As teams get eliminated from the 2009 NBA playoff picture, Fork 'Em figures out what went wrong.
"Love bravely, live bravely, be courageous, there's really nothing to lose." -Jewel
And really, what says "Charlotte Bobcats" like Jewel?
The Lottery is littered with teams that failed to meet expectations. Their hopes broken, their efforts for naught, they're left with nothing but frustration and depression. They limp towards the offseason with hope for nothing more than pina coladas and getting caught in the rain.
The Mavericks finally completed a long-rumored deal with Charlotte, but the eventual transaction looks more like an admission of a mistake than a potentially vital move.
Previous rumors placed Dallas in talks to grab Raymond Felton from the Bobcats in a multi-team deal that sent out DeSagana Diop, a player Dallas spent a full five-year mid-level on this past summer.
This offseason, NBA FanHouse will address important questions about the league. It will be a Summer of Answers. First up: the biggest draft busts of the decade.
The 2001 NBA Draft was pretty weak in terms of legitimate ballers who would be found contributing meaningful minutes for seasons to come. Sure, '01 gave us Tony Parker and Gilbert Arenas, but they went 28th and 31st overall respectively. Lottery picks that year were far from household names: Eddy Curry, Eddie Griffin, DeSagana Diop, and Rodney White were all selected in the top 10. But all of that doesn't make that year's number one overall selection, Kwame Brown, any less of a bust.
Before we lay out the evidence of Kwame's career suckitude, let's admit that he had quite a bit working against him coming into the league, shall we? He was the first player ever drafted number one overall directly out of high school (KG was taken fifth in '95), and to go along with that he had the pressure of being Michael Jordan's first draft pick as an executive of the Washington Wizards. Considering that Kwame turned out to have the mental toughness of a certain cake he destroyed one fateful night in Hermosa Beach, this was clearly going to be too much stress for the youngster to handle.
Next to Devin Harris, center DeSagana Diop was the clear #2 most valuable asset Dallas sent away to New Jersey in the midseason acquisition of Jason Kidd. He was the best defender the Mavericks had at a key defensive position. Surely, we would have helped some in rejecting the advances of David West and Tyson Chandler in Dallas' five-game first-round loss to New Orleans. He wouldn't have flipped the series -- but he would have helped.
Apparently, the Mavericks think so too, as the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram reports Diop has reached a five-year deal with Dallas for the full mid-level. That will take DeSagana right through his prime (he's 26), and could leave Dallas with one of the best defenders in the league at center, which seems important as Andrew Bynum, Amare Stoudemire, Al Jefferson, and Greg Oden hang around the West.
The key question, one partially answered by the signing: how will Rick Carlisle use Diop? In three seasons under Avery Johnson, Diop averaged no more than 18 minutes a game. You might blame foul trouble, but Diop recorded only 1.9 fouls per game this season in his 17 minutes with Dallas.
Johnson is (was?) a notorious micro-manager, and his constant in-game substitutions always offered an opportunity for jokes for road crowds. Diop's never going to be even so good as a Dikembe Mutombo on offense, but with a steady diet of minutes, he could at least become a Mark Eaton type anchor through his prime.
The Rotation is a weekly study on the NBA by one of our All-Star voices. In rotation this week is Brett Edwards.
The NBA has seen an unprecedented amount of player movement this season, including three deals which can only be described as flat out blockbusters. But as the choke-time Mavericks and suddenly atrocious Suns are learning, bringing in new, big name talent doesn't necessarily make your team better. It just makes it different, and different isn't likely to get you to the Finals. Now that the hype has blown over, it's clear that the Lakers have built themselves for a title, while the Suns and Mavericks are worse off than before they started. But why?
The trading-for-a-superstar craze began of course with the Celtics. Boston's off-season acquisitions of Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett -- along with the team running out to a fast start and the league's best record -- "proved" a couple of things to general managers everywhere. One, teams that aren't going anywhere are willing to move their superstars, for the price of young unproven talent and/or some players with expiring contracts. This creates immediate flexibility for future moves under the salary cap, and/or buys the GM years of job security while waiting for the young players to come into their own. And two, guess what? When you have a team stocked with All-Stars, there's a good chance that you can compete for a title.
It's obvious to most hardcore NBA fans that while the Jason Kidd to Dallas trade certainly made the Mavs more glamorous, it did in fact cost them pretty heavily. There was, of course, Devin Harris, their point guard of the future. But more importantly for a championship run this year, there was DeSagana Diop. He wasn't really what you'd call an everyday name, but he did provide stout interior defense and a penchant for shot blocking. Also, since Erick Dampier is not good foul prone, Diop's ability to eat up large chunks of minutes in the post were pretty critical for Dallas. They have been looking to fill that void since the deal went down, and it looks like they may have found a fill-in in recently waived Jamaal Magloire.
Center Jamaal Magloire, released by the Nets on Friday, will sign with the Mavericks when he clears waivers later this evening, according to a league source.
Like renting Dude, Where's My Car? because you laughed for two hours one Saturday night a few years ago in college, you'd probably be stretching it to try and use Magloire's All Star campaign of five years ago to refer to him as "great". Or "good", really. He's only 29 though, and while his track record the past few years hasn't been spectacular, he's the best option the Mavs have available right now given howt desperately they need a big body in the middle. Although, had Magloire, who will reportedly sign a one year deal for the vet's minimum, held out a little longer, he probably could be starting for Houston tomorrow.
In the end, something convinced Keith Van Horn to take the four million dollars to come out of retirement and "play" for the New Jersey Nets. Whether it was his love for the Mavs and Nets and Mark Cuban and Rod Thorn, respectively, or whether it was the four million dollars ... well, who can really say? Either way, it appears that the deal is [finally, almost!] sealed and Jason Kidd, who did not practice with New Jersey on Monday, will be heading to Dallas.
The Nets and Mavericks had to pass an unprecedented series of challenges by the NBA, but the final hurdle was cleared tonight, when Keith Van Horn consented to sign a $4 million contract that makes the trade work financially and report to New Jersey for what is estimated to be 30 days of work.
All that's left now is an official rubber stamp from the league.
In a separate deal, the Nets will dispatch Antoine Wright to Dallas for a $1.6 million trade exception to create the necessary roster spot for Van Horn.
So, in the end, Cubes gets the point guard that he thinks will put the Mavericks over the top. He also grabs, in what I think could end up being a sneaky steal, Wright from the Nets. The Nets get to reload on their point guard situation with the youthful Harris and pick up some cap flexibility. And Kidd doesn't have to remember 2008 as the most awkward year of his life. Is it a good deal? Well, the Nets got a good deal because Kidd wasn't taking them anywhere. As has been commonly observed over the last few days, though, the deal only works for the Mavericks if they win a title.
That's right! The trade "has legs" again, so sayeth Ernie Johnson. Well, the trade initially had about 14 legs, but then appeared to be practically torso-less, following the stubbornness of Devean George and the wordsmithing of Jerry Stackhouse. But things are not completely bleak for Jason Kidd, desperate to get the heck out of Jersey, as it appears that the deal is back on track, albeit with a few different parts.
Reportedly, there is a conference call scheduled with the league for Monday morning, at which time everything will be made formal, although given what happened last time, I would hardly expect Mark Cuban to come out and announce anything until the t's, etc. are crossed. And one would guess to, that he has made sure Donnie Nelson has Van Horn's approval to get traded.
This is basically the same deal for both teams, and there's probably a good chance that Rod Thorn has already spoken to Hassell about a buyout, although I am completely speculating on that issue. Hassell seems relatively unimportant, but he's a good defender, even if his contract is bigger than Stackhouse's long term. Again, we'll have more once the deal is finalized but it is also interesting to note that Kidd's response to David Aldridge's questioning was that his gut feeling had him in Dallas tomorrow morning. You know what my gut feeling says? Devean George is going to be super-popular in the Dallas metro area for the rest of the season.
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.
You might not actually hear about it anywhere on television this afternoon, since ESPN is reporting it, because of this Clement guy talking politics to some people, but Marc Stein is saying that the Dallas Mavericks and New Jersey Nets have reached a deal in principle that will send Jason Kidd Western-bound to a contender, and one that will seemingly make both parties happy (well, the Mavericks for the foreseeable future anyway).
Although sources say that the teams are still sorting out final details, this deal was described as "imminent" by multiple sources close to the process after negotiations moved to an advanced stage Tuesday night. The deal -- salvaged from talks on a three-way trade with Portland that developed and fizzled quickly two weeks ago -- has Dallas sending 24-year-old point guard Devin Harris, veteran swingman Jerry Stackhouse, the expiring contracts of center DeSagana Diop and swingman Devean George and guard Maurice Ager to New Jersey for Kidd and forward Malik Allen. Sources say Dallas will also add the league-maximum $3 million in cash and send its first-round draft pick this June as well as a first-rounder in 2010.
But wait! We're not done! Stein also has sources in his ear that report that the Nets will immediately buy out Stackhouse's contract, making him a free agent.
Hold on! There's more! It turns out there is also a deal in the mix to send Antoine Wright to Dallas for the Mavericks second round pick in 2008. So, to recap, Dallas gets aging, wily, etc., triple-double machine point guard and makes a run at the Finals now. New Jersey on the other hand, somehow escapes salary cap purgatory and manages to get rid of their superstar without really making him angry or causing any backlash from his agent.
As teams get eliminated from the 2009 NBA playoff picture, Fork 'Em figures out what went wrong.
The Mavericks finally completed a long-rumored deal with Charlotte, but the eventual transaction looks more like an admission of a mistake than a potentially vital move.
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It's obvious to most hardcore NBA fans that while the 
