Dallas Mavericks: Is Samuel Dalembert still the Mavs' starting center?

After the Dallas Mavericks lost in embarrassing fashion in Denver on Wednesday, many questions about the team's defensive and overall effort this past week started to surface both in the media and around the team itself.

With his Dallas Mavericks trailing by a staggering count of 68-51 at the half on Wednesday, Mavs coach Rick Carlisle demoted center Samuel Dalembert to the bench for the rest of the contest--reportedly due to unhappiness with the big man's effort in the post against a Nuggets team which drove past and through Dalembert at will.

This move has led to rampant speculation that the Dallas Mavericks may continue going forward with Samuel Dalembert coming off the bench.

These rumors, however, may have been refuted today by ESPNDallas.com's Tim MacMahon, who noticed that Dalembert was wearing a white jersey during Friday morning's Mavericks' practice--"That’s a pretty good clue that Dalembert’s latest demotion from the starting lineup was only for the second half of Wednesday’s indefensible and defenseless loss. ..."

However, don't think that Samuel Dalembert's minutes are fully safe. If Dalembert continues to be unimpressive in his starting role, don't be surprised to see the Dallas Mavericks use bigs such as Bernard James, DeJuan Blair, and Brendan Wright in his stead.

Brendan Wright led all reserves in minutes in the Dallas Mavericks' 115-110 loss to the Nuggets with 25.

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