Jason Kidd to the Mavs
Not to sound negative, but...
I'm not totally on board with the Mav's trade.
In fairness, I'm not against it. I don't think it's a terrible trade, like I did Shaq for Marion. But I don't think this makes the Mavs appreciably better which, of course, is the name of the game.
Currently, Jason Kidd is having a very popular season. He's almost averaging a triple double--he's two rebounds a game away from that--he's started for the East in the All Star game, and has been seen as one of the difference makers in any Western conference trade for a while now.
However, I say popular instead of great for a reason. His stats aren't as impressive as they appear at first glance. He's averaging a career high in turnovers, and is averaging career lows in steals, FG%, and points. That's right; in spite of his triple/double status, he's barely averaging 10 points a game (11.3). People are wowed by his triple/doubles, and it's always a good thing to have a triple double; unfortunately, I would say though that these are the last impressive triple/doubles in the history of said feat.
The Mavs are giving up Devin Harris, DeSagana Diop, Trenton Hassell, Mo Ager, a freshly signed Keith Van Horn, $3mil in cash, and two first round picks for Kidd, Malik Allen, and Antoine Wright. For some reason, the Mavs feel like trading for Wright, too; I have no idea why. A&M fans should be thrilled, and that's about the best I can say about that.
Do I think that's too much for Kidd? Yes. I think on a talent standpoint, Harris and Diop are enough for Kidd. Kidd's only got a coupla good years left, where Harris is going to be a good young point guard in the league for a long time. Diop has been a solid starting center (don't say Damp is the starter, there are $70 million reasons that Damp has started over the years) in the West, doing a good job holding his own against Timmy, Yao, Marcus Camby, Mehmet Okur, Brad Miller, and Chris Kaman for several years now. He'll never be a 20-10 guy, but he's a top five center in the East. My problem is with the two first round picks; I wouldn't offer those, maybe 1 to take Ternton Hassell's bad contract, and I also don't like the addition of KVH, but that became a necessity because of the Stackhouse/George snafu (we'll discuss that later). We have truly mortgaged our future in this deal; if this team doesn't win it all in the next 2-3 years, then we're in trouble for a while.
Here's the thing: if Kidd can come in and give the Mavs confidence and swagger, and convince Stackhouse and Howard to not be in love with their jumpers and start attacking the basket, then this is a good trade. If he doesn't, and looks out of place amongst a bunch of players way in love with their jump shots, then this is a bad trade. It's really as simple as that.
I really think the Mavs need to make one more deal to make this trade really work, and that's why they didn't want to use KVH to begin with--they wanted to deal him for an athletic slasher who Kidd can run with and throw lobs to at the rim. Unfortunately, the Mavs don't have that option now, and honestly, I don't know how feasible that would have been. That's why I think that the Mavs asked for Antoine Wright; I think they're hoping he could be that kind of player. Don't hold your breath would be my response to that assesment, unfortunately.
So in the end I guess my answer is "we'll see." I don't think this makes us a shoo-in to win the Western Conference. However, if things go right, and there's a good chance they do go right, then we're right there with as good of a chance as anyone in the West. Our future is mortgaged, unfortunately, and we'll miss Harris in 3 years, but I do agree that you've got to take your best shot when you have a chance to win a title. This is probably our best bet, because the team we had was not going to make any significant noise in the playoffs.
GO MAVS!!!!
I'm not totally on board with the Mav's trade.
In fairness, I'm not against it. I don't think it's a terrible trade, like I did Shaq for Marion. But I don't think this makes the Mavs appreciably better which, of course, is the name of the game.
Currently, Jason Kidd is having a very popular season. He's almost averaging a triple double--he's two rebounds a game away from that--he's started for the East in the All Star game, and has been seen as one of the difference makers in any Western conference trade for a while now.
However, I say popular instead of great for a reason. His stats aren't as impressive as they appear at first glance. He's averaging a career high in turnovers, and is averaging career lows in steals, FG%, and points. That's right; in spite of his triple/double status, he's barely averaging 10 points a game (11.3). People are wowed by his triple/doubles, and it's always a good thing to have a triple double; unfortunately, I would say though that these are the last impressive triple/doubles in the history of said feat.
The Mavs are giving up Devin Harris, DeSagana Diop, Trenton Hassell, Mo Ager, a freshly signed Keith Van Horn, $3mil in cash, and two first round picks for Kidd, Malik Allen, and Antoine Wright. For some reason, the Mavs feel like trading for Wright, too; I have no idea why. A&M fans should be thrilled, and that's about the best I can say about that.
Do I think that's too much for Kidd? Yes. I think on a talent standpoint, Harris and Diop are enough for Kidd. Kidd's only got a coupla good years left, where Harris is going to be a good young point guard in the league for a long time. Diop has been a solid starting center (don't say Damp is the starter, there are $70 million reasons that Damp has started over the years) in the West, doing a good job holding his own against Timmy, Yao, Marcus Camby, Mehmet Okur, Brad Miller, and Chris Kaman for several years now. He'll never be a 20-10 guy, but he's a top five center in the East. My problem is with the two first round picks; I wouldn't offer those, maybe 1 to take Ternton Hassell's bad contract, and I also don't like the addition of KVH, but that became a necessity because of the Stackhouse/George snafu (we'll discuss that later). We have truly mortgaged our future in this deal; if this team doesn't win it all in the next 2-3 years, then we're in trouble for a while.
Here's the thing: if Kidd can come in and give the Mavs confidence and swagger, and convince Stackhouse and Howard to not be in love with their jumpers and start attacking the basket, then this is a good trade. If he doesn't, and looks out of place amongst a bunch of players way in love with their jump shots, then this is a bad trade. It's really as simple as that.
I really think the Mavs need to make one more deal to make this trade really work, and that's why they didn't want to use KVH to begin with--they wanted to deal him for an athletic slasher who Kidd can run with and throw lobs to at the rim. Unfortunately, the Mavs don't have that option now, and honestly, I don't know how feasible that would have been. That's why I think that the Mavs asked for Antoine Wright; I think they're hoping he could be that kind of player. Don't hold your breath would be my response to that assesment, unfortunately.
So in the end I guess my answer is "we'll see." I don't think this makes us a shoo-in to win the Western Conference. However, if things go right, and there's a good chance they do go right, then we're right there with as good of a chance as anyone in the West. Our future is mortgaged, unfortunately, and we'll miss Harris in 3 years, but I do agree that you've got to take your best shot when you have a chance to win a title. This is probably our best bet, because the team we had was not going to make any significant noise in the playoffs.
GO MAVS!!!!
Labels: NBA
posted by Michael Pondrom at 11:46 PM
1 Comments:
I don't know. I think this would be a pretty stupid trade for Dallas. Basketball is about matchups so how will having Kidd vs Harris and Diop work out?
Against San Antonio, not having Diop means one less defensive center to throw against Duncan. It also means not having a speedy Devin Harris to guard Tony Parker because, let's face it, Kidd can't keep up with Parker at this stage of his career. Maybe their thinking of putting Kidd on Ginobli and Terry on Parker? Even then, I think I'd rather have Harris and Diop.
Against the Suns, Shaq will eat up Dampier, even if Shaq is old and can barely move. Diop would give Shaq problems. (Note, this is based on Shaq getting his act together one last time, not that I think this will happen, but you gotta game plan for it.) Kidd would not be a defensive liability against the Suns, but not necessarily a super offensive threat either.
So against the two best teams in the league, the Mavs would have worse matchups w/ Kidd vs the Spurs and roughly even matchups against the Suns. I don't think I would trade 2 #1's in addition to Diop and Harris. Truthfully, I doubt I would do Kidd for Diop and Harris straight up.
Its a bad trade for Dallas in my opinion.
Bo
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