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Hey Mavs fans I'm back!
After a long summer of extreme bargain hunting I am exhausted.
No one can say the Dallas Mavericks sat on the fence and watched the world pass them by this summer.
Owner Mark Cuban and GM Donny Nelson have been a pair of busy customers.
First they emptied their wallets, second they maxed out all their credit cards, and finally they broke their piggy banks.
I warned everyone that this summer's shopping season was going to be a crazed frenzy, and it did not disappoint.
Did we find everything we were shopping for? Of course not, but we did the best we could hope for given the availability of choice players, and the attitudes of certain teams.
So let's unpack our shopping bags and see what the Mavericks brought home.
Our shopping trip started on July 7th with draft day. After much finagling the Mavericks found themselves with the 25th pick.
Hmm...I'm thinking this year maybe something a little more couture...possibly French.
If you don"t think I'm excited about our latest draft pick Rodrique Beaubois (Roddy), then you haven't been reading my articles.
Putting Roddy under the wings of Kidd should get every Mavs fan on the edge of their seats.
Stay tuned, in a couple of years we might just witness the passing of the torch at the point-guard position.
And a big FYI for everyone, Roddy was this year's Summer League star.
Next stop re-signing Jason Kidd:
Just as I predicted the biggest chunk of change, $25 million over 3 years to be exact, of our summer shopping budget went to re-signing point-guard Jason Kidd.
Kidd was fought over like two girls fighting over the same dress...Okay so it looked better on me anyway.
The New York Knicks seriously thought they had a chance of stealing Kidd right out from under our noses. Credit Cuban's midnight rendezvous with Kidd, for making sure that wasn't going to happen.
The essential essential, Kidd is the core to the Mavericks master plan this coming season. Let's face it Mavs fans, there just wasn't anyone else on our radar for starting point-guard.
Shopping the Matrix!
The Mavericks next shopping stop put us in Toronto, were we snagged ourselves a big name big man in Shawn Marion.
This was the wildest and most complicated player exchange made by any team this summer. My head is spinning tying to keep all this straight.
Adding Marion to our collection was by no means an easy trick. In total it involved four teams and nine players.
First the Mavericks sent Jerry Stackhouse, Devean George, and Antoine Wright to the Raptors.
The Raptors sent along with Marion, Kris Humphries, Nathan Jawai, and Greg Buckner to the Mavericks.
The Raptors then sent along with Stackhouse, and a future second-round pick to the Grizzlies.
The Grizzlies would incorporate Stackhouse's $7.25 million contract, and turn around and buy him out for $2 million.
The final team in this trade was the Magic. They would send Hedo Turkoglu to the Raptors in exchange for a trade exception.
Marion is such a complete package too, we get size, strength, scoring, defense, and attitude.
After surviving on a diet of humble pie on going nowhere teams for two seasons, let's see if Marion will be more of a team player with the Mavericks.
And FYI, during Marion's rookie season he did play with Kidd.
No Magic in Orlando!
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