You're very welcome.

Top of the Class:
Sheed: A. Making very few mistakes while shooting a high percentage and racking up pretty assists. Defense at a high level for preseason.

Ben: A-. Really beat up Dampier last night while clawing for every rebound. Why opponents don't expect him to go hard in preseason is a mystery. Falling in love with that fadeaway jumper, though, with ugly results. The other guys are going to kill him with all these alley-oops.

Rip: B. I think he's figuring the offense out, and he's done a nice job of letting it come to him. Works well with Sheed. Defense not very good against the Dallas backcourt.

Tay: B-. A little more active and got his points, but Josh Howard had the better of it. Maybe it's the knee. Not getting his post ups and isn't driving or running the break with his usual authority.

Chauncey: C+. Jason Terry couldn't handle him at all, but he also let Terry get off a lot of open threes. Played sloppy on offense in the second half, despite the late 3s. Didn't assert much leadership or structure for the second unit.

Dice: C. Missed some shots, didn't seem to do much but not a liability.

Delfino: B+/A-. Really shredded the porous Dallas interior with drives and made some excellent passes. Outside shooting was mixed.

Evans: C+. I noticed AS Blakely said last night he didn't seem sure of his role, like Dupree when he came back from Chicago. Agree. Didn't stand out on the boards or defensively, and went 1 on 1 in bad spots.

Arroyo: B+. Ran the offense better, shot well and actually got some layups by letting other guys handle the ball. Forced several bad passes on the break. Didn't feed the post. Played smoothly with the starters.

Darko: B-. Not a great game despite the flashy plays. Had the butterfingers on rebounds and passes, leading to second chance points for Dallas. Got in foul trouble really fast. Interesting that in the two crunch time situations where he's played, he's made tough shots to protect a lead or pull the team close.

Maxiell: B. A bull on the boards who immediately began slugging for rebounds the second he came in. Team played well when he was out there. Haven't seen the shot blocking from him that I might have expected, but it's early.

Acker: C. Handles the ball well but hasn't shown the deep shot we saw in summer league. Put on some nice trapping pressure in comeback effort. Defense hasn't been anything special.