On Monday, Mavericks GM Donnie Nelson mentioned at a press event that incumbent starting center Erick Dampier could come off the bench this season. Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News followed up to report that it's not a set-in-stone matter, and that Nelson was just generally speaking about the team's flexibility.
That got Matt Moore and I thinking -- err, talking -- about the Maverick rotation. Our discussion (with a somewhat relevant Magic-Cavs vignette) is after the jump.
Who doesn't like a list, especially on a Monday morning when that's about all you can handle?
Here are five moves that might not have gotten a lot of attention but were very solid nonetheless:
--Raptors get Marco Belinelli from Warriors for Devean George, cash: Belinelli may not be a starter in the NBA, but he can be a rotation guy. And it just so happens the Raptors are pretty much bereft of two guards. That alone should get Belinelli on the court, and from there he'll certainly help at various junctures. As for George, who knows if he'll be healthy and who knows if he'll be able to crack the Warriors' rotation if he is.
OK, sure. They traded their franchise player a year and a half ago for Kwame Brown and some Skittles. And yes, with the No. 2 pick they managed to select the only basketball player available who's biggest weakness is his ability to put the little ball in the big circle with the net attached (which I hear is kind of important). But hey, they needed to rebuild, and they rebuilt. But they have tons of cap space now, so much in fact, that they're actually under the CBA limit and have to spend some.
So they've stopped torturing their fans with one terrible decision after another right? Right? Guys? Anybody?
Oh, hi Zach Randolph. What are you ... doing ... here ...?
This is not a division. It is a gauntlet. A spiked, imperial gauntlet inhabited by minotaurs, pterodactyls, stone giants, warrior pygmy tribes, and other things that go bump in the night. There is no sense of "If we can just make it to .500" in this division. .500 means nothing. .500 is for the Central division.
The Southwest Division hosts two former MVPs, the MVP runner-up from last season, the reigning Sixth Man of the Year, the reigning Coach of the Year, a bazillion All-Stars, elite shooters, elite defenders, elite scorers, and Ron freaking Artest. Yeesh.
There are not headlines here. There are omens, prophecies, and obituaries.
The Mavericks are said to be the latest team interested in acquiring Ron Artest, but so far, their offer to trade for the mercurial (I love that word) star is a little light. Dallas is said to be offering up Jerry Stackhouse (decent player, veteran grit, solid scorer) and Brandon Bass (young, inexpensive, and possibly a Jason Maxiell-light) for Artest, but the Kings are holding out for more: like Josh Howard, perhaps.
The Bee's Sam Amick doesn't see the Kings making the deal as is, and he also doesn't see the Mavericks going so far as to include Howard:
I can't even come close to seeing Kings basketball president Geoff Petrie doing this deal, not unless Josh Howard is involved. And from what I'm told, that's not going to happen. As the Mavs see it, the perceived risk of taking Artest is acceptable so long as the price of getting him is Bass and Stackhouse. Lose Howard to get Artest, though, and the gamble is too great.
That makes sense, because after all, you never know what you're going to get from Ron-Ron. But that was also largely the case with Josh Howard last season. J-Ho (really, kid needs a better nickname) was inconsistent all year, brought up his previously admitted marijuana use for absolutely no reason, and threw a birthday party during the playoffs that went specifically against the wishes of his head coach.
If I'm Dallas, I don't hesitate to trade Howard for Artest. I would not, however, include Brandon Bass in any deal. He just has too much upside being so young at the power forward spot -- a position where Dallas has been historically weak. Howard for Artest seems about right to me; a change of scenery might do both of them a lot of good.
In another of our continuing series, five things to keep an eye out for tonight in the Mavs-Hornets game tonight.
1. You Don't Have To Go Home But You Can't Stay Here: Fire Avery Johnson? Trade Dirk? Trade Josh Howard? All of those questions have to wait. The Mavericks aren't dead yet, and you don't bury the body till the soul is gone. It doesn't look good for the visitors, though. After an uplifting Game 3 went back and changed ... nothing. Not a thing. They said "We got the looks we wanted, they just didn't fall. They'll go in next time." And they did. All of the "JET can stop Paul!" talk was drowned out by this fact. Even if you stop Chris Paul, you let his weapons beat you. I want to believe, if only for the sake of dramatics, that the Mavs can turn this thing around. But in reality, this entire series has felt like the Mavericks were only a footnote for the Hornets' reclamation project. We'll see if the Mavericks are ready to call it a year or not.
2. Not Only Is The Future Now, The Past Is Then: You have to wonder if Jason Kidd may have irreparably harmed his legacy with this trade to Dallas. In New Jersey, he could have made the playoffs a few more years, collected a few dozen more tri-ple dou-bles and sailed off into the sunset. Now he's the old dude that can't keep up with Paul, who tried to decapitate Jannero Pargo, and may have ruined the Mavs' longterm flexibility. Kidd's still going to go down as one of the best in the game, but perhaps it would have been better to stay somewhere he could divert the criticism to others, like, oh, say, Vince Carter.
In another of our continuing series, five things to keep an eye out for tonight in the Hornets-Mavericks game tonight.
1. The Answer Was As Plain As The Jet On Your Runway: "We'll trap him with Dirk and Kidd!" Negative. "We'll pull Howard up and use man-help!" No-go. "Wait a second, why don't we just put our small, fast, quick-handed guy on their small, fast, quick-handed guy?" Bingo. Jason Terry moved to the starter spot (where he belongs, taking Jerry Stackhouse's position , and Avery Johnson sicked him on Chris Paul. The results were impressive, to say the least. Paul was held to a reasonable 16 points and 10 assists, and was never able to really ignite his team. Paul brushed it off as primarily a matter of the Hornets not hitting shots (and their 38% field goal percentage would seem to back that up). But if the Mavs repeat the defensive feat of closing off the MVP-candidate's masterful game, well, then, NOLA's got problems.
2. Go West, Young Man: David West shot the ball 20 times in Game 3. He made 6 of them. That's, you know, bad. That's kind of a big deal for the Hornets' offense. West is the primary scorer on the squad. While Peja Stojakovic and Tyson Chandler are the auxiliary weapons, West is the main points producer. Without that offense, the Hornets don't go anywhere. However, some folks say that West rarely has back to back poor scoring games.
In another of our continuing series, five things to keep an eye out for tonight in the Hornets-Mavericks Game 3 tonight.
1. Now Would Be A Good Time To Walk The Walk, Stack: Jerry Stackhouse is apparently shopping for a fistfight with Byron Scott. He should be trying to kick the crap out of his own shooting performance. Stackhouse, limited by a groin injury, has only gotten 53 minutes in this series, and is shooting 31% from the field. Stack is a vital part of the Mavs' offense, and without him, they struggle to find a spark. In the playoffs, you need your key guys to hit big time shots, especially at home to get the crowd into it and demoralize the opposition. Stack better bring the fight to the court tonight.
2. Going To The Big D And I Mean Dallas Disappointment: The Hornets have not won a game in Dallas since 1998. Let me put that to you again. The Hornets have not beaten the Dallas Mavericks since before the debut of TRL. Bear in mind that these guys are in the same division. So a win tonight would be yet another declaration of a changing basketball culture for the Hornets franchise. That said, the Dallas crowd is always rabid, and the Mavs tend to feed off of it. Their backs are against the wall and they know it, so if they're going to make a stand, this is the place to do it. Circle the wagons, folks.
In another of our continuing series, five things to keep an eye out for tonight in the Mavericks at Hornets, Game 2 tonight.
1. Is CP3 Solvable?: The Mavericks thought they had it figured out going into Game 1. "Oh, okay, we'll trap him and take away his primary options." The word you're looking for there, Mavs, is "Errrrrr!" Thanks for playing! Chris Paul decided to dribble away from the trap and shoot, lighting up the Mavs. Unlike Steve Nash, making Paul the scorer is not a viable defensive option. It's back to the drawing board for the Mavs, though coach Avery Johnson says they "have some things" they're "working" on.
2. Fallout From "TapGate": Am I the only person that doesn't care about the lovetap David West gave Dirk Nowitzki and the fact that Nowitzki responded? If Nowitzki responds, it escalates, he possibly gets tossed, and possibly suspended, and we all know how that can work out. If you don't, just go ask Phoenix. The best revenge would be Dirk going off for 40 tonight and getting a win in the Easy. But if David West comes out and asserts himself again, it's going to reflect very poorly on the Mavs' leading man.
After Mark Cuban just the other day said he wouldn't trade away half his team for Jason Kidd, it appears that he's done (or is on the verge of doing) exactly that. With the Lakers and Suns making huge additions -- both literally and figuratively -- to their rosters, it seems like Dallas just wasn't willing to wait and see if their roster, once healthy, could compete with these clubs for a title. Sure the Mavericks have their share of issues, but as I see it, the addition of Kidd doesn't help to solve any of them.
The Mavericks' problems this year have been a lack of depth and too many injuries, which together can make for a deadly combination. Just look at the Mavs' last game against the Sixers, where they managed to score only 23 points in the entire second half. That's what happens when Jerry Stackhouse, Devin Harris, and Erick Dampier all sit with injuries, and you're left with the likes of Devean George and DeSagana Diop in your starting lineup. But despite all that, Dallas still has a 34-17 record, currently good for third in the West. When considering the fact that both Harris and Stack -- two main rotation guys -- were both expected back in the next couple of weeks, it seems that the injury portion of Dallas' problems would have worked itself out rather quickly.
On Monday, Mavericks GM Donnie Nelson mentioned at a press event that incumbent starting center Erick Dampier could come off the bench this season. Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News followed up to report that it's not a set-in-stone matter, and that Nelson was just generally speaking about the team's flexibility.
Who doesn't like a list, especially on a Monday morning when that's about all you can handle?
OK, sure. They traded their franchise player a year and a half ago for Kwame Brown and some Skittles. And yes, with the No. 2 pick they managed to select the only basketball player available who's biggest weakness is his ability to put the little ball in the big circle with the net attached (which I hear is kind of important). But hey, they needed to rebuild, and they rebuilt. But they have tons of cap space now, so much in fact, that they're actually under the CBA limit and have to spend some. 
The Mavericks are said to be the latest team interested in acquiring Ron Artest, but so far, their offer to trade for the mercurial (I love that word) star is a little light. Dallas is said to be offering up Jerry Stackhouse (decent player, veteran grit, solid scorer) and Brandon Bass (young, inexpensive, and possibly a Jason Maxiell-light) for Artest, but the Kings are holding out for more: like Josh Howard, perhaps. 
In another of our continuing series, five things to keep an eye out for tonight in the Mavs-Hornets game tonight. 
In another of our continuing series, five things to keep an eye out for tonight in the Hornets-Mavericks game tonight. 
In another of our continuing series, five things to keep an eye out for tonight in the Hornets-Mavericks Game 3 tonight.
In another of our continuing series, five things to keep an eye out for tonight in the Mavericks at Hornets, Game 2 tonight.
