NBA Rumors: Snagging Deron Williams Makes Mavericks Instant NBA Title Contenders

While the Dallas Mavericks may not have enough young talent on the roster to keep Deron Williams away from the Brooklyn Nets or the Los Angeles Lakers, you better believe Mark Cuban won't give up without a fight.

Or, at least a compelling sales pitch.

For his part, franchise cornerstone Dirk Nowitzki appears to be interested in adding the superstar point guard, but it's still far too soon to make any predictions. The sweet-shooting seven-footer explained his thinking to ESPN Dallas' Galloway and Company (via Sports Radio Interview's Steve Cuce):

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All the free agents probably don’t know what they are doing yet. It’s kind of too early. We’d love to get some great players here and reload. I think Donnie Nelson and Mark Cuban have always made that clear. It’s not good enough for us to play for six or seven seeds in the playoff and get swept in the first round. We always want to play at the top and want to have home court advantage in the first round. That’s something we always take pride in and we gotta bring some players in. We are losing a lot of guys from our team, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens in July. We would love to get a prime time player like D-Will in, but that’s not an our thing right now. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens in July.

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You could have probably already guessed this team was looking to make some major adjustments.

Since the emergence of a new collective bargaining agreement, Mark Cuban has played his cards so as to preserve increasingly valuable cap space. That's why Dallas—fresh off a championship—was willing to let key pieces like Defensive Player of the Year Tyson Chandler secure their long-term deals elsewhere.

Yes, Chandler would have made the Mavericks a much better team this year, but at what cost?

It's still unclear how exactly the front office will spend Cuban's money this summer, or even how much of it there will be to spend. Should Brendan Haywood become the latest victim of the amnesty clause, there should be enough money to pursue Deron Williams along with some talent Williams might like having around.

Adding Williams to the fold, though, would give this club more than a fighting chance of returning to the NBA Finals—regardless of who else comes to town (or stays in town).

Dallas desperately needs a playmaker who can create his own shots and get his team involved.

This season, starting point guard Jason Kidd showed his 39 years of age and averaged career lows in points, assists and rebounds. Worse yet, he was relegated to perimeter jumpers and failed to make much of an impact from mid-range or via penetration.

Williams would give this rotation an engine to keep fast breaks going as well as a versatile floor generally capable of scoring and distributing in half-court sets.

He'd also give Nowitzki the best pick-and-roll partner he's had since Steve Nash was in town.

At this point in his career, Dirk is better suited to be the sidekick than the first option. Williams would make that possible, and he'd also make the rest of the team exponentially better with his floor vision and passing ability.

Whatever the Mavericks' chances of landing such an impact player, there's no doubt he'd help the Dallas' currently subpar title hopes.