to pick up a high second-rounder on draft day? I’d like to see us get another pick in the Darren Collison/Dionte Christmas/Toney Douglas area. Also, is there any possibility Jrue Holliday drops to 22 or into the second round? His upside is huge and he might be an option at PG if he can learn a little from Kidd.

we trade for a center. Tyson Chandler or Chris Kaman maybe. Also if we could sign a free agent like Ariza for our bench, that’d be good.

I would like to move up the draft into the top 5. Maybe washington or memphis would trade their picks. Also, I would try to get Kaman cheap right now. The Clippers are excited because they will draft Griffin who is another frontcourt player and will be trying to unload at least one of the front guys. Kaman is still young, can score and defend. And he has that trade kicker that makes his contract bad enough so we don’t have to take additional bad contracts and also makes him untradeable to most nba teams, we would be their only option. And for the 2 spot I would go for Anthony Randolph or Stephen Jackson. I would like to have Josh Smith or Redd but I don’t think it’s possible, so …

Damp + Stack for Shaq. Yeah, Shaq’s not in his prime, he’s not a great defender nowadays blah blah… He’s an upgrade. A big upgrade.

Outside of that there’s a fair little free agent crop, we can sign and trade Bass (I love him but he’s gonna be a starter somewhere and in my world Shaq’s our next starting center).

I say hold out on trading J-Ho. He’s still got so much promise.

The Mavs are still in win-now mode and the team won’t blow it up & rebuild until Dirk’s days of leading a team to a championship are toast. For this reason, I don’t think the Mavs will be a huge player in the draft. There simply isn’t time to draft a lottery-caliber player and let him develop.

Let’s be clear about what the Mavs are… at their core, they’re still the team that was built to beat teams like the Shaq-era Lakers and the Duncan-era Spurs. However, the new crop of championship caliber teams like the current Lakers and Nuggets are built very differently, focusing on athleticism. Thus, the Mavs need to re-tool with a few better athletes to seriously compete for titles.

Regarding Jason Kidd and the PG position – If there was a better PG available with more athleticism, I’d press hard to get him. Ready for the bad news? There’s not. Kidd has many weaknesses in his game at this point in his career, but there are two things Dallas needs to focus on:
Focus 1: Making sure Kidd re-signs in Dallas. Let’s face it: I’m sure Kidd would like the storybook ending of retiring as a Maverick, but the allure of a championship via LA, CLE, etc is enormous. Dallas needs to make a big move this summer just to retain Kidd. They’ll still have to pay through the nose to sign him, but like I said, it’s their best option for ‘09-10.
  
Focus 2: Surround Kidd with better athletes. How many incredible Kidd passes did Dampier fumble away? A lot. How many alley-oops did Kidd throw this year? Not many. Surround Kidd with better athletes and he’ll really be able to shine. I truly feel that the Mavs’ roster, as currently built, cannot truly take advantage of Kidd’s talents as a distributor.

What move should the Mavs make?
Get Tyson Chandler from New Orleans. N.O. won’t want to send Chandler to a strong division rival, but it’s pretty obvious that ownership doesn’t want his salary around. Chandler can be most of the things Dampier is at the defensive end and can be LOTS of things Dampier isn’t at the offensive end. I’m salivating at the thought of the potential Kidd-Chandler alley-oops. He will also be a better fit against more athletic centers that kill the Mavs, the Gasol/Nene/Bynum types.

Honestly, I’m not sure what move comes next. I don’t have a good source for “real” contract info (i.e. who has buyout options, team options, etc) and I’m not sure how many bargaining chips Dallas will have left after Chandler. Here’s the roster after the Chandler deal (I’ll assume that Damp won’t be around):

C: Chandler, Hollins
PF: Dirk, Bass
SF: Howard, Green/Singleton/???
SG: Terry, Wright
PG: Kidd, Barea

I think there’s still a huge roster spot available for a SF with a defensive mindset and the quickness to play the 2. They could take minutes from Green/Singleton and also Wright. This is where the Mavs could really find a diamond in the rough, via free agency or a 3-4 year college player who falls in the draft.

Finally, I have a question: Will Dallas have to use part of it’s MLE to re-sign Bass? I was under the impression that you could re-sign your own players without having to use the MLE. That may only apply to restricted FAs or Bird-rights FAs, though. Thanks to anyone who can clarify the situation.

BAREA: This won’t be popular, but I’m betting J.J. won’t be back. The Mavs need more than expiring salaries for trade; they also need to give up some cheap role players who can be sold to a fan base as more than they’re really worth. One of those would be Bass in a sign-and-trade, the other J.J., and I (and I’m betting Donnie Nelson too) would be far more willing to give up J.J. I love Barea, and he will be a fan favorite wherever he goes. But given the age of Kidd, the Mavs need to use the second point guard spot to groom his replacement – that is, unless they go really, really cheap and find a really rough player they can park on the bench for two years. The problem is that Barea will never be more than a second guard, primarily because he can’t play defense against most guards in the league, and that’s a problem on a team with so many defensive holes.

WRIGHT: I also think Antoine Wright should go. Though he’s been an upgrade on Griffin and others who have filled this spot in recent years, the fact is that they need an athletic scorer or an athletic defender (hopefully both) in this slot, and Wright’s defense, while helpful, is deficient against real athletes, and his offensive inconsistency is a killer. He alternates between unexpectedly prolific scoring and 0-8 shooting days.

TERRY: Despite the general love for Terry out there, I would not mind losing him for value: he’s got a lot of spunk, but is a serious defensive liability and is one-dimensional offensively, a fact which was exposed in the playoffs. His contract may be difficult to trade, but not for an even more overpaid player, or as part of a package for the same.

NEEDS: Assuming Kidd is resigned, an athletic young point guard who can play defense and grow into the starting role, serving initially as Kidd’s backup. A center who can match-up against Nene and other athletic centers – perhaps Chandler. But Kaman? No. The key is to get younger and more athletic, not get another big, white, floppy center such as Kaman (who reminds me of the long line of big, white Mav centers, from Uwe Blab to Jim Farmer). The Mavs have done a great job of recycling guys such as Singleton and Bass (and Diop before the mid-level mistake), but we need to start using those roster spots on future starters.

UPSHOT: Donnie Nelson’s done a good job of trying to tamp down expectations recently, but this team needs more than cosmetic changes, no matter what he says. I’m betting two of three are gone from Barea, Bass, Wright – perhaps 3 of 3 if Bass goes via free agency on his own to a team that will start him. That will mean real changes. Howard or Terry should also go.

why would anyone want baron davis or kris kaman………..davis’s contract is waaaaaaay above his desires to produce, besides, he left oakland to be in LA where he could produce videos and be around the movie industry, and kamen is always hurt and not much better than dampiere ??

1. Mavs:Jason Terry, S. williams, A. Wright
     for
Kings:Kevin Martin, Beno udrih, Donte green
Both teams improve, kings need a point guard and mavs get a great sg.

2. Mavs:Dampier, Barea, Stackhouse
   for
Bucks:Bogut, ridnour, bell, Mbah A Moute
Dampier is slow but doesn’t get injured much, but Bogut is an incredible player who is gret when not injured and he looks to make a full recovery this year.

Both of thse trades would greatly help the Mavericks and pose a starting lineup of:
Jason Kidd(if brought back)
Kevin Martin
Josh Howard
Dirk Nowitzk
Andrew Bogut

And add bell, ridnour, greene, udrih, and Mbah A Moute to the bench.
This team could go from a 50 win team to a 60 win team.
Would you go through on these trades?

We need a slasher of some sort that can get to the rim on a regular basis. I think athleticism was sorely missed this year.

dumbass trade scenarios on blogs like this and I really don’t know why I started now. Most of the trades purposed on here make sense for the MAVS but absolutely ZERO sense for the other team. Hell, I say we trade for Dwight Howard, Kobe Bryant, and Chris Paul……THAT makes ALMOST as much sense as some of the trades on here. For some reason people seem to forget that other teams MIGHT actually want SOMETHING IN RETURN. And it’s pretty asisine to think otherwise.

i agree Cynthia, especially ev1 wanting Baron Davis and Chris Kamen……..Kamen who is ALWAYS hurt and cant play……………and Davis who dont want to play anymore……….be like paying Finley $18 mil for 3 years to play for the spurs, all the armchair GM’s here, glad they dont have the real job of doing it !

and something also to stir up the pot. Let’s say the lakers lose in the Conference finals to the Nuggets.. starting a chain of events. Phil Jackson decides he wants to retire and Kobe decides he will go ahead and opt out. (correct me if I’m wrong but Kobe still does have an opt out clause after this season doesn’t he?) Kobe signs with us to play with Dirk and Kidd and voile, we are back on top.

Haha not this is likely or anything, but I guess you never say never.

if we do make these moves to pull in a second banana for Dirk. Sure, I’m all in for them with our chances to get a 2010 FA seemingly low (I still like Joe Johnson, but Atlanta look good to resign him).

Remember the last time the Mavs’ tried building an all-star team and got Jamison and Walker? They never really got the chemistry or defense right and won 52 games on basically offensive talent alone, and then got run over by the Kings.

Davis has a bad contract. He’s on the books for the next four seasons ($12.1 million, $13 million, $13.9 million, $14.75 million). That aside I hesitate to pick him up coming off a 37% shooting 19-63 season. He’s missed at least 15 games in 6 of 7 seasons. Maybe he does just want to be on a better team, maybe he just wants to be away from the Clippers, but how long until he decides he doesn’t like Dallas? Do you want a guy who doesn’t play or play well because he’s not happy? Kamen would be an upgrade from Damp, but he’s got a $34 million dollar contract stretched out over the next 3 years and has missed over half the Clippers games in the last 2 seasons with injuries.
I say Chandler or even Shaq before Kamen. I like Ariza too. I think LA will look to keep Odem OR Ariza but not both. Either one would be a nice addition to the Mavs. What about Rodrigue Beaudois? He’s not even projected to move until the 2nd round of the draft and this guy looks great. I don’t see us moving up in the draft but I think Beaudois is attainable and seriously underrated in this draft.

The Clippers would be getting rid of Kamen because they have to many big guys. Why would they trade for Damp? Are you saying if we got Chandler and Ariza we wouldn’t be better? we wouldn’t be contenders? Seriously? So Baron Davis and his 34% shooting (when he plays) would be better than Chandler and Ariza? No way. Chandler is an offensive threat and not just a deffensive role payer, and Ariza has the ability to put up respectable offensive numbers when he gets the minutes. Not to mention that he is a defensive monster. Beaudois is going to be great in a couple years so drafting him now would be a good move for the future. He could play PG and/or SG off the bench this year and by the time Kidd goes he will be ready to step in. Dude is a great shooter as well. Much better than 34%.