Dallas Mavericks' Mid-Life Crisis: Jason Kidd Not the Solution

The Dallas Mavericks are doing a bit of soul searching right now.

They just traded away their future PG in Devin Harris and a good defender in Desagna Diop.

Granted they got maybe the best PG in the game in Jason Kidd, but he will not help them win a championship.

This is no knock whatsoever on Jason Kidd—I love his play, and he's from Oakland like me—but the fact of the matter is Kidd will not get them to June. Great passing and ball handling only gets you so far. Dallas has not yet learned that good guard play got them nowhere, and that all it leads to down the road is heartbreak, defeat, and agony.

They already had two good guards in Devin Harris and Jason Terry and they went nowhere, getting demolished in the playoff by teams like San Antonio, Miami, and Sacramento who had time all possessed some of the most talented big men in the league ( Tim Duncan, Shaquille O'Neal, Chris Webber).

Bottom line, the Mavs should've made a move for a big man before the deadline. With the package they gave up Devin Harris, Trenton Hassell, Maurice Ager, Desagna Diop, Keith Van Horn, two first round draft picks, and $4 million they could've easily got Jermaine O'Neal form Indiana.

O'Neal brings good midrange shooting, good rebounding, and above average shot blocking, certainly better than what they have now: a aging sloth of a center in Erick Dampier. They also could've brought over Ben Wallace from Chicago and held on to one of those first rounders.

Look at the last five teams to win in the finals (Not counting repeats). San Antonio, Miami, Detroit, and Los Angeles. What did they all have in common? A dominant big man either changing the game defensively or outmuscling defenders and being a force on offense. Tim Duncan, Shaq, Ben Wallace Shaq.

Now what did 6/9 teams that lost against those teams have? Good to excellent guard play. In '00, the Pacers squad consisted of future Hall of Famers Reggie Miller and Mark Jackson and swingman Jalen Rose, but who was their center Dale Davis. In result, Shaq beasted and thus L.A. got a ring.

In '01 Allen Iverson lost beacuse of the hands of Shaq and his assault on Dikembe Mutombo. '02 Kenyon Martin, and Aaron Williams were outplayed by Shaq and again L.A. won for the third straight time. '03, Duncan dominated Kidd's Nets again to hand New Jersey defeat.

'04 Ben Wallace locked down Shaq and Detroit beat the Lakers to win. '06 Shaq had his way with Erick Dampier and that allowed Miami to blow past Dallas. And recently, in 07, Tim Duncan worked Illgauskas to bring it home for his team.

Starting to get the point?

The Mavs will make it to the playoffs but will run into a major speed bump when they have to go up against Houston and Yao, Phoenix and Shaq, Denver and Camby, and Duncan in San Antonio, and Chandler in New Orleans.

Now sure, they won't face all of these teams—but guaranteed they will have to play at least two of those ballclubs. And trust me if they somehow manage to survive the 1st team, they won't beat the second.

In the end, The Mavs will suffer down the stretch and without a big man they will remain a good team and never blossom into the elite.