> If nothing else, the Mavericks are going to lead the league in 30-something players who are on late-career missions to win that elusive championship ring.</p> Eddie Jones and Jerry Stackhouse fall into that category, too. And all of them are going to have to play vital roles if it's going to happen.</p> Howard will be in uniform tonight and, while Johnson hemmed and hawed, it's a virtual certainty he'll see some playing time against the Atlanta Hawks.</p> Though Howard hasn't had enough time to absorb all of the Mavericks' system, the hope is that eventually he will give them another forward-center who can play both the low post and high post positions, a sore spot for Johnson's team last season.</p> One of the likely beneficiaries of Howard's arrival: Dirk Nowitzki.</p> "Our problem last year, especially against smaller teams, was we did not have a high-low game, or, we didn't have a low-to-high game," Johnson said. "And if you don't have [that], you are going to struggle, because all they're going to do is sit two guys behind Dirk and dare your other guys to score.</p> "And on top of that, if your point guard is not a threat offensively, then it's three on Dirk and everybody else stay home.</p> "So that's why we made a conscious effort for Devin Harris to play like we want him to play and get some other big guys that can be a threat."</div></p> Source: Dallas News</p> </span></span></p> </span></span></p>
