Find a way to get rid of everyone except Dirk and Bass. Absolutely everyone else was a huge disappointment this series.

Why on earth would you want Devean George back? That guy is awful, I want to vomit every time he enters a game. I know he can play defense, and he hit a couple of big shots tonight… Before tonight, can you remember (without looking it up) when the last time he had more than 4 points? I don’t think he is a very good ‘locker room’ guy either.

Hopefully for the Mavs, we don’t have to endure another year of 1 for 7 stat lines from George.

I really hope Tyronn Lue comes back… I think he, Bass, and Kidd (smirk) were the best additions this year.

I have absolutely given up on Josh Howard, but I don’t think he is going anywhere.

Cuban won’t sit on his hands this off-season, and I think Avery will be the first to go. I’m not sure how I feel about yet…

Never too early to start talking about next year! Besides what am I going to do until Football starts again? Watch Baseball?

But David Lord broke down the reality of the Mavs here a few weeks back. It aint pretty guys.

SUMMER SHOPPING – A QUICK GLANCE AHEAD

The Mavs will go into the summer with only seven players locked up for next season; all five starters (Dampier, Nowitzki, Josh Howard, Stackhouse, Kidd) plus two key reserves (Terry, Bass).

The status of the other eight players will be as follows:

Jones – player option for another year at about $2M.
George – Mavs will have Early Bird rights to sign him or to use him in a sign-and-trade; despite Cuban’s past protests, given the need to fill up so many roster slots, the Mavs may be wise to keep their options open here
Wright – a fourth-year player whose option was declined, he will be an unrestricted free agent, and if both sides want him to return, the Mavs will have the ability to offer him up to that declined option amount (about a 30% raise) without using MLE money
Barea – restricted free agent, Mavs will have Early Bird rights
Magloire, Allen, Lue, Juwan Howard – all four veterans are coming off one-year minimum salary contracts and the Mavs will have to use MLE money if they want to offer more than a minimum salary contract to keep any of them

The Mavs’ priorities in free agency will be affected by how the current roster plays through the playoffs and which of their free agents want to stay here. Isn’t there also going to be a glaring need for a second center from somewhere else this summer, if Magloire doesn’t discover the fountain of youth?

Based on what we’ve seen so far, we’d definitely love to see Allen, Lue, and even Wright back for at least another year. That still leaves a whole boatload of decisions to make to fill up the roster.

The worst news about all this? Bass is the up and coming star on this team, and it doesnt look like we will be able to hold on to him after next year. At 22 years old, we are losing such a young asset who has played better than all the senior citizen veterans we had on this team.

BRANDON BASS FUTURE

As Bass develops, we offer a cautionary contractual note.

He is on a two-year contract and becomes a free agent in the summer of 2009. Unfortunately, at that point, due to CBA limits the Mavs will only have the ability to offer him a deal that starts at Mid-Level (MLE) money using what is known as the Early Bird cap exception for players with 2 years of consecutive service. The MLE will likely be around $6M, meaning a team with more cap room than that could outbid the Mavs for his ongoing services.

Perhaps a multi-year deal starting at $6M (and raises) will be enough. Or perhaps he would sign a one-year deal for that $6M, getting the Mavs to 3 years of service and the ability to then offer in the summer of 2010 any contractual amount using the full Bird rights that kick in after 3 years.

But the better he gets, the harder it may be to keep him.

Avery, if this shows you anything, its that younger guys CAN play significant roles on this team, if you allow them.

It will be hard to do much trading in the West and with playoff teams, so here’s a proposal – Kidd, Howard and Bass to Milwaukee for Redd, Bogut and Williams. I would hate to lose Bass, but we have to give up some value. Maybe the Kidd expiring contract and the chance to match Kidd with Yi will entice them to do it.

I think he would great for this team. A pure shooting guard and an actual legit all star to match with Dirk. On realgm.com I found that Howard, Stackhouse, and Jones would work for Redd, but Jones can’t be traded, because of a restriction, so we would have to do a sign and trade with someone(Devean George?).

That would have been a great starting lineup.