Dallas Mavericks Would Be Unwise to Gamble on 2013 Free Agent Class

The Dallas Mavericks would be out of their mind to take a year off of free agency to try and land Chris Paul and Dwight Howard in 2013.

But that's exactly what they're considering, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.

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Dallas is considering this too: Take a step back, clear cap space for the summer of 2013 and chase free agents Dwight Howard and Chris Paul.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) July 4, 2012"

This line of thinking completely disregards the fact that they are only a player or two away this year from getting back to the Western Conference Finals. It also disregards Dirk Nowitzki and all he's done for the franchise over the last decade or so. 

Nowitzki only has a few years left. He's still an elite player, but it's clear that his body is starting to grow weary of the constant abuse that comes with banging around in the paint in the NBA for 14 years. His window is slowly closing, and the Mavericks owe it to him and to themselves to make the most out of what they have to work with right now.

Yes, they lost Jason Terry to the Boston Celtics. Yes, they lost out on the chance to bring in this year's top free agent, Deron Williams, who made the decision to stay in Brooklyn with the Nets.

Still, that's no reason to completely throw in the towel and decide to waste a season in the hopes that they'll land two of the game's biggest superstars next summer.

It's not like they're the only team that's interested in those two players, either. Paul and Howard, if he's still with the Magic, will be bigger prizes than Williams was this year, and teams will be lining up to land one or both of them. 

What they need to do is get off their butts and sign Steve Nash. That's priority No. 1. They get Nash, then everything else falls into place. 

The next priority is re-signing Delonte West. He's a cold-blooded shooter who will benefit from Nash's distributing prowess. He's also a feisty defender who never backs down from a challenge, and the Mavericks suddenly have a great, if not elite, backcourt.

Shawn Marion still has some hops left in his legs, and he's awesome when Nash is around. Nowitzki is phenomenal on both ends of the court, and he'll also benefit from having Nash on the squad.

The Mavericks need to think about what moves they still can make this year and forget about the pipe dream of landing Paul and Howard next year. 

Any other course of action could be catastrophic to the future of the franchise.

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