The three players most commonly linked to the Mavs are all wings: Kevin Martin, Andre Iguodala, and Caron Butler. The Mavs’ interest is said to flow in that order, meaning that acquiring Butler may very well be a back-up plan. It’s definitely an option, but hardly the option.
As my ESPN.com colleague Chad Ford wrote Thursday, Washington’s preference is moving Butler ahead of team statesman Antawn Jamison, who has been chased hard by Cleveland since last season and with particular vigor since the Cavs lost out to Charlotte in the trade race to acquire Stephen Jackson.
On the surface, a Jamison-to-Cleveland trade would seem somewhat irrelevant to the Mavs; a team in the opposite conference would get stronger by preying off of another team in the opposite conference, with none of the Mavs’ rumored targets directly compromised. But consider this: Cleveland is supposedly aggressively pursuing Antawn Jamison via trade, while the Mavs supposedly have something of a Josh Howard-Caron Butler swap on the back-burner. Though Washington may prefer to move Butler, they may not be in a position to move both Butler and Jamison. Trading away all of the talent opens up quite the can of worms, and the Wiz will have a rough go of it drawing season ticket holders and free agents alike if there are no ballers of note left in D.C. by summer.
If Jamison is indeed item 1-A on the Cavs’ agenda, it could put the Mavs in a tough spot: either Dallas strives for a possibly more attainable target in Butler (remember, Sacramento is still unwilling to move Kevin Martin and Andre Iguodala likely has Samuel Dalembert tied to his ankle as a salary anchor), or could miss out entirely if the Mavs’ other plans fall through and Cleveland scores Jamison. It’s a bit premature for the Mavs to jump on a deal for Butler, but there’s definite reason for the decision-makers in Dallas to have their ear to the ground for tremors out of Cleveland.
Now that trade season is officially upon us, I’ll be revving up the rumor dissection and analysis. But to take it a step further, we’ll be checking in with the Mavs’ rumored targets of choice periodically to keep tabs on their recent production. So keep your eye on the prize, no matter your prize of choice.
‘09-’10 hasn’t been a great year for Caron Butler, but you’d never know it based on his dismantling of the Orlando Magic on Friday night. Butler poured in a season-high 31 points against Orlando’s stable of swingmen, and colored within the lines on a game-winning play:
Butler didn’t go rogue with the game on the line, but stuck to the game plan and was rewarded with a clean look. It’s also amazing what not having Shawn Marion in your face will do for your offensive game. To go along with his tidy 31 points (on 50% shooting with eight free throw attempts), Butler rounded out the box score with nine rebounds and two assists.
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Kevin Martin’s night at the office was a bit abbreviated, but for all the wrong reasons. Phoenix absolutely ran Sacramento off the court Friday night (the Suns scored 39 in the first quarter alone), and Martin logged just 27 minutes as the starters turned in a bit earlier than usual. Not that Martin’s 27 were particularly productive — K-Mart scored just five points on 2-9 shooting. Perhaps worst of all: Martin was -31 on the night.
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Andre Iguodala is the image of versatility, and his statistical contributions typically indicate as such. That was certainly the case on Saturday night, when he led the Sixers to a 102-95 victory over the Rockets. 14 points on 37.5% shooting is hardly awe-inspiring, but 10 rebounds? Six assists? Two three-pointers? All against a team of stellar perimeter defenders? Not too shabby.
The 76ers are limited offensively, and depend heavily on Iguodala to make everything go. Teams in that vein will always be fighting an uphill battle against Trevor Ariza, Shane Battier and the Houston Rockets, making 14-10-6 a pretty impressive line. Not to mention the fact that Ariza had just nine points on 33.3% shooting.
Frank Madden of BrewHoop ponders, “If a one-point loss is predictable, does it make it less heartbreaking?”
Via @mavstats: “[Jason Terry] has six 20+ pt games in last 11 (only eight 20+ pt games in first 34 of the season).”
John Krolik explains, with myriad reasons, why Drew Gooden was one of the “most ridiculous” rotation players to play alongside LeBron James. He’s probably not wrong. And Krolik sums up Drew’s Cavs career nicely with this anecdote: “Around the beginning of my Sophomore year, I realized that the magnetizing strip on my student ID card had worn out. This meant that it wouldn’t work sometimes in some places, and would never work in other places. It was often a hassle, but it would work just often enough so that I didn’t feel the need to replace it. It wasn’t making my life impossible, and I had too many other things to do to worry about replacing the card. You know when I ended up replaced that card? Yesterday. It took me just over a year and a half to get sufficiently fed up with my barely adequate card. That story is how I would explain the Drew Gooden era for the Cleveland Cavaliers. It’s hard to realize that something that works needs replacing, even when it doesn’t work very well.”
Rick Carlisle lets Erick Dampier off the hook for Andrew Bogut’s big night (seriously, Bogut’s post-work was a thing of beauty). Via Tim MacMahon: “Damp was playing really on a leg that was not right and he made three monstrous defensive plays in the last few minutes that put us in position to win the game…Give him a lot of credit. He’s been struggling. It’s been a tough go here the last three weeks, but he’s giving us what he can.”
Jason Terry on the Beaubois-Barea on-court pairing (via Jeff Caplan): “They play well together, they’re quick…That’s a unit that you say, ‘Wow, they just bother the heck out of people.’ If you look at them, they’re all over the place.”
JET throws in a vote for Andrew Bogut as an All-Star. He was better than merely an All-Star last night, though.
Dirk Nowitzki tied Brad Davis for the most games played as a Maverick (883) last night.
via @benandskin: “Marc Stein feels like Mavs like Kevin Martin best of all names being thrown around[.]“
The Mavs don’t have a very good track record when it comes to finding value late in the draft, though selecting Josh Howard with the final pick in the first round back in 2003. But the stakes have never been higher, with the Mavs’ few young assets weighing their options in free agency and the Mavs’ 2010 pick in the hands of the New Jersey Nets. This one counts big time, and it’s up to the management and the scouting team to find the diamond in the rough.
It’s tough, but hardly impossible. Quality players pass right under the noses of many a team year after year, leaving latent value late in the draft. The Mavs pick at 22, which is just a shade closer to the lottery than to the Mavs’ customary position at the draft’s tail.
Here are the picks at 22 this decade:
2008 - Courtney Lee
2007 - Jared Dudley
2006 - Marcus Williams
2005 - Jarrett Jack
2004 - Viktor Khryapa
2003 - Zoran Planinic
2002 - Casey Jacobsen
2001 - Jeryl Sasser
2000 - Donnell Harvey
Three of those players (Courtney Lee, Jared Dudley, Jarrett Jack) have shown rotation player chops. Lee is the most notable as the starting 2 guard of an impressive Orlando team just one win away from the Finals. In fact, if the Mavs could magically re-draft Lee this year, they’d be in pretty good shape.
Just for fun, here are picks in the late first round (20+) :
2008
Courtney Lee (22)
Nicolas Batum (25)
2007
Wilson Chandler (23)
Rudy Fernandez (24)
Aaron Brooks (26)
2006
Renaldo Balkman (20)
Rajon Rondo (21)
Kyle Lowry (23)
Shannon Brown (25)
Jordan Farmar (26)
2005
Jarrett Jack (20)
Nate Robinson (21)
Francisco Garcia (23)
Jason Maxiell (26)
Linas Kleiza (27)
David Lee (30)
2004
Jameer Nelson (20)
Delonte West (24)
Kevin Martin (26)
2003
Boris Diaw (21)
Travis Outlaw (23)
Kendrick Perkins (27)
Leandro Barbosa (28)
Josh Howard (29)
2002
Tayshaun Prince (23)
Nenad Krstic (24)
John Salmons (26)
It’s certainly worth noting that even the 2005 draft, predicted to be a weak draft class among pundits and largely looked at as a failure in comparison to its contemporaries, still produced productive players late in the first round. Blake Griffin is no Tim Duncan and the consolation prizes may have their flaws, but that doesn’t mean true commodities can’t be found late in the first.
Next week I’ll start examining potential picks for the Mavs, starting with those rumored and confirmed to have scheduled workouts with the team. Some of those players seem poised for success on the pro level, and others may not even be top competitors in the D-League. As fans, we can only hope that MGMT not only makes the right decision in assessing the talent of a potential pick, but also in picking talented players to fill holes in the Mavs’ rotation.
“Things do not change; we change.”
-Henry David Thoreau
How much do you read into a solid offensive performance against the worst defensive team in the league? Hopefully not too much. The Mavs did nasty things to the Kings’ defense all night, and didn’t even buy them a drink. But just because we shouldn’t go hog wild with a win like this doesn’t mean we can’t find a few things to be proud of and a few things to take away from this one.
This win starts with the rebounding. If you hadn’t guessed, Sacramento isn’t what you would call a “good rebounding team” — they rank 29th in the league in rebounding rate. Dampier just killed it on the glass, taking advantage of Jason Thompson, Spencer Hawes, and everyone on the Sacramento frontline. The rest of the team did their part too, to the tune of a 47-28 rebounding edge. I like. Half of being a good team is beating the teams that you should, and likewise, half of being a good player is schooling the players that can’t match you in size, strength, or skill. Hawes and Thompson are good players, but they don’t have the muscle to fight down low with a bear like Damp.
The Mavs offense didn’t miss a beat in JET’s absence. Antoine Wright, who usually averages 5.5 shot attempts and 1.2 free throw attempts, shot 14 times and went 6-6 from the line. He attacked the basket, he made his open jumpers, and he generally played like he wasn’t Antoine Wright. If this new offensively gifted, awesome, sexier Antoine is here to stay, life after Terry is going to be a breeze…or we can stop living on Fantasy Island and assume that Wright’s 23 points came from a solid effort, a great all-around game, a weak defense, and a bit of good fortune. Big ups for Wright’s night, but I’m not penciling him in for 20 points a game. Josh Howard upped the ante as well, finally filling up the box score (23 points on 14 shots, 1-1 on threes, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, one steal, and one block) in the way we’ve come to expect. Howard, Wright, and J.J. Barea’s production (10 points, 5-7 shooting with no turnovers) gave the Mavs plenty of breathing room in the second half. Dirk didn’t even have to go bonkers for the Mavs to get rolling, and personally, I don’t mind seeing a few wins with merely mortal performances from Nowitzki, no matter the opponent. Watching Dirk have one of “those nights” brings a special kind of joy to my heart, but having those 40+ point performances as a crutch can’t be good for the team’s long-term offensive stability.
Rick Carlisle got his first extended in-game look at Matt Carroll, but Carroll wasn’t all that effective in his 18 minutes. His 4 points on 2-4 shooting were meh, but the far more damning number was Carroll’s -17 point impact on the Mavs while he was in the game. If Carroll’s shooting mojo doesn’t find its way back home soon, I’m starting up the official FREE GERALD GREEN movement.
How good was the Dallas offense in this one? I’ve gone this far without even mentioning Jason Kidd, who was great in his own right. Kidd posted up on Beno Udrih, caused a lot of problems with his ability to get into the lane, and of course created for Howard, Wright, and the like both in the halfcourt and on the break. In the spirit of Kidd doing wonders for this team and still going relatively unnoticed, I’d hate to break with tradition and suddenly shower him with praise. So good job, champ; let’s move on.
Things weren’t all smiley last night, though. The defense, especially in the first quarter, was pretty awful. Kevin Martin and John Salmons had the basketball equivalent of a Turkish Delight in the first quarter, partaking in all sorts of delicious treats that were handed to them by the Mavs on a silver platter. Carlisle managed to screw everybody’s heads on straight with an early timeout, but the idea that we didn’t even come to play against the Kings isn’t a comforting one. Still, it should be mentioned that the game never felt out of control. I never got the impression that the Kings were really going to run away and win this thing. The third quarter turned out to be a dominant performance for the Mavs, keyed by a 20-6 run and a defense that handcuffed Sacramento into shooting 20% from the field. There was little room for doubt thereafter.
GOLD STAR OF THE NIGHT: The Gold Star of the Night goes to Antoine Wright. 8-14 FG, 1-3 threes, 6-6 free throws for 23 points, 2 rebounds, and 3 steals. Wright gets a lot of tough love around here, but he had a helluva game. Kudos to you, sir.
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