Dallas Mavericks All-Star power forward Dirk Nowitzki participated in a full practice Friday after getting his swollen right knee drained for the second time.

According to Brad Townsend of DallasNews.com, the German All-Star seemed more optimistic about the knee, but is not ruling out eventual arthroscopic surgery.

"I really don't know why the swelling keeps coming back," he said. "I can't really finger-point it. Maybe there's something floating in there that shouldn't be floating in there.

"We'll only know that for sure if we do a scope, but as for now, we haven't (planned surgery). I'm just going to keep working this weekend and see how the knee responds.

"I'll be all right, hopefully."

This will be Nowitzki's second consecutive training camp, his right knee was swollen. Last season, it took nearly two months to recover.

Nowitzki doesn't seem to be wanting to waste any time this time around, as he'll make a decision on whether to have surgery before the season opener in the coming weeks.

"Probably the sooner the better if we decide that," Nowitzki said. "I don't want to wait until the 30th and then have a scope - that's pretty obvious. I never liked missing games.

"In my career I always try to be there for the boys. If that's something we have to look at, then hopefully if the swelling does come back next week, then we've got a decision to make."

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