(A daily look at life on and off the court for the Mavericks)

Pat Carroll, one of four players trying to win the final spot on the 15-man roster, is like an acorn that fell from a wonderfully athletic family tree. His brother Matt plays for the Charlotte Bobcats. But that's not the only strong sports connection in the family.

Did your brother Matt give you any pointers about how to handle an NBA training camp?

Besides making 3-pointers, he just said to go out there and play my game. Don't try to go away from things that got you here. Just try your best and you won't have any regrets.

Could you run down the family lineage in regard to sports accomplishments?

Our grandfather coached high school basketball for over 50 years. He won 801 games at the same high school. He's the one who got us into basketball. We grew up watching his games. He's retired, but he loves coming to our games. He's seen Matt in Charlotte. Hopefully, he'll see me in the NBA, too. My dad [John] was a quarterback at Penn State. And his brother Tom was a pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds. And my mom's brothers, my uncles, both played Division I basketball.

Sounds like the genes were pretty good to you?

Yeah, there's no excuse not being an athlete in this family.

What was Italy like last year?

I wasn't there long. I was over there to get accustomed to things, then I got hurt a week into practice. So I never got to play a regular-season game over there. But it was great for the short time I was there.

Avery Johnson gets paid to make tough decisions, but this one was easy. He declared Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Terry and Jerry Stackhouse out of the preseason opener tonight against New Orleans because of a variety of aches and pains. Nowitzki's workload will be monitored closely after a summer in which he played for the German national team. Terry has taken several practices off to rest his ankles and knees. Stackhouse had knee trouble last season, when he sat out until Christmas. Johnson wants to avoid any repeat performance. "We have some soreness that can turn into some situations that we'll have to manage all year," Johnson said. We're trying to get over the hump with that now." In addition, Devin Harris was held out of Monday's practice because of a left hamstring problem, but he is expected to suit up tonight.

Game time at the Ford Center is 7 p.m. The game will be aired on ESPN-FM 103.3 and in Spanish on KFLC-AM 1270. The only TV coverage is on HDNet. ... Jerry Stackhouse doesn't take guff from anybody, but he ran up against a foe in the off-season that got the better of him. "I went swimming with dolphins," he said of a Caribbean vacation he took. "That was kind of scary. They looked like sharks to me." It's a good thing he didn't swim with the stingrays in Grand Cayman, he might have really been petrified. ... Avery Johnson said he wants to see the Mavs run hard in the exhibition opener. "We need to get in better physical conditioning," he said. "We came into camp in pretty good shape, but we're not in good game shape yet, which is normal for this time of year."