Nowitzki offers to come off the bench for struggling Mavs

Dirk Nowitzki is willing to do whatever it takes to help the Dallas Mavericks make the playoffs this year.

The Mavs dropped to dead last in the West with a loss to the lowly Phoenix Suns on Thursday. Dallas is desperate, and their consummate franchise player is willing to sacrifice anything to get his team back on track.

"Obviously, I've said that we want to compete and we want to make the playoffs," Nowitzki told ESPN's Tim MacMahon. "If that means I'm the 10th man, so be it. We've got to try to figure out what we've got and win some games and make a run. If that's what this team needs to win some games."

Dallas has tinkered around with its frontcourt to accommodate Nowitzki and offseason import Andrew Bogut, but nothing has worked. Playing them both at the same time leaves the Mavericks vulnerable to bigs who can stretch the floor, having only Bogut out there kills Dallas' offense, and only trotting out Nowitzki hurts the defense.

Their struggles led Bogut to make a similar offer - he's also willing to come off the bench - but Nowitzki insists that Bogut should start to cement the defense.

"(Bogut) is smart out there, he's a very good rim protector for that smaller team. I think the coaches always look at every possibility for us to compete and win some games. Throw whatever lineup we need to throw out there to be successful."

Benching Nowitzki would be a dramatic move for the Mavericks. The sixth-leading scorer of all-time has only come off the bench in seven games over the last 17 seasons. But with Dallas sitting 14 games below .500 through nearly half the season, they're not exactly in any position to play politics.