Jason Kidd - Back in Dallas!
February 13, 2008 by Evil E
This is officially the best trade deadline EVER.
And there’s still a week left…
Kidd was traded back to the Mavericks on Wednesday in exchange for Devin Harris, Jerry Stackhouse, Devean George, Maurice Ager, DeSagana Diop, cash, and two 1st round picks.
Dallas also got Malik Allen from the Nets and, in a separate trade, Antoine Wright for a 2nd rounder.
WOW!
In case you forgot, Kidd was drafted by Dallas in 1994. The “Three J’s” experiment (with Jimmy Jackson and Jamal Mashburn) didn’t last long however, and Kidd was soon traded to Phoenix and then later, New Jersey. The rest is history: Kidd is one of the greatest point guards to ever play the game. Now he’s come full circle in hopes of winning that elusive ring.
This trade is even more shocking to me than the Gasol and Shaq deals. If you think my Bay Area ties only go back to Chris Webber and the Warriors, think again. I watched Kidd play in person several times when he was at Cal Berkeley, as well as a few appearances in summer Pro-Am games at Kezar Pavillion. He was good, but I never imagined he would go down as one of the greatest ever.
And unlike Webber, he’s still at the top of his game. This deal is HUGE for Dallas. I like Devin Harris (remember - I have him on all 3 of my fantasy teams), but this deal improves their title chances ten-fold. I’m not sure why, but I have a very good feeling about this trade. Let’s take a look at their new roster:
Dallas Mavericks
PG: Jason Kidd / Jose Juan Barea
SG: Jason Terry / Eddie Jones / Trenton Hassell
SF: Josh Howard / Antoine Wright
PF: Dirk Nowitzki / Malik Allen / Juwan Howard
C: Erick Dampier / Brandon Bass
Initial Thoughts…
Kidd is going to give Dallas a huge boost of confidence and energy, but you already knew that. J.J. Barea gets to learn from a living legend and will benefit greatly: the “Steve Nash of Summer League” might carve out a pretty good career as a result.
Jason Terry gets a lot of pressure off his shoulders and will play much better now. I would try to buy low on Terry in fantasy leagues right now. Eddie Jones has actually been starting, but I expect his minutes to decline now. Newcomer Antoine Wright has had a nice season and should get solid burn backing up both swingman spots. He has the added bonus of running with J. Kidd on the break thousands of times before (not that it will take the rest of the Mavs very long to get used to that!).
Josh Howard is going to emerge as a superstar now. I have J-Ho on one of my fantasy teams and am very excited about his deal for him. Honestly, I think Josh Howard is a better all-around talent than Vince Carter or Richard Jefferson have EVER been, and this trade is going to show how good he really is. Dirk has got to be loving this even more than Kobe was about the Kwame / Gasol exchange. He can now defer the leadership pressures to Kidd and simply play his own game. Dirk has never struck me as a natural leader. Instead, it seemed like he tried to be a leader, but we saw what happened in last year’s playoffs. This is going to be a huge MENTAL boost for Nowitzki.
Whether or not the Mavs win it all is going to depend on the shoulders of Erick Dampier. For his sake, he better hope the Mavs don’t run into Phoenix in the playoffs, because Shaq has OWNED him ever since Damp declared himself the 2nd best center behind Shaq (hell, he owned him before as well). The only person stopping me from declaring Dallas the next NBA Champs is Erick Dampier. If Jason Kidd can get Damp to stay focused at all times, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them win it all.
But the man I’m really excited for is Brandon Bass. The former LSU star was already having a breakout season, and now he’s the #1 big guy off the bench for Dallas. I actually picked him up last weekend because Dallas plays 3 times this week, and now I’m stoked for his Post All-Star prospects. Watch, he’s going to have a MONSTER game vs. Portland tonight. The guy is an athletic physical specimen with a sweet shooting touch, and Dallas is going to need him to step up to match the plethora of big bodies now in the West. And I’m excited about that because I think Bass can hold his own. Having veterans like Malik Allen and Juwan Howard is also nice.
In case you can’t tell, I love this trade for the Mavericks. The only question mark here is Erick Dampier, and unfortunately for Dallas, that’s a very big question mark. I’m not going to point to any stats or theories or anything like that, but I have a very good gut feeling about this trade for them. Screw the Nets, today is all about Jason Kidd!
Devean George is trying to block this trade. What a sucka!
Yo Avery, bench that fool before fans start throwing hot dog sticks at him!
I never liked Devean George. If my Brandon Bass pick up goes south cause of DG I will be more than a bit peeved!!!
I don’t like this for the Mavs. It could potentially push the Mavs over the top, but with their lack of defense in the paint I just don’t see it happening. Not to mention this trade makes them very vulnerable for the future, Devin Harris could be a better player than Jason Kidd as soon as next season (considering Kidd is committed to the Olympic team over the summer as opposed to resting his knees) and he is about 10 years younger!
I was kind of feeling the same way about the Shaq trade Max (the trades don’t help their future success), but I warmed up to the Shaq trade and really like this one now. It’s great because all of the Western teams are trying to win NOW. May as well go after it if you’re close, right?
Kidd doesn’t have to play 40 minutes a night in the regular season (he will in the playoffs), so hopefully he doesn’t wear out too quickly. He also doesn’t have to worry too much about the quick PG’s going by him because Jason Terry can guard those guys.
I agree that their interior D will be tested without Diop in there, but like I said, Dampier will have to step up and Bass will have to be be a force on both ends.
It will definitely make the Mavs a more exciting team, but I think they have at best a 10% chance of winning the title with this deal as is. They traded away a key part of their young nucleus in Harris along two future 1st rounders and a useful defensive big man.
As a Warriors fan you should know Dampier sucks.
Dampier is wack, but who did the Nets have at center when Kidd took them to the NBA Finals 2 years in a row?
Todd MacCulloch, Aaron Williams, and Jason Collins mainly with a little Mutombo, Scalabrine, and Rodney Rogers thrown in.
Dampier is capable of playing solid D and not hurting the team too much, Bass is a better version of Rodney Rogers, Mailk Allen can scrap and foul, and Juwan Howard can still hit the J I imagine. Of course, the West right now is a lot bigger and scarier than the East was back then, but I’m saying that Kidd has already proven he can take a team without a dominant center to the Finals.
The Mavs big men crew will have to step up no doubt, but now check out a comparison to the rest of those Nets teams:
PF: K-Mart was ferocious back then for sure, but Dirk has so many more dimensions on offense for Kidd to play with. The dude was freakin the MVP last year and now he gets to play with the guy everyone else wanted to play with.
SF: Keith Van Horn was cool, but what do you think Josh Howard would have done to him in a 1-on-1 game? Richard Jefferson and Kidd hooked up and melted like butter in New Jersey, and Josh Howard is going to do the same now. But R-Jeff had just come into the league and was still raw whereas J-Ho is in his prime and is much more versatile both on offense and defense. And Antoine Wright comes w/ Kidd, a nice bonus.
SG: I always doubted Kerry Kittles, but that dude seemed to stepped up and the Nets won a lot of games. He was kinda frail, but he could run and shoot. Terry is a little shorter, but he’s an even better shooter and overall better player than Kittles. I think the Jet is gonna THRIVE playing with Kidd.
6th man: Lucious Harris was a key shooter off the bench for NJ. Again, even an old Eddie Jones is an upgrade over Kidd’s old team. And word is Stackhouse would get bought out so he could re-join Dallas? That would be sweet for them, because Stack is still an incredible offensive player.
When you look at it like that, these are the clearly the best (especially offensive) players Kidd will have ever played with (not counting Team USA). The road is going to be much tougher to the title than back then, but if they get the right matchups, I think they could go far.
I’ll go see what the odds are…
OK, below are the current odds from the site I (rarely) bet on for teams to win the Championship.
Celtics +375
Pistons +670
Spurs +680
Suns +680
Lakers +730
Mavs +730
Everyone else +3000 or more
Honestly, if you feel strongly about 1 team winning it all right now, I would place your bets before the odds start to tighten up. You basically have 7 to 1 odds for the Pistons, Spurs, Suns, Lakers, and Mavs.
I think I’m going to put $ on 2 of those teams (not that I don’t think the Celtics will do it but the odds aren’t very enticing). Depending on how this trade shakes out, 1 of those teams may be Dallas.
I have been coming to this website for about three weeks now and I have to say I love it all. The movies are good in which they show on the side of the site.
Jason Kidd, is the man and I feel the Mavs have found the missing part to the team. I live in phoenix az and I have to say that on Sunday night Mavs are going to kill the SUNS!!! Bring back Shawn!!!!!!!
Jason WHO?
Jason Kid
Looks like the deal might not happen. George (can’t really hate on his situation) and that genius Stackhouse (rest for 30 days I an’t going no where). The only option they have is a sign and trade with Van Horn and Dallas is going to get hit with a nasty luxury tax. My question if this trade does not go through what is going on in the mind of Devin Harris? He has to feel betrayed and will his play sink b/c of this