30 Greatest Dallas Mavericks in history, ranked by Player Efficiency Rating (PER)

17. Steve Alford - 16.9

Steve Alford played for the Dallas Mavericks for the entire 1987-88 season, half of the 1988-89 season, and the entire 1989-90 and 1990-91 seasons. In 112 games for the Mavs, he averaged 3.4 points, 0.7 rebounds, 0.8 assists, and 0.4 steals per game while shooting 45.5 percent from the field and 27.3 percent from downtown. Alford came off the bench in every game he ever played for Dallas, and him making this list is a bit of a surprise.

Alford was an absolute monster in college as he attended the University of Indiana and played for Bob Knight. While he was at Indiana, Alford was named the Big Ten MVP and won the NCAA Championship in 1987. His dominant performance helped him get drafted by the Mavs in the 1987 NBA Draft, but his NBA career started slow.

Alford only played 7.0 minutes per game for the Mavs in his rookie season and he averaged just 2.1 points per game. He was a smart passer and great scorer at the collegiate level, but he could never excel as much as he did in college in the NBA.

Now Alford is the head coach at the University of Nevada and has been coaching there since 2019. Alford has been coaching ever since he finished playing in the NBA and has been successful thus far.