UPDATE: The trade has been agreed upon in principle.
Once again, we see an owner parading the status of trades to the media. And once again, we never should have believed him.
SJ hit it on the head. This is nuts. Gasol; great. Shaq; pretty iffy, but fits the bill if the Suns are worried about size. Now Kidd to Dallas; I hope you know what you are doing Marky Mark.
The trade has Devin Harris, Jerry Stackhouse and DeSagana Diop, with other pieces (Ager, 1st rounders) thrown in for Kidd and Malik Allen. You have to admit its kind of funny that while the other two teams are adding bulk, the Suns sacrificing speed to do so, the Mavs are trading away one of their two best shotblockers for a point guard — albeit one who rebounds incredibly well.
The Mavs lose bench scoring in Stackhouse, and you assume that role is now Jason Terry’s for keeps. He is going to have to be a big part of a Dallas playoff run on the offensive end. They lose Diop, part of the Dampier/Diop duo of one-of-them-should-play-well-tonight center rotation, which means they will probably play “small” with Dirk at the five at times and Brandon Bass at the four. Defensively, they better hope Dampier is on his game and they get something out of Malik Allen, because the Mavs would be getting weaker in the one area everyone else got stronger.
And of course they lose Harris, the “point guard of the future.” I’ve never been sold on him as a superstar or anything, but Cuban and the staff their are apparently sold on him not breaking out huge as well. Harris shoots a full .100 percentage points better than Kidd from the field, and is much faster these days, but where they lose bulk in the middle, they gain it at the point. Its been awhile since Jason has been out West playing against the elite PG’s in the playoffs, but clearly the assumption is that since almost everyone else has a good-to-great primary ball handler, this is where Dallas needed to add an edge. Sizewise, Kidd has the advantage on nearly all the West PG’s except for the bulk of Deron Williams.
And really, we just can’t underestimate the effect of adding a great PG to a team. SJ pointed how just how big the divide between Kidd and Harris is right now.
You have to wonder how this will work with Dirk. Kidd will be able to get the ball to him in good position whenever Dirk wants to shoot that 15-footer, and the pick-and-roll could be devastating if Kidd can hit a couple jumpers (larger task than you think). Josh Howard would play well with anybody and Kidd can only make him better.
The other thing to look at is raw playoff experience. Kidd has been to the Finals twice, and given what has happened to the Mavs in recent years, they need leadership down the stretch more than anything. It should ease the burden off Dirk and make him a better, looser player by default.
From the Blazers side of things, Kevin Pritchard has got to be happy. Dallas’ window is getting bigger, but closing faster now. Unlike the Lakers, who got better for now and in the future, the Suns and Mavs just opened things up even more for that Blazers push in two years. The Mavs will still have Dirk and Josh when Kidd leaves, but will they end up in the land of mediocrity for a number of years without low lotto picks (they lose this year and 2010 first rounders in the deal as well)? Though taking a look at the salary situation, Kidd has this year and the next on the books, so the Mavs could be a couple million under the cap in ’09, but it doesn’t look like far enough ($6-7 million) to dramatically hinder the hinted-at Blazers spending spree.
Quick sidenote: what does this do to all-star teams? Does the West just get a 13-man roster? I doubt they would bump anybody off the team. Does Calderon get added to the East? Man, the East team might have some rough going without Kidd running the show.
This wasn’t a necessary move by Cuban, but he seems to think it is, and it does make the Mavs better IF they get solid production from Dampier/Bass come playoff time. New Jersey cleans up a nice bit of salary and gets a still-developing young prospect for their move to Brooklyn, so they come out looking fine in this. I’d say the recent (possible) moves look like this:
Best: Gasol
OK but not great: Kidd
Questionable: Shaq
On paper the Mavs stay on par with the top dogs, though not up there with the Lakers and what they’ve amassed. But the Mavs have been the best team on paper before, and look where that got them. There is so much talent in the West now it’s ridiculous. We can argue back and forth over who is better than the other, but the truth is really one of five different squads could emerge from the fray.
The playoffs, simply put, will be awesome.
Naturally, this is all a moot point if the trade doesn’t go through. And Kidd sure isn’t helping them guard big Oden next year.