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Dear Mark Cuban,
Between 2009 and now, respect as an owner/businessman for you around the NBA has gone through the roof. Instead of being thought of as a whiny, egotistic crackpot (cough Dan Gilbert cough). I digress
1. Over half of the 15 man roster is a 10 year (or significantly more) veteran. The time has come to respect the draft. For those who havent kept track, Dallas owns the 17th pick in round 1 and the 25th pick in round two. Might I suggest a few names who might be around at 17:
a. Tyler Zeller, Kendall Marshall, Austin Rivers, Jeff Teague, Fab Melo.
2. Lets say Dallas drafts my choice in Kendall Marshall as the future -guard of this squad. Jason Kidd is coming off a career-worst year. Injuries aside, we all know that Jason Kidd???s age was bound to catch up with him after a career year won Dallas a title. Brian Cardinal, Jason Kidd, Ian Mahinmi, Jason Terry, Delonte West, and Yi Jianlian are set to become UFAs this July. Cardinal and Yi are gone. Thanks for playing. Mahinmi is a young, promising big man who lacks consistency, and needs to put on weight (listed at 230) to handle the forwards and centers in the NBA. Terry would like to retire a Mav (and rightfully deserves to). He still has some tread on the tires and would not likely retire. As a GM???you have choices, and this one isn???t in Jason???s favor. As for Kidd, let???s say Dallas re-signs him and commits him to a backup like he would be open to doing.
a. Odom will be the best trade package deal. With everyone but Cardinal, Terry, and Yi, let???s say Dallas re-signs everyone else on the roster to last year???s salary. After you count Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, and Mahinmi???s salary Dallas is left with 27.69 million. And what happens next can get a little dicey. I caution you*** I do not have a crystal ball. I repeat???no crystal ball.
b. Dallas needs a serious overhaul to take place in 2012. With that said, you have 27.69 million dollars in guaranteed space. Deron Williams made 16.6 million last year. Do you honestly think Deron WOULDN???T agree to take less money to look at the possibility to trade for a blockbuster team (if Lebron/Wade/Bosh did???)? For this sake, let???s say he forgoes the max deal with the Nets (since he already verbally bashed Kobe for his salary) and agrees in principle to a 12 million dollar deal. 15.69 left in cap space. 6 or 7 fillers behind Lamar Odom for Dwight Howard isnt going to cut it. If Dallas has a few more million in space, or Deron Willams agreed to cut his salary in half, Dallas could inquire about Pau Gasol or Amare Stoudemire, two players who are DEFINITELY on the block, but iffy trade assets. If all parties agreed to this, we could be going down another path. But that seems too unrealistic to waste words with. Thus, moving into free agency. We will come back to further trading off Maverick players.
c. Roy Hibbert and George Hill will most likely be kept as RFAs. If Larry knows whats best for Pacer-land???he will keep two of the most productive guys on the team. Good luck trying to sign O.J. Mayo/get Rudy Gay away from Memphis. Daniel Orton seems promising, but isn???t a starter yet. Under the right center, I would look into Orton, assuming Orlando doesn???t re-sign him. Dallas would be smart to offer him as much as 3 million (or at least I would). Cap space is at 12.69 million. If you really wanted to take a chance and invest, go after Jonny Flynn. I would pass. His attitude might clash with the likes or Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd. I would say fill out the roster with the likes of Brandon Bass (-4 million), D.J. Augustin (-4 million), Mickael Pietrus (-1.5 million), J.R. Smith (-3 million) and look to offer JaVale McGee (RFA) the mid-level exception (4.8 million in the red). ...