Jeff Caplan's post on Basketball | Latest updates on Sulia

Dirk Nowitzki come off the bench? Hey, the most unselfish superstar in basketball brought it up...

The Dallas Mavericks' all-time leading scorer practiced for the first time Wednesday - two months to the day after arthroscopic surgery on his right knee - but he still doesn't know when he'll make his season debut. Some time after Christmas is his best guess. Dirk, 34, was more sure that it will take him a few games to adjust and that he won't be ready to play 35 minutes right away. But come off the bench? Dirk's started all but 25 of his 1,055 career games and he hasn't come off the bench since one game way back in his second season (1999-2000). "I guess once the [return] date comes closer, I’m going to talk to coach [Rick Carlisle] and see what the smartest thing is, maybe come off the bench for the first couple games, play around 20, 25 minutes," Dirk said. "That’s something I guess we need to talk about when it gets to that point. I’m not opposed to obviously coming off the bench at the beginning and slowly finding my rhythm, but I think that’s something we need to talk about when it gets closer."