NBA Free Agency 2012: Why It's Deron Williams or Bust for Dallas Mavericks

With Jason Kidd on his way out as an unrestricted free agent, the Dallas Mavericks need to find a new player to run the show and help Dirk Nowitzki win one more ring. 

For Mark Cuban and the rest of the Mavs management, it's Deron Williams or bust. No other player can possibly fit in as well as the dual-threat floor general who last played for the Brooklyn Nets. 

The 2012 free-agency class is rather weak at point guard once you move past the very top. If Williams isn't a viable option, then you're looking at Steve Nash, Aaron Brooks, Goran Dragic, Chauncey Billups, Andre Miller, Ramon Sessions, D.J. Augustin or Jeremy Lin.

Not all of those are unrestricted free agents and they generally fall into two camps: either old and on the decline, or young and unproven. Yes, that even applies to Steve Nash. 

For the remainder of this article, I'm only going to focus on two players: Nash and Williams. The rest of the options, while intriguing, are far more unlikely and less beneficial to the Dallas cause. 

Even if Nash doesn't succumb to the unrelenting grasp of Father Time during the 2012-2013 season, he's going to fall prey to the inescapable clutch of old age sooner rather than later. Nash is already 38 years old, and although he shows no signs of slowing down right now, the downfall is going to be fast and furious once it happens.

Signing a point guard during this offseason isn't just a one-year matter. The Mavericks want to find a man who they can trot out at the 1 for years to come, not just for one season.

Even if Nash has a better year than Williams next season, he won't two years from now, and he most assuredly will not once he's on the wrong side of 40. When the Canadian floor general first trotted out onto the court at the NBA level in 1996, D-Will was only 12 years old.

Not only is Williams better than Nash right now, but the disparity is going to become more and more pronounced each year that they both remain in the league.  

Moreover, the Mavericks have tried the Nash experiment before and found that it didn't work. Yes, Nash and Nowitzki have chemistry together, but what makes them able to win now if they couldn't when Nowitzki was younger, albeit not as supremely talented as he is now, and there was more talent on the roster? 

Nash spent six seasons with the Mavericks in between his two stints with the Phoenix Suns. During that time, which spanned from 1998 until 2004, the team advanced past the first round of the playoffs only three times and never made it as far as the NBA Finals. The closest they came was in 2002-2003 when they fell 4-2 to the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference final.

To be fair, Nowitzki missed the last three games of that series, but they still couldn't get the job done.

Once more, why can they now?

This Dallas squad needs an infusion of youth. Rodrigue Beaubois and Delonte West were the only players to average over 20 minutes and rightfully claim that they were on the right side of the 30-year-old benchmark. And, of course, West is now an unrestricted free agent.

Adding Nash, no matter how sentimental the signing may be, would be nonsensical.

Pursuing Williams is the only option.