Once upon a time, the Dallas Mavericks had big plans for a pursuit of Miami Heat free-agent center Hassan Whiteside. Maybe it was "opportunism'' or maybe it was "arrogance'' -- and I fairly labeled the whole concept a "Double-Pipedream'' -- but Mark Cuban's Mavs had juggled the Big Calculator in a way that had them in pursuit of Whiteside ... and Memphis point guard Mike Conley. (Not as "Plan A,'' but certainly as something worthy of exploration.)

None of it came together in the Summer of 2016, of course; each guy re-upped with his existing employer (which is how the CBA system is rigged to work) and the Mavs moved onto dealing with the familiar "Why Won't Anybody Ever Come To Dallas?'' foolishness and the eventual acquisition of Harrison Barnes.

Times change, of course. Back then, Whiteside was 27 and had just averaged 14 points and 11 boards a game. And as we predicted would happen, Cuban got a meeting ... but nothing more, as Whiteside took his four-year, $98-million deal to return to South Beach. (The Mavs actually got a meeting with Conley, too, let the record show.) And now? Well, Whiteside averaged 14/11 AGAIN this past year. So he's arguably (statistically) the same player, and still not yet 30.

Now, the idea of "center play'' in the NBA may have changed; the "Hybrid-5,'' as I've taken to calling it, is in, and the traditional center less so.

But if a guy is a 7-footer, and motivated to serve as a rim-roller and a rim-protector and has some offensive game and isn't a complete jerk and can be melded into the salary cap?

He's still got a place. And yes, if certain "sweeteners'' were part of the deal, the Mavericks, I'm told by NBA people close to the situation, could still have a place for him.

The Mavs themselves cannot say this, of course; his contract is property of another team, and announcing interest is tantamount to tampering. But the Mavs can and do scout players, all of the players, as all teams do. And I'll give you an "educated guess'' that their opinion of Whiteside, at the right cost, mirrors Whiteside's opinion of himself.

“It’s annoying,'' he told the Miami Herald this winter when commenting on his limited minutes. "We’ve got one of the best centers in the league. ... A lot of teams don’t have a good center. They are going to use their strengths. It’s bullshit. It’s really bullshit, man. There are a lot of teams that can use a center.''

Those teams include Dallas -- or, actually, "Dallas with a bunch of asterisks.''

*Whiteside is due $25.4 million for the 2018-19 season with a player option in 2019-20 for $27 million. Miami seems open to unloading him.

*Dallas wouldn't pay him that sort of money in free agency, obviously, but a trade can help make the money fit.

*The Mavs would shut down this idea, we can assume, if on Draft Day they end up with, say, Texas center Mohamed Bamba.

*The Mavs will also look at other vet candidates for the job, and Whiteside ranks below many of them. Some of those candidates (I'll be brief here but expand more later, while providing links to what we've written previously) can include Nerlens Noel (if only he was committed to being what he was here in the final third of the year), DeAndre Jordan (no, the Mavs don't still hate him, see "Never Say Never'') and DeMarcus Cousins (but not in the way the general public thinks of the Mavs-Boogie connection, at all).

UPDATE: Oh, yeah. We've already expanded on DeAndre/DeMarcus/Julius Randle. That scoop-filled piece is here, with what serves now as an accompanying reminder: DeAndre/DeMarcus/Julius Randle has been known about by you for months. The national media is simply badminton'ing back to you information you already had. ... and I'll repeat here for the record, an example: Julius Randle might end up being a Dallas target, but I'm told the Mavs are aiming "much higher'' than that.

But this Whiteside news? That doesn't count as "much higher,'' no. But at least it's new - and I think illustrates Dallas' willingness to be open-minded in its talent search. I'll explore further in Monday's Mavs Donuts, and include not only the Whiteside upside, but also all the downsides and the obstacles, too.