Dallas Mavericks Stuck at Franchise Crossroads, and Both Paths Promise Fan Angst

What's that? You wanted to read a joyous, congratulatory article about the Dallas Mavericks instead of a funereal one?

As much as Dallas fans may hate all the maudlin talk, there is little for which to congratulate these 25-19 Mavericks. Other than the All-Star reserve spot guaranteed Dirk Nowitzki when the TNT studio crew announces the coaches selections Thursday or Jason Terry's runaway "Sixth Man of the Year" campaign, everything else is a wash.

These Mavericks are vapid and wimpy. They do just enough to make people think they are more useful than dirt by beating a depleted Utah Jazz team at home, only to get a 132-99 spanking at the hands of the banal Milwaukee Bucks.

Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Terry, and Josh Howard led the Mavs to an impressive 111-92 victory at the Palace of Auburn Hills against the Detroit Pistons Friday night, simply to get humiliated in every way possible in the house of the rocking and roaring again defending champions.

When I first flipped on that Sunday massacre, I slapped my head a few times, closed my eyes, and read the score again. Yep, it's 50-something to 20-something already. Disgraceful.

The Mavericks did drop both games to the Celtics last season, but both contests went to the wire. In the first game in Beantown, Rajon Rondo stole a key rebound from seven-foot Nowitzki, sealing a tough win earned without Kevin Garnett.

In the second, the Mavericks were in that right there stretch where games against most good teams were close but usually ended in losses.

Defense is a disease to the Mavs. They catch it just enough to beat a few plus-.500 teams, but then ward it off to keep themselves from escaping the cellar of mediocrity.

What happened Sunday should embarrass the team and alarm its owner. Mark Cuban kept this core alive because he remembered it as the group that reached the NBA Finals for the first time two years ago instead of the one that lost in consecutive first rounds.

He seemed to shrug off the Mavericks' six-game ouster last season against the Warriors, in which underdog Golden State used their "midgets" to outscore and outclass the 67-win, reigning conference champions.

Then, Cuban pulled the trigger on a blockbuster deal that sent the franchise's vernal, star-in-the-making to New Jersey for a 35-year-old point guard who hoped to make his second stint with the Mavericks less listless than his first.

To acquire Kidd, a move blessed by franchise star Nowitzki, he also threw in $17 million from his own pocket, DeSagana Diop, and several draft picks. He mortgaged the future for "the right now."

Unfortunately for Cuban, "now" looks awful.

After he witnessed Nowitzki and the Mavs get punked and pushed around by Chris Paul, David West, and the playground-ready New Orleans Hornets in five games, he hung onto the best core this team has ever boasted.

He was wrong.

What David Moore, a writer for the Dallas Morning News, says of that Finals appearance and ensuing season of supposed dominance now rings truer than ever: "They had a special season, but they were not a special team."

Fresh off a Jekyll-and-Hyde road trip that coupled two superb wins with the most lopsided losses of the season, the Mavericks are stuck at a crossroads.

Neither path looks promising, and less than a mile away Roseanne Barr is clearing her throat, ready to sing something about swans.

Cuban and GM Donnie Nelson will surely keep those cell phones handy as the trade deadline approaches, but what should they do? Can any deal equip this roster to win a playoff round? How can the front office improve a roster when the best player has yet to show he can perform like a superstar and leader consistently in big games?

No, Mavericks fans, Charlotte and the L.A. Clippers are not big games.

With no championship pedigree or golden trophy to fall back on, the Mavericks cannot afford to continue playing with fire against bad teams.

The fact that Rick Carlisle's bunch has to count too-close-for-comfort home wins against the woeful Clippers and Oklahoma City Thunder among its "good" victories says it all.

Other than an early-season blip against the Clippers at Staples Center, the Mavs were beating the sub-.500 teams in November and December—even if most of them were decided by a few possessions.

Then, the inexcusable losses began to mount and so did the reasons to stick a fork in this team's chances at further playoff success. The Memphis Grizzlies, Sacramento Kings, and that murderous trip to the Bradley Center are the worst offenses.

Kidd, Nowitzki, and Terry have talked about waking up for most of the season: "We got to wake up and start playing better."

If not by late January, then when?

Sunday afternoon's loss would rank as a lesser embarrassment if Carlisle had brought out mattresses, pillows, and comforters for his players after the first five minutes. His team fell asleep—that was the least he could have done.

How many times since Manu Ginobili committed the dumbest foul in the history of the San Antonio Spurs has Nowitzki come up big in the fourth quarter against a full-strength title contender?

Does Nowitzki belong in the same stratosphere as Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Tim Duncan in a list of the game's great closers?

Do you trust him to be the guy that rallies the team when its down 10 points in a crucial playoff game?

With the Mavs holding on to a final playoff spot by their collective fingertips, here is a look at the latest moves and how they contributed to this mediocrity.

Cuban Fires Avery Johnson after Consecutive Playoff Exits

The reasons to can Johnson at the time were justifiable. The players—much harder to punish or exile than their coach—wanted him gone. A few promised a mutiny and severe consequences for Cuban if he let the micromanager stick around.

Nobody was listening to him and the dissonance was deafening. If they were finished following his commands in April, who could expect them to give his abrasiveness another chance in November?

Johnson made himself an easy scapegoat by letting his ego and former days as a point guard get the better of his judgment. Pat Riley, Don Nelson, and Byron Scott outcoached him in his three playoff appearances.

He also benched Kidd at the end of a key regular season match in San Antonio last season. Down three with a few seconds left, he opted to leave the Hall of Fame guard, who was acquired for just these situations, on the pine to "have more shooters on the floor."

Nevermind that Kidd has been the Mavericks' most reliable three-point shooter for most of this season.

Rick Carlisle is a fine coach, but he's not great. He does not appear to have reached these players better than Johnson did in his brief tenure. Mere months after his hiring, key players, including Nowitzki, have signaled "we give up" in many winnable fourth quarters.

His team might be better defensively if it replaced the players with traffic cones. At least the lackadaisical Mavericks had front row seats for the Rajon Rondo-to-Kevin Garnett alley-oop show Sunday afternoon.

Stuart Scott didn't need to excuse his halftime comments as a joke. A "practice session" was a perfect description of the action.

Everything Johnson preached to this core is everything it is not doing right now. These Mavericks need his toughness and fortitude. Even with his flaws, he was the best coach the team ever hired. The solution, as Cuban should see now, was not to fire Johnson but to get better players who could handle his lofty expectations.

The players wussed out and now Mavs fans are paying hard-earned money to see the resulting circus.

These guys often look like they would rather be sitting on a beach or in a leper colony than playing basketball.

Grade: F

Devin Harris for Jason Kidd

It will be difficult to remedy the inherent problem with this deal. No one move was going to elevate the Mavericks to a championship caliber level. This one proved costly.

That said, Harris was never going to become the dynamic point guard he is now in the shadow of Terry, Howard, and Nowitzki. The jumpshooting Mavericks needed a distributor to get them better looks, not a scorer. In that sense, this was a great deal.

Kidd has made Nowitzki and Terry better offensive players than Harris ever could. Kidd also still plays at an All-Star level and has assisted as well as any point guard not named Chris Paul.

Still, Kidd is not good enough to take this squad from supine to special. And, with teammates who would not know help defense if it smacked them in the rear, younger, explosive guards will continue to torch him.

Grade: B

Team Uses Full Mid-Level To Buy Back Diop, Then Trades Him in January

Well, that was a short second stay, huh?

Diop played heroic defense against Tim Duncan in overtime of the greatest road win in Mavericks franchise history. A crafty post defender, Diop represented the final piece of that 2006 and 2007 core that over and underachieved in the span of less than 12 months.

So, Cuban agreed to spend the team's entire $5 million mid-level exception to bring him back this summer.

It didn't take Cuban and Nelson long to figure out what a mistake that was. He swapped the underwhelming back up center for two guys who struggled to get minutes on the Charlotte Bobcats.

Matt Carroll can help the Mavericks with his long-distance shooting—but his defense?

Ask Larry Brown.

Grade: D

So where do the Mavericks go from here? What are the options?

Blow Up the Team and Start Over

Pros

It is clear to me that this current core is headed for a first round butt-kicking as a seventh seed.

With no cap space next summer, or the flexibility to make a roster-altering move, it's up to a productive summer of 2010 to make something brilliant happen.

Who wants to wait that long for a gamble?

The Mavericks are good enough to win between 47 and 52 games this season, and next, if Cuban keeps the team intact. It will be good enough to beat a title contender once in an arbitrary December game and porous enough defensively to suck the rest of the year.

Better to start the inevitable sooner than later, right?

Cons

You do remember the 1990s, Mavs fans, correct? That would be the decade in which the team competed with the Minnesota Timberwolves for annual worst-in-the-league status. The stint with the three J's flopped, too.

Lackluster as they are, the Mavericks do remain a 52-win team. On many nights, they will be competitive with the league's best and will ravish its worst.

There is no guarantee that with lottery picks the Mavs could return to 50-win status in three years. Just ask the Bobcats, who have yet to qualify for the postseason in the six or whatever seasons of the franchise.

Also, Nowitzki and Terry have shown they can be lethal scores on a playoff team. Are they leaders, though?

You know the answer.

Why Trade Talk Is Pointless

Few teams figure to be more active than the Mavericks in trade deadline discussions, but what deal could they make that would significantly improve them?

Josh Howard is the most valuable asset, and even if he has spaced out and run his own offense at times, most GMs still consider him one of the game's most complete players.

What value would he fetch? Why not keep him and see if a return to health signals a return to that 2006 and 2007 player who looked like one of the greatest 28th draft picks in NBA history?

Some names that have appeared in Mavs trade rumors either on the Morning News Web site or NBA rumor mills include: Shawn Marion, Jermaine O' Neal, Chris Kaman, Stephen Jackson, Tyrus Thomas, Raja Bell, Marcus Camby, Anthony Parker, and Brad Miller.

Those are just a few.

Since Cuban has already shot down the Marion rumor, do any of those other names get you excited?

If the Mavericks have to surrender Howard and Jerry Stackhouse to get one of those players, how does it make the team better?

Closure

Staring down mediocrity and at times embracing it, the Mavericks' options are limited.

Which path should the team take? At this point, both scenarios should be depressing enough for fans that they should not want to know the answer.