No Kidding around this time

The Kidd to Dallas trade finally went through.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3253107

Since all the major pieces remain the same, my thoughts from this post still hold.

In case you’re wondering, the only Cav with the power to sabotage a trade a la Devean George is Dwayne Jones. He of the $771k expiring deal probably isn’t going anywhere, and I can’t imagine him rejecting any trade that could net him some playing time.

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Meanwhile, the Cavs kick off Act II of this season tonight against the Rockets. Hopefully the all-star break left us substantially healthier than it found us. Everybody but Andy and Sasha should be close to 100%, so we should compete much better than we did in Houston 2 weeks ago.

With a roadie tomorrow in Indiana, I imagine we’ll see a lot of Z tonight, hopefully with better results against Yao, since the Pacers can’t match bigs with Jermaine O’Neal out and will probably try to run a tired Z off the floor.

Dumbest player in the league nominee Drew Gooden is looking to make up for lost time, as his absence last time contributed to our 20 rebound deficit.

Tracy McGrady should be back to full strength, which might cause matchup problems, as Hughes is too small and Newble is too slow. Since the Rockets showed a willingness to post up any player on the floor drawing a mismatch, I think Mike Brown will ride Newble early, hoping some physical play leaves McGrady floating on the perimeter.

Speaking of floating on the perimeter, the league’s best player is coming off his 2nd All-Star Game MVP award. Last time he abandoned the drive because he was neither getting calls nor hitting his free throws. That is not likely to repeat, so look for Lebron to get some revenge on Battier, Yao, and that poor, helpless rim.

Our rotations in the 3rd quarter last game led to a flurry of wide open shots for the Rockets. Energized, rested and healthy, the Cavs will come out much more assertively in both halfs.

Go Cavs!

Mavs <3 Jason Kidd

So you’re saying there’s still a chance!  The Mavs for Kidd deal is off thanks to Devean George.  Maybe the Cavs still have a shot?

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Yes, Jason Kidd is about to become a Mav. Now if only they could pry Jamal Mashburn from ESPN and talk Jimmy Jackson out of retirement, they could return to their glory days.

Since the Cavs are the center of the universe (we have LEBRON!), I’ll just touch on the implications.

The Mavs get smaller, while Phoenix and LA have been busy growing, and get thinner by trading 3 rotation players and 2 others for Kidd and a maybe rotation player in Malik Allen.

• This seems like a move to turn the Mavs more into the up-tempo team Don Nelson originally formed them as. I have no idea what they plan to do against the Duncans, Gasol/Bynums, Shaqs or Yaos of the world. Dampier certainly isn’t the answer. Maybe they can just outscore everyone.
• Losing the depth won’t affect them much. Going 10 deep is great for an 82 game regular season – just look at all the wins they racked up last year – but you only need 8 strong for the playoffs.
• A starting lineup of Kidd, Terry, Howard, Dirk and Dampier is pretty damned good. Brandon Bass, JJ Barea and Eddie Jones is everything else they have.

For the Nets, well, kudos to them. They finally found a deal they like to help them rebuild.

• Harris is their PG of the future.
• Stackhouse is a contributor, an asset to trade elsewhere, and a replacement for a soon-to-be-traded Vince Carter
• All the expiring contracts ($5.5 mil) and cash ($3 mil) let them rebuild this summer instead of down the road.
• And the pick is a throw in to seal the deal – it’ll probably be 25th or lower.

So why didn’t the Cavs get Kidd?

We couldn’t come anywhere close to that package! We couldn’t make an offer that wouldn’t be laughed at compared to that one.

• A quality point guard? Boobie? They’ll pass.
• Another quality scorer? Sasha? Hughes? Would you take either – contracts aside – over Stackhouse? No. And neither would the Nets.
• Ok, we could’ve matched the expiring deals with Ira and the Browns, but even including Kellen Winslow wouldn’t make that deal palatable.

I don’t think Lebron is going to pause for a moment and wonder what could have been. Nothing could have been. It was never a possibility. As I’ve said all along, the Cavs only shot is for a mid-level player. Maybe next year when we have some real assets.

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Let’s drop a quickie preview of tonight’s game while we’re at it:
Cavs, at home, against a Spurs team without Tony Parker on the last leg of their “rodeo road trip”. Hughes should be playing with confidence. Lebron won’t be thinking about getting Kidd. Gooden and Z should play. Good things should happen.

Go Cavs!