Practice Report: J.J. Barea Mavs guard J.J. Barea dishes on the bench play, playing alongside Dirk and more.

DALLAS – When guard J. J. Barea found out that the legion of Dallas Mavericks’ reserve players will likely include Dirk Nowitzki this season, he couldn’t help but start smiling.

After all, it’s not often that an NBA bench will include the league’s No. 6 all-time leading scorer, which is the honor Nowitzki has achieved.

“That’s got to be some fun,” Barea said. “But we’ll see how that goes.”

With the success Nowitzki has enjoyed during the first 20 years of his career, quite naturally he could possibly win the league’s Sixth Man Award this season, right?

“Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah,” Barea said. “Hey, you never know. But, nah, I don’t think so.”

What Barea does know is that the Mavs will roll out a bench this season that can rival any team in the NBA. The Mavs’ top reserves include Dwight Powell, Dorian Finney-Smith, Devin Harris, Maxi Kleber, Salah Mejri, Jalen Brunson, Nowitzki and Barea.

“We’re going to be good,” Barea said. “My goal is set up high — to be really good with the bench group.

“We’ve got Dwight, we’ve got Maxi, we’ve got Dirk, Devin, (Finney-Smith), Brunson. Hey, I’m excited for what we’ve got off the bench, so we better be good.”

Barea believes the Mavs’ bench will be even more effective because of the return of Harris. The Mavs traded Harris to Denver on Feb. 8, but exactly six months later they signed him as a free agent on Aug. 8.

“Life’s a lot easier for everybody,” Barea said, referring to Harris’ third tour with the Mavs. “Smart guy, still fast, (and a) smart player on both ends.

“Plus, he’s coming off the bench, and it’s going to be great, great fun.”

While Barea is a part of the bench brigade, he knows he’ll get to frequently be on the floor with some of the Mavs’ starters. That means he’ll be executing the pick-and-roll and firing up some lob dunks to center DeAndre Jordan, who has a league-leading 1,189 dunks over the last five seasons.

“I did a great job with (lob dunk passes to) Dwight last season, so we have that, and now we’ve got Jordan too, so it’s going to be a lot of fun,” Barea said. “(Jordan is) great at (the lob dunks), but what I like about him is he’s a team player.

“He’s a talker, he’s got a lot of energy and he’s going to help us on both ends. But definitely the lob action because they’re either going to have to stay with him or come guard me, so it’ll be fun.”

Barea collected a team-high 6.3 assists per game last year in only 23.2 minutes per contest. So with a more bigger and intimidating target to lob to in Jordan, his assist total should increase a bit.

“I don’t know about 10 (assists per game),” Barea said. “But if I get anywhere close to last year, I think it’ll be great for us.”

NOTES: In search of success this season, the Mavs want the ball hopping on offense, much like the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets whip the ball around the court. They don’t want any long dribbling sessions from any player. But the Mavs are also placing a premium on defense. “Defense and ball movement on offense,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “Our identity with this team has got to start with being a very sticky defensive team and being a very together team. And then offensively we’ve got a lot of playmakers really with both of our groups. So we’ve got to take advantage of everybody’s abilities to make simple hard plays. But the ball’s got to move.”. .Carlisle gave kudos to center DeAndre Jordan for being his best interior defender, and to guard/forward Wesley Matthews for being his best perimeter defender. “DeAndre and Wes are both wired to be great defensive players,” Carlisle said. “We’ve got to get everybody on our entire team wired for it. It’s a mindset. Regardless of your ability level and size, you can always play with grit and you can always compete like a champion, and that’s what this training camp’s all about.”. .Veteran guard J. J. Barea has some pointers for 19-year old rookie guard Luka Doncic. “I think (Doncic) just (needs) to be super aggressive, especially in the pick-and-roll,” Barea said. “He’s going to have to maybe start looking for his shot a little bit more, and then the passes will come. But I think he’s not like me. He’s big, he’s tall, but he definitely knows how to run the pick-and-roll and knows the game at an early age.”. .Carlisle wants to make sure his starting unit of Harrison Barnes, DeAndre Jordan, Luka Doncic, Dennis Smith Jr. and Wesley Matthews are on-point. He believes that’s one of the keys to how the Mavs will fare this season. “Our starting group has not had good chemistry the last two years,” Carlisle said. “We have not had good cohesion, so we’ve got to build that. But that process starts at the defensive end, because if we can get more stops than we’ve gotten, that will make our offense much more effective. That’s just a fact.”. .So how is rookie forward Kostas Antetokounmpo doing thus far in training camp? “He’s doing fine,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “He’s learning a lot. When you’re in your first NBA training camp as a rookie you’re inevitably going to learn an awful lot in a very short period of time.” The Mavs signed Antetokounmpo (6-10, 197) to a two-way contract on July 13. . .With players trying to jockey to impress the coaches and make the roster, practices have become very competitive. Especially at the guard spots. “We’ve got a great, great group of young guys,” guard J. J. area said. “We’ve got a couple of guys that are fighting to be on the team, to be in the NBA, so they’re doing a great job. They’re competing every day. We’ve got some talent, so our practices are pretty good.”. .In describing the competitive nature of guards Dennis Smith Jr. and Luka Doncic, Barea said: “The good thing about them is they’re different. Dennis is more of an attacker, trying to score. Luka is more of a playmaker, a little slower. It’s going to take some time for them to get going together, but the first couple of days they’re starting off good.”. .The Mavs will practice Monday morning, take Tuesday off, practice Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, then play their first preseason game on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. CT at American Airlines Center against the Beijing Ducks.