Uncontested Shots: The Latest on Millsap, Odom, Mavs, Nuggets, and More

This article originally appeared on the all new basketball website SirCharlesInCharge. Uncontested Shots will debut on SCIC every Tuesday and Friday from now until at least the start of the NBA season.

The NBA free agent period is at it’s halfway point and while many of the top names are signed there are still a number of valuable names still available.

What better time for my latest round of Uncontested Shots? Without further ado, here goes:

Mavs Get Shawn Marion in four-way trade with Raptors, Magic, and Grizzlies

As expected the Dallas Mavericks acquired combo forward Shawn Marion in a sign-and-trade deal with the Raptors that the Grizzlies helped to facilitate.

The Mavericks get Marion as well as Nathan Jawai, Kris Humphries, and former Mav Greg Buckner from Memphis, the Raptors get Devean George and Antoine Wright from Dallas to go along with free-agent signee Hedo Turkoglu, and the Grizzlies get Jerry Stackhouse from the Mavs along with the cash that will be used to pay Stackhouse’s $2 million buy-out.

When you consider that the Mavs have acquired Marion, Quinton Ross, and Marcin Gortat (once the Magic officially decline to match the offer sheet he signed with Dallas) at the low cost of only having to give up George, Wright, and Stackhouse, this has been a great off-season for the Mavs. (Update: Brandon Bass has signed a four-year deal with Orlando so add him to the list of losses.)

Although I still don’t think that the Mavs are good enough to crack the top-three in the Western Conference. The Lakers and Spurs are still clearly better teams on paper but the Mavs still have a chance to pass the Nuggets should Denver fail to bring back Linas Kleiza after having already lost Dahntay Jones to the Pacers.

With Kleiza, the Nuggets get the edge because they have a better team one through eight. But without Kleiza the Nuggets top three bench players would be Chris Andersen, Renaldo Balkman, and rookie Ty Lawson versus the Mavs bench which boasts Jason Terry, J.J. Barea, and Erick Dampier.

If this was 2004 I’d say the Mavs were a better team but I give the Nuggets the edge since starters Carmelo Anthony, J.R. Smith, and Nene are all ascending players whereas Kidd, Nowitzki, and Marion have all seen better days and Josh Howard just can’t seem to stay healthy.

Anyone else think it’s weird that Chris Bosh wished Kris Humphries luck on his Twitter page but had nothing to say to Shawn Marion?

Speaking of Dahntay Jones

With the news that Dahntay Jones has signed with the Pacers for four years and $11 million the Nuggets have to ask themselves who on their team will get the defensive assignment when they play against the likes Kobe Bryant, Manu Ginobili, Brandon Roy, and the rest of the conference’s (and the league’s) best guards?

As of right now that assignment would fall on J.R. Smith. While Smith’s defense and work ethic seem to have improved dramatically he just doesn’t doesn’t have the chops or the demeanor to guard any of those guys for forty minutes a game.

Looking at the list of free agent guards that the Nuggets might be interested in to help shore up their defense we’re talking about guys like Desmond Mason and Marquis Daniels. Mason would be a great fit for the Nuggets should Oklahoma City fail in trying to re-sign him.

The Lakers have to be thrilled with what’s happened this off-season. They acquired Ron Artest to defend Carmelo Anthony so Kobe doesn’t have to and then watched as Dahntay Jones, aka “Jack Tripper”, fled to Indiana.

Update: The Nuggets appear to be in trade discussions with the Pistons for the defensive-minded Arron Afflalo.

Hill Stays in Phoenix

Yahoo!’s Adrian Wojnarowski (easily the MVP of journalists during this off-season) reports that the Suns and Grant Hill have agreed on a two-year, $3.8 million extension. Hill chose  to stay in Phoenix instead of signing with either the Celtics or the Knicks.

I guess Hill is content finishing his career without ever making it to the second round of the playoffs. Would you believe that Hill has only played in 22 career playoff games? I know he was injured a lot but you’d think he’d at least made it past the first round once.

I heard Hill was going to borrow a page from Ron Artest’s playbook and wear No. 0 if he ended up in Boston or New York in honor of the number of weeks his wife Tamia’s albums have been No. 1 on the Billboard charts.

Odom Watch 2009

The Lakers and Lamar Odom still appear to be far apart on an extension. As is, the Lakers are already about $21 million over the projected luxury tax threshold for next season. Any contract Odom signs will count double with the luxury tax.

Sure the Lakers can afford to spend the kind of dough it would take to keep Odom around but people seem to forget that the Lakers also employ the highest-paid coach in professional sports. Phil Jackson’s salary for next season is an eye-popping $12 million.

Lakers fans need to be patient. The Blazers appear to be the only possibility to sign Odom for more than the luxury tax but all of the names that appear to be higher on the Blazers’ wish list are restricted free agents. So not only does Odom have to wait for the Blazers to sign one of their desired targets to an offer sheet but then he has to wait another week to see if those offer sheets get matched.

Update: The Blazers signed Paul Millsap to an offer sheet Friday night.

Update II: Janis Carr of the Orange County Register is reporting that the Lakers have upped their offer to Odom to $8 million and assistant GM Ronnie Lester expects a deal to be finalized next week.

If it’s any consolation to Lakers fans, HoopsWorld.com’s Eric Pincus (easily the Most Improved Player of b-ball writers this off-season) feels pretty good about the Lakers chances of bringing Odom back.

His rationale is that the Lakers could have worked out a sign-and-trade with the Rockets for Ron Artest that would have allowed them to maintain their mid-level exemption in case Odom chose to leave. By not doing so he believes the Lakers seem pretty confident.

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Andrew Ungvari is a Senior Writer for BleacherReport.com and now a lead blogger for the all new SirCharlesInCharge, part of the FanSided Network.

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