FanHouse DrewGooden

FanHouse previews all 30 NBA teams in advance of the 2009-10 season.

It has become popular nowadays to take a movie or idea that was popular 20 years ago and revitalize it, tweaking it for a more modern touch, in order to attract both new and old audiences. It incorporates the base elements of the original and then features a modern "twist" in order to seem "hip."

In a lot of ways, that's the story of the 2009-10 Dallas Mavericks. They're not the same old Mavericks, but they're not the new Mavericks either.

WASHINGTON -- Gilbert Arenas may be eliminating the often outrageous, sometimes peculiar behavior that once added to his popularity, but the rest of his game is coming back just fine.

The explosiveness has returned.

The 28-29-point scoring average may be fading into history, along with the Agent Zero and the Hibachi personas, but a more valuable, more productive 20-point, 10-assist guy could be brewing inside him.

It's what the Washington Wizards need.

Now with his seventh NBA team, Drew Gooden has played a variety of roles in his much-traveled NBA career. He is about to have a new one -- starting center for a Western Conference contender, according to a radio report cited by DallasBasketball.com.

When Gooden was signed as a free agent this summer by the Dallas Mavericks, it was widely assumed that he was coming mostly to provide depth in the front court for a veteran team still hoping to make a final push before it starts to rebuild.

That just wasn't true, apparently.

The NBA has been in full-on arms race mode this summer, starting when Shaq packed his bags for "The Rock N' Roll Capital of the World." And it hasn't just been high-profile starters being snatched off the market by contenders. Teams are also focusing on depth as a way to gain an advantage. The Dallas Mavericks have been particularly active, re-signing Jason Kidd, acquiring Shawn Marion, and making a failed bid for Marcin Gortat. After the Magic surprisingly matched their offer for Gortat, it appeared the Mavericks had accepted fate and were content to head into the season as is.

Well, not so much. Saturday night Marc Stein (you may have heard his name once or twice) confirmed details of a one-year deal struck between the Mavericks and free agent forward Drew Gooden, which Gooden also confirmed via Twitter (it's so hot right now).

So what exactly does Gooden provide the Mavericks?

As expected, it didn't take the recently bought out Drew Gooden and Joe Smith long to find new teams -- by all accounts, the two power forwards each had unofficial agreements in place even before the NBA confirmed they cleared waivers.

The two brawny power forwards pictured at right won't be wasting the time leading up to this summer's free agency languishing on a high lottery team. The excellent Brian Windhorst of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that Oklahoma City agreed to waive cagey veteran Joe Smith in time to join a playoff team. Windhorst has sources that call the Cavaliers a lock as Smith's destination.

Drew Gooden, meanwhile, became a surprise addition to the buy-out list. Traded to the Kings a week-and-change ago, Gooden has played only one game in Royal Purple. But the rebuilding Kings have young talent in the frontcourt and no real need to, um, win. Sam Amick of the Sacramento Bee first reported the possibility of a buy-out Saturday; it happened just an hour before the midnight Eastern deadline. San Antonio looks like a potential landing place.

But a team with no shot at either -- the Boston Celtics -- might be the biggest story out of the last-minute buy-outs.

(Warning: I'm a Kings fan, and I'm a little unstable right now.) The belle of this season's trade deadline ball has been, in the absence of Amare Stoudemire, Mr. John Salmons. Salmons is a fine little player, a 29-year-old jack-of-some-trades who can score and pass and defend.

Brad Miller ... well, you know about him. A highly skilled center who can't jump over a pancake (not that he'd want to) and carries a $12 million salary next season. Everyone wanted in on Salmons, while Miller's destinations seemed few. Idea! Why not package them together to make sure you lose the dud? Sacramento did just that today in swapping the pair for Chicago's Drew Gooden and Andres Nocioni.

It appears All-Star Weekend will come and go without an official Amar'e Stoudemire trade. That's probably for the best; it'd just be weird to see an All-Star starter playing for the wrong conference in his own town.

But the apparent stay on Stoudemire's Phoenix career for a few more days hasn't limited the rumors. The big, flashing arrow this weekend points toward Chicago, with four independent reports mentioning the basic parts and another quoting a Chicago reporter as telling Amar'e he's heading to the Windy City.

When Suns' head coach Terry Porter mentioned before the season that he was considering resting Shaquille O'Neal at various times throughout the season, I took it as him saying it was something he may do occasionally. As it turns out though, it appears to be the rule rather than the exception so far, and (needlessly) doing so at this point in the season cost the team a game that would otherwise have been winnable last night in Chicago.

The Suns planned to give Shaq the night off in Indiana, when the team was playing the second game of a back-to-back, and the big fella had put in 24 strong minutes the night before in New Jersey. In fact, Shaq was dressed in a suit up until about 20 minutes before tip-off, but was called to action after starter Matt Barnes left the team to be with his fiancee, who was giving birth to a set of twins. O'Neal played less than 12 minutes though, and with Amare Stoudemire blowing up for 49 points, the team got by without him.

After a day off, the Suns traveled to Chicago, but decided to give Shaq a night of rest because they again were facing back-to-back games, and the thinking was that tonight's opponent, the Milwaukee Bucks, would pose a bigger challenge in the paint than the Bulls. The Bucks have Andrew Bogut; the Bulls play Drew Gooden and Joakim Noah. But with the Suns already missing one of their starters, did they really need to give Shaq a night of rest, just six games into this young season?

The state of NBA hairdom is in a bit of flux these days. Boris Diaw's afro, Daniel Gibson's Batman symbol, DeShawn Stevenson's swangin' flat top ... these are all beauties in their own rite, for sure. But for the third straight season, it appears Drew Gooden will take the top award for most gully/abnormal look in the league.

Two years ago, it was the Neckstache aka the Hyphy Patch aka Flypaper for the Ladies. Last season, Gooden grew a medium-sized animal on his chin to battle Stevenson in a beard-growing contest. (Gooden shaved first and lost. Rumors cite that the massive beard was close to blocking out the sun and ending civilization.) Anyone who caught a glimpse of Drew's Bulls in the preseason or in the Tuesday opener knows he has debuted this thing, a tentacle piece that belongs in a sci-fi flick more than the League of Style.

SLAM's Lang Whitaker has the scoop on the inspiration of this look.