NBA Rumors: Dallas Mavericks Are The Big Losers in Free Agency Thus Far

I think Mark Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks front office is still hung over from all of the celebrating they did back in June.

That’s the only conclusion to be drawn from the decision to sign both Vince Carter and Delonte West.  ESPN Dallas is reporting that the Carter deal is worth the mid-level exception which is somewhere in the neighborhood of $9M over three years.

This is truly “Vinsanity.” It’s no secret that the 34-year-old Carter is a shell of his former self athletically and is nothing more than a jump shooter at this point in his career.

Last season he played alongside Steve Nash and experienced career lows in virtually every major category. He averaged 1.6 assists in over 27 minutes of action a game. He doesn’t give a lick about defense and has shown no sort of passion or urgency since the mid-2000s with the Nets.

In other words: the dude is washed up.

The 28-year-old West still has some decent basketball left in him assuming he can stay healthy. He suffered a broken wrist last season in Boston and was limited to only 24 games. It remains to be seen if he can shake off the rust and recapture his tenacious defensive abilities displayed back in his days as a Cleveland Cavalier.

The real danger of West his is volatile personality. He suffers from Bi-Polar disorder and has been suspended for getting caught with guns in a guitar case. He spent the offseason applying for jobs at Home Depot and a gig selling knives.

I know the chemistry and leadership in Dallas is strong, but it’s a head scratcher that the Mavericks who already have Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, Rodrigue Beaubois, Corey Brewer and Rudy Fernandez in the back-court, would take a risk with West, even if it’s for the veterans minimum.

On top of that they gave the Lakers almost $9M and a first round pick for Lamar Odom, who is more concerned with cameras that say E! on them than instead of ESPN.

It’s no secret that Odom’s numbers dipped significantly once the show Khloe and Lamar began to film and it’s going to be very interesting to see how everything plays out with the show now that he’s halfway across the country in Dallas.

The bottom line is that the Mavs have brought in a player that peaked in 2001, another that can be a loose cannon and another that is bossed around by his wife on national TV on a semi regular basis.

Why didn’t they skip out on these headaches and just bring back Tyson Chandler and/or JJ Barea?

I think it’s safe to say the Mavericks aren’t going to come close to winning back-to-back rings and they can thank their atrocious off-season for it.