Trade approved ... and Mavericks getting high marks | DMN
"It makes us significantly better," owner Mark Cuban said. "Damp [Erick Dampier] is having problems with his knees and requires rest every now and then, and we were in a spot without having a shot-blocker behind him. Drew did a great job. He laid it out there every game for us to try to fill in. Going into the season we thought that would work, and it just didn't play out as planned. "Any which way you evaluate his performance, [Haywood] has been a top-five to seven center. And he's a top-five center defensively. This gives us a lot of flexibility."
Dallas Mavericks, Washington Wizards complete seven-player deal | ESPN Dallas
"Caron is an established professional and an All-Star with the ability to score from anywhere on the floor," said Donnie Nelson, the Mavericks' president of basketball operations. "Brendan will solidify our center position with athleticism, shot-blocking and defense. DeShawn has also shown that he can be a talented asset to this team."
It's Official! Mavs Announce Seven-Player Trade | DB.com
"We would like to thank these four players for their valuable contributions," Nelson said. "It is especially difficult to part with Josh. He began his career as a Maverick and we have watched him grow. We appreciate what Josh has helped this franchise accomplish." A couple of questions remain, in terms of some of the "loose ends'' we've discussed in recent hours. Examples: This deal is saving Washington room for the future but isn't offering short-term savings. And what about that Trade Exception the Mavs can offer? We'll assume the Mavs are working to find value for it elsewhere ... but that's a secondary focus.
Mavs Trade Upgrades On-Court Chances And Off-Court Options | David Lord - DB.com
We know that all along, in the teams’ conversations, Haywood was as important a Mavs get as Butler was. Haywood is in the last year of a deal that pays him $6 million. This summer, Dallas will have his Bird Rights – meaning he’s likely going nowhere. The Mavs plan on re-signing him and making him the full-time center for the long-term future … and while they do that with one center, they dangle The DUST Chip with the other. (Haywood's presence means a sign-and-trade involving Damp won't require a center coming back. ... and of course, the way we've discussed it from the start is that a traded-and-then-cut Damp would end up boomeranging back here anyway.)
Marc Stein's Twitter
In response to any suggestion out there that Haywood could have been held onto by Wiz: Mavs would never have done this deal without Haywood.
Trade Puts Mavs 'On Par' With Kobe's Lakers. Says Who? Says Kobe | DB.com
Dallas’ initial concern has nothing to do with the Lakers. Butler and Haywood need to be integrated into the system – and fast. The Mavs come out of the post-All-Star-Break gates with a schedule featuring two back-to-backs in the first five days and no more than one day between games until mid-March. That means very little practice time … on-the-job training for a pair of newcomers who might both start … but will at least be counted on to be in two of the first six rotation spots.
Caron Butler to the Mavericks | Kelly Dwyer - Ball Don't Lie
Haywood can change this. He changes shots, can rebound well on the defensive end, and can hold assuming he handles the perfectly-placed pass. Throw in the fact that his quite reasonable (around the league average) contract expires after this season, and you have a potential gem on your hands. DeShawn Stevenson is terrible, and though the Mavericks are badly lacking in depth, coach Rick Carlisle would be well served to pass on handing this guy minutes, especially if he continues to chuck at his current rate. Just because you've heard of him, it doesn't make him any good.
Transaction Analysis: Dallas-Washington | Kevin Pelton - Basketball Prospectus
At 32-20, Dallas is just 2.5 games behind second-place Denver in the Western Conference and fourth overall in the West, but the Mavericks' have outscored opponents by just 1.7 points per game. Even accounting for a more difficult schedule than average, their +2.2 schedule-adjusted differential is 12th in the league in eighth in the conference. As a result, you'd expect a correction in Dallas' record the rest of the way, but this trade may prevent that from happening and allow the Mavericks to take advantage of their good fortune so far. I still don't think Dallas is on par with the Jazz or Nuggets, let alone the Lakers, but if Butler plays at his previous level the Mavericks jump ahead of anyone else in the conference and are competitive enough that they can hope for an upset or two this spring.
Dallas Makes a Contending Move | David Berri - The Wages of Wins Journal
Consequently, it’s possible the Mavericks could win about 21 of their final 30 games (this estimate is based upon my guess of how many minutes each player will play down the stretch). Had the Mavericks stayed the same, this team could have expected to win about 17 more games. So in terms of the final standings, this move doesn’t really alter the final record dramatically. But that’s because there are only 30 games left. If we look at how this team would be expected to perform across 82 games, though, we see a bigger difference. Winning 21 out of 30 games translates into a final mark of 57 wins. Looking back at Table One, we see that a 57 win team would rank just behind the LA Lakers in the Western Conference.
Washingtonost.com
The deal also provides nearly $2.5 million in cap relief this season for the Wizards, who will ship out about $19.7 million in salaries while getting back $17.3 million.
Breaking down Wiz-Mavs deal | John Hollinger - ESPN
For the Mavs, the success of the trade might come down to the names in agate type, not the headliners. That is, Haywood and Gooden may be fairly similar in terms of PER, but look at plus-minus stats and a very different picture emerges. According to Basketballvalue.com, Dallas gives up 11.25 points per 100 possessions more with Gooden on the court, one of the worst marks in basketball. Much of that is a result of his role in the rotation -- he's either playing as an undersized center or replacing Dallas' best player, Dirk Nowitzki -- and it indicates that he's hardly a great fit on the Mavs' roster. On the other hand, Haywood's plus-minus numbers over the past half-decade have been spectacular. This season, for instance, Washington is 8.46 points per 100 possessions better with him on the court.
Fun is over: Wizards had to make a move | Washington Post
Arenas and Butler were never on the same page (And that's sugarcoating it. As one person close to the team told me, "Those guys just flat out didn't like each other"). The team was never unified this season. And, now it has been drastically altered. The Wizards had known for some time that they had lost any leverage to receive equal value in a trade as the team continued to pile up losses. They talked to several teams, and while they wanted draft picks or young prospects few were willing to offer much more than salary cap relief.
LeBron James high on Mavericks' trade, Caron Butler | DMN
"Love him. There's one thing about this league, you can't substitute toughness," James said. "He's very good everywhere he's been, in LA, Miami and now Washington. He's a very, very good player who complements a lot of good players. He was an All-Star last year, and he's definitely one of those guys you have to key on when you play him."
Dirk on the trade | DMN
"Well, I think it gives us some more options. Butler is definitely a guy that is very explosive offensively. He can put the ball in the basket. Haywood gives us another presence at the rim. "With the injury that Damp had the last month, I think you saw our front line wasn't really that big and our defense kind of suffered from it. So I think Haywood gives us some presence at the rim, shot-blocking and finishing in there, protecting the paint for us. So that should be big.