1. Best Of The First Trimester
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
It's only a slight exaggeration to say that nothing warmed the heart at Stein Line HQ during the holidays more than the tweets and e-mails that flooded in asking what happened to our traditional First Trimester Report right around Christmas.
Fear not, friends.
It was pushed back a week or so purely because of a scheduling quirk and the wanton desire to distract you at work instead of running this when you were home with the family.
Most teams are closer to 35 games played than the usual 27- or 28-game cutoff, but hopefully you'll ignore such trivialities to join us in taking stock of what we've seen in the first third of the season through the prism of the league's major award categories.
East MVP of the First Trimester
Amare Stoudemire, New York Knicks
One thing we should all be able to agree on: This is the toughest call on the board after 30-something games.
You can accept LeBron James' publicly issued invitation to delete him and Dwyane Wade from consideration because they allegedly neutralize each other in the MVP race ... which was actually a thinly veiled/pretty sly way to try to force voters to do the exact opposite.
You can also notify Dwight Howard that we'll check back in during Trimester 2 after we've had a longer look at the Magic's extreme makeover ... since all of Dwight's undeniable offensive improvement to go with his peerless command of the paint can't change the fact that Orlando started so poorly that management felt it had to shake things up dramatically with two big trades.
You'd still have to find a way to separate Stoudemire and Derrick Rose after all that.
Good luck.
If you can pardon the Bulls for Wednesday's deflating crunch-time failure in New Jersey, Rose has the Bulls on a 55-win pace even though Carlos Boozer has missed 15 games and Joakim Noah has missed 10. That's the stuff that should wow you even more than Rose's gaudy statistical production (23.8 points, 8.3 assists, 4.5 rebounds per game) and how he's hiked his success rate from 3-point range to a robust .394.
Stoudemire, however, is the guy who was undaunted by the prospect of being painted as New Yorkers' consolation prize when the Knicks didn't get LeBron, fully confident (delusional?) that he can single-handedly lead the Knicks back to prominence ... and actually has them pointed that way faster than anyone imagined. The Knicks have little depth, play little D and started shakily, but Stoudemire leads the league in fourth-quarter scoring (7.4 ppg) and has quickly hushed all of us media mavens who said his numbers would drop off dramatically without Steve Nash spoon-feeding him. No Nash? Amare simply formed a successful new partnership with Raymond Felton instead.
I know you're probably wincing as you brace for the inevitable speech about the pivotal role team success always plays in the MVP thinking here, but the standards are actually a little looser at the first-trimester pole. Stoudemire has little to apologize for anyway with the Knicks at 20-14, which computes to a 48-win pace, with No. 7 Indiana sitting four games under .500 and five games back.
Common sense says the Knicks won't maintain that pace as the schedule gets tougher and the regular-season grind starts to wear on Mike D'Antoni's tight rotation. But that likelihood -- along with the well-worn stat about how we haven't seen an MVP from a team that won less than 50 games since Moses Malone in 1981-82 from the 46-win Houston Rockets -- only helped break this Amare/D-Rose deadlock.
Translation: Rose can probably count on factoring heavily in the MVP race all season. I wanted to make sure, since Stoudemire doesn't have the same luxury, that he's properly feted now for delivering in the harshest media glare in the league.
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West MVP of the First Trimester
Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas Mavericks
Nowitzki
If LeBron and D-Wade cancel each other out -- which is the case for us only for the purposes of this trimester exercise -- you're bound to anticipate what we're going to say about the superb San Antonio guard tandem (Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker) that's allowing Tim Duncan to scale back for once, as well as the highest-scoring duo in the league (Kevin Durant and the faster-starting Russell Westbrook) in Oklahoma City.
Right. None of those four stars, splitting loads as they do, can trump Nowitzki in the West at this stage.
The same holds for Utah's Deron Williams and New Orleans' Chris Paul. D-Will is having a career year statistically, and Paul is the most efficient and steals-happy player in the league as he works his way back from last season's knee injury. But while they have been brilliant individually, their teams have been up-and-down for weeks.
Nowitzki, meanwhile, was shooting a career-best 54.5 percent from the floor before he sprained his right knee on Dec. 27 -- compared to 50.2 percent in his MVP season of 2006-07 -- and leads the league with a plus/minus of 27.0 points in his 29 games.
In other words, Dallas outscores opponents by an average of 13.3 points per 48 minutes when Nowitzki is playing ... and gets outscored by an average of 13.7 points per 48 minutes when he's resting on the bench. It's likewise true that no team in the league has a bigger drop-off from its leading scorer to its No. 2 scorer than the Mavs, with Nowitzki averaging 24.1 points and Jason Terry at 15.5 ppg.
So you don't have to be a lifelong Dirk devotee to agree with this premise: With Nowitzki lined up next to the long, springy Tyson Chandler -- who does all the things Dirk can't and easily ranks as the best-fitting frontcourt sidekick he's had in his 13 seasons -- Dallas has reinstated itself to the Western Conference elite despite the fact that it realistically doesn't have anyone besides Dirk who will sniff the All-Star Game (unless Chandler sneaks in).
Without Nowitzki? You've seen it in the Mavs' past six games and presumably can't take much more of it.
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Coach of the First Trimester
Erik Spoelstra, Miami Heat
Spoelstra
Just making it to the second trimester, after we all had South Beach staked out for a swoop downstairs from Pat Riley when the Heat were 9-8, has to make Spoelstra an automatic COFT selection.
Doesn't it?
OK, OK. Not quite.
The competition is too good here to draw conclusions that quickly, mostly because of Boston's Doc Rivers and San Antonio's Gregg Popovich.
All Doc did was provide the usual leadership and stability he regularly oozes to help the Celts weather injuries to Rajon Rondo and Kevin Garnett -- with Kendrick Perkins still out and Jermaine O'Neal rarely available -- while blending Shaquille O'Neal in and (somehow) keeping Nate Robinson plugged in. The 27-7 Celts, I should say.
As for Pop? Thanks to his guidance and willingness to change with the times, San Antonio has transitioned to a well-chronicled new (faster) approach offensively while also cutting down Tim Duncan's minutes and role dramatically to keep TD as fresh as possible for the playoffs ... all of which requires Pop to trust a handful of youngsters and newcomers. The Spurs, incidentally, are a league-best 29-6.
We barely have the room or time to get to the job done by Rick Carlisle in Dallas or Mike D'Antoni in New York or Tom Thibodeau in Chicago, where the rookie coach and Rose have hooked up to lead the upstart Bulls into the East's top four despite the lengthy absences of Boozer and Noah.
Yet I'd still argue that Spoelstra, after all the heat he faced early, sticks out even among such luminaries. He faced the Heatles' first crisis -- and the first authority challenge from James -- without a flinch and quickly helped get Miami playing like us know-it-alls expected back in October.
Any coach who can turn to James, Wade and Chris Bosh is bound to look smart eventually, but Spoelstra has to receive a slice of the credit for how suddenly they've all found a niche -- and for the stifling brand of team D emanating from Miami that has made sure the Heatles capitalized on the mostly favorable schedule since their Nov. 27 team meeting in Dallas. (Don't forget the well-chronicled limitations outside of Miami's three-man core, either.)
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Rookie of the First Trimester
Blake Griffin, Los Angeles Clippers
Easiest Trimester selection ever?
Blake has to be up there.
John Wall simply hasn't played enough -- or consistently well enough, thanks to those knee and foot problems that have cost him 12 games -- to provide the sort of push Griffin was expecting. The Knicks' Landry Fields, meanwhile, is the undeniable rookie Cinderella, after lasting all the way to No. 39 in the draft last June and contributing significantly to New York's surprising start. But Griffin is clearly levitating in a different stratosphere with those 22 consecutive double-doubles ... and the tantalizing idea that he's not anywhere near his ceiling yet.
Put another way: What were the odds, coming into the season, that one solitary Clipper would convince us to stop caring about the team's record and have everyone geeked up about All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles more than all the potential Lakers participants combined?
2. Trimester Awards, Part Deux
Most Improved Player of the First Trimester
Wesley Matthews, Portland Trail Blazers
Can't remember a season where so many of my colleagues have tossed elite names into the MIP discussion. Also can't blame 'em.
Just to name a few: Chicago's Derrick Rose, Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook, Memphis' Rudy Gay and, of course, Minnesota's Kevin Love.
So many of the kiddies from last summer's Team USA squad have made such noticeable strides, as detailed here recently, that it's tough to be a stickler about our usual policy suggesting that top-five picks like the Fab Four above aren't so much improving as they are developing at the rate you'd expect and demand from guys drafted in franchise-player territory.
Yet I still struggle to stifle my inner romantic when the MIP debate starts, especially so early in the season. Significant production that we didn't see coming? Always gets me in Trimester 1.
The list, furthermore, is plenty long even if you exclude the deserving likes of Love, whose bid to become the first 20-and-15 man since Moses Malone in 1982-83 -- while also so suddenly emerging as a floor-stretching threat who makes 43.2 percent of 3s -- is undeniably hard to resist. Let's be real: Love is the first guy since Dennis Rodman -- with apologies to Ben Wallace -- to make board work cool enough for regular "SportsCenter" run.
Arguments can be made for any and all of the following: Utah's Paul Millsap, New York's Raymond Felton and Wilson Chandler, Golden State's Dorell Wright, Dallas' DeShawn Stevenson, Washington's JaVale McGee, Philadelphia's Jrue Holiday, Indiana's Roy Hibbert (at least until his December dip), Denver's Arron Afflalo and Eric Gordon of the Los Angeles Clippers ... who has responded to his perceived snub from yours truly and the high standards laid out in the aforementioned Team USA piece by shooting 43 percent on 3s in December and playing the best all-around ball of his life.
(Minnesota's Michael Beasley and Atlanta's Al Horford, for the record, are two more upper-crust draftees who are deservedly in the conversation with all the potential MIPs mentioned already.)
However ...
Some slight recent slippage from Matthews can't keep me from singling him out of this crowded group. The five-year, $34 million contract he snagged from the Blazers in the summer, which so many of us loudly questioned at the time, made total sense by Christmas thanks to the undrafted Matthews' fearlessness and productivity when asked by Portland to do some of the things Brandon Roy's knees aren't letting him do these days.
The responsibility Matthews has been forced to shoulder for a franchise in crisis has been immense. Had to find a way to recognize his largely unforeseen ability to handle all that, as evidenced by his 15.4 points in 31.3 minutes per game.
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Defensive Player of the First Trimester
Tyson Chandler, Dallas Mavericks
Opening myself up to some heat here -- as well as the usual taunts about my Dirk biases -- to cast a vote for someone other than one of two foremost defensive anchors in the game: Dwight Howard and Kevin Garnett.
That's doubly true when Howard, covering for teammates left and right as always, still has Orlando in the top five in defensive efficiency even after his GM swapped out almost all of Dwight's supporting cast for an entirely new one before we even reached Christmas. And Garnett was finally starting to resemble the highly disruptive rover who led Boston to a championship in Year 1 of the KG era until he was felled by a calf strain last week.
But it's the right call.
Nowitzki himself swayed me to Chandler with his recent proclamation that the Team USA big man has changed the defensive culture in Big D in a way similar to the difference KG made when he joined the Celts in 2007-08. The Mavs, for so long labeled softies, have emerged as a top-five (or close to it) defensive team this season -- as well as the NBA's leading and most successful practitioner of various zones -- thanks largely to what Chandler supplies in terms of rim protection, communication and inspiration to the historically vulnerable-on-D likes of Dirk and Jason Terry.
Honorable mention: Our man Andrew Bogut doesn't get enough spotlight in Milwaukee for his shot-blocking, rebounding and charge-taking ... all with lingering pain in that surgically repaired right elbow. Also: Chicago's Joakim Noah, when healed, will be a name of considerable interest in this category -- and maybe in the MIP field, too, for his big jumps offensively and on the boards (if he can sustain them with Boozer back). Another also: LeBron and D-Wade have indeed been ferocious on the perimeter lately to anchor the Heat's smothering resistance.
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Sixth Man of the First Trimester
George Hill, San Antonio Spurs
Couldn't bear the thought of completing this exercise without rewarding at least one player from the team with the league's best record. Especially since Hill has taken over a role typically manned by the best sixth man of the 2000s and isn't far off the standards for off-the-bench efficiency and impact that Manu Ginobili has established over the years.
Going with Hill, though, means snubbing Boston's Glen Davis, which pains me because Big Baby plays well pretty much every time I get the chance to watch him. Or maybe that's my impression because he's such a consistent co-star to Rajon Rondo (and the injured Kendrick Perkins) in the Celts' next-gen core, and plays defense and finishes at the rim with greater effectiveness and energy than ever before to go with that reliable jumper.
Other names on our radar include Utah's C.J. Miles, Denver's Al Harrington and, of course, Dallas' Jason Terry and Atlanta's reigning Sixth Man Award winner, Jamal Crawford. You have to believe the latter two vets will be heavy favorites to win the actual award come springtime. Terry, in particular, isn't shooting the ball as well as he can but has uncorked a succession of fourth-quarter eruptions already ... along with his new habit of frequently raising four fingers late in games to make sure everyone knows that's his time.
3. Eastern Conference
Perhaps it comes as little surprise after Danny Granger earned a spot on Professor Hollinger's All-Disappointing Team, but there are some fresh rumbles in circulation that the Pacers are softening their no-trade stance on the Team USA swingman.
The Pacers have generally resisted trade interest in Granger, including feelers from Denver earlier this season about Indiana's willingness to include Granger in multi-team Carmelo Anthony trade scenarios.
One source with knowledge of Indiana's thinking, however, said this week that the Pacers -- 6-11 and fading since their big November wins over the Heat and Lakers -- have not dismissed every recent proposal that includes Granger. Another source insisted to ESPN.com that the Pacers, while they'd naturally be seeking a lot in return, quietly listened to a few Granger pitches last season as well.
It seems far safer to suggest that the Pacers would make a move before the Feb. 24 trading deadline with one of their expiring contracts, such as Mike Dunleavy or T.J. Ford, but here's another way to put it: Roy Hibbert, despite his own December fade, has emerged as the more untouchable piece in Indiana's eyes than Granger, who is shooting just 41.6 percent from the field, going to the free-throw line just 5.1 times per game as he too often settles for jumpers ... and has three pricy years left on his contract after this season valued at $40 million.
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Some numbers of note in the East this week:
26.4: Amare Stoudemire is averaging 26.4 points this season, good for second in the league. Only four Knicks have ever posted a higher single-season scoring average: Bob McAdoo (three times), Patrick Ewing (twice), Richie Guerin (once) and Bernard King (once). King is the only Knick to ever lead the league in scoring, averaging 32.9 points in 1984-85. Stoudemire, meanwhile, is also averaging 7.4 points per game in fourth quarters this season, up from 4.0 points in fourth quarters last season.
3: When LeBron James shot 51.1 percent from the floor and 44.6 percent on 3s in December, it marked the third time in his career (along with April 2009 and January 2005) that he shot better than 50 percent from the field and better than 40 percent from long distance for an entire month. James averaged 25.2 points, 7.9 rebounds and 6.8 assists in December in co-leading Miami to a 15-1 record with Dwyane Wade.
3: When Toronto's Jose Calderon totaled 20 points and 17 assists in Wednesday's win at Cleveland, he joined Deron Williams and Steve Nash as the only players to record a 20-point, 15-assist game this season.
3: Hedo Turkoglu's 10 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists in Monday's win over Golden State gave him three career triple-doubles ... all with Orlando. Hedo thus surpassed Penny Hardaway, Tracy McGrady, Bo Outlaw and Scott Skiles -- each of whom had two triple-doubles for the Magic -- for the franchise lead.
392: Kris Humprhies' 20 points and 11 rebounds in Wednesday's win over Chicago accounted for the first 20/10 game of his career ... in his 392nd career game. The Elias Sports Bureau reports that the only active players who took that long to post at least 20 points and 10 rebounds in the same game are all guards: Steve Blake (499), Earl Watson (499) and Mike Bibby (452).
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Anderson Varejao is the Cav generating the most trade interest, according to NBA front-office sources, but Antawn Jamison is also a popular target and the player Cleveland sees as more likely to move before the deadline.
As for its $14.5 million trade exception and the Nets' attempts to make use of it to help facilitate their long-running pursuit of Denver's Anthony -- as detailed by ESPN The Magazine colleague Chris Broussard and in last week's Weekend Dime -- one source with knowledge of Cleveland's thinking continues to insist that the Cavs are determined to acquire at least a first-round pick with no or limited lottery protection for the right to make use of their exception.
Steve Nash turns 37 in a month. Feb. 7 to be exact.
All signals, though, continue to suggest that he'll be celebrating that birthday in the desert.
It's not just the Suns who have been publicly insisting -- yet again -- that they will not consider moving Nash this season. A quickie check with a few highly interested suitors generated the same update: Phoenix is also still telling any team that calls that Nash is not available.
"No sign yet," said one source.
There's still time for the Suns to alter that stance, with 49 days to go before the Feb. 24 trading deadline, but owner Robert Sarver repeated his insistence in an e-mail to ESPN.com this week that he will not respond to Phoenix's 2-6 slide since its big trade with Orlando by dealing away his All-Star point guard and starting completely over.
And Nash isn't protesting, based on what he told the Arizona Republic in Friday's editions. Referring to new team president Lon Babby, Nash said: "He told me a month ago when it first sprung up that he had no plans to move me," Nash said.
As for trying to push for a trade himself, Nash cited the two-year extension worth $22 million that he signed in the summer of 2009 as an indication of where he wants to be.
"I signed up for this," Nash said. "I'm committed to trying to build a team here. Obviously, last year was a phenomenal year. Tied 2-2 [in the conference finals against the Lakers], I thought we could win a championship. I genuinely believed we could and would win it. It's tough to be in this position six months later. [But] I'm still committed to it. I love the guys. I think we've got potential, but we've had so much change and haven't been able to put it together."
If there's any doubt about how much interest Nash would generate should the Suns change their minds and decide to see how much young stock they could get for their most attractive asset, be advised that Nash is on pace to become the oldest player ever to average at least 10 assists per game and is shooting better than 50 percent for the seventh successive season. The only two players who can currently match that are big men: Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol.
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Some numbers of note in the West this week:
45: Kevin Martin's 45 points in Wednesday's loss to Portland was the first 45-point game for a Rocket since the team began playing in the Toyota Center in 2003. Three visiting players beat Martin to it: Dirk Nowitzki (53 on Dec. 2, 2004), Carmelo Anthony (45 on March 15, 2010) and Dwyane Wade (45 on Dec. 29, 2010). Martin was also the first Rocket to score 45 points in a home game since Hakeem Olajuwon (March 29, 1997 against Denver).
45: If Vince Carter can ever manage a 45-point game for Phoenix, he'll become the first player in history to do so for four different franchises. Carter, Jamal Crawford and Shaquille O'Neal are the only active players to score 45 points in a single game with three different teams. Ray Allen, Antawn Jamison, Tracy McGrady and Houston's Martin have done it with two.
20: Marcus Camby's 20 rebounds Tuesday in Portland's loss at Dallas was his 41st career game with at least 20 boards, placing him third among active players just behind Orlando's Dwight Howard (43) and Detroit's Ben Wallace (42). Boston's Kevin Garnett (36) and O'Neal (35) are next in line.
101: The Knicks' 101 points after three quarters Tuesday in an eventual 128-115 victory over San Antonio made them the first team to reach 100 points before the fourth quarter against the Spurs in Tim Duncan's career. The Spurs hadn't allowed 128 points since March 3, 1993, when their squad featuring David Robinson, Avery Johnson and Vinny Del Negro -- and coached by John Lucas -- surrendered 132 to the Celtics in Boston.
22: Kevin Love and Blake Griffin have each recorded double-doubles in 22 consecutive games, marking the first time two players have had streaks that long in the same season since 1977-78, when Chicago's Artis Gilmore posted a 20-gamer and one of our favorite players back in the day -- Swen Nater -- went for 22 straight games late in my beloved Braves' final season in Buffalo.
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Blazers center Marcus Camby, when asked what advice he'd give teammate Brandon Roy about trying to play again this season or perhaps sitting out for the final 46 games to give his ailing knees an extended hiatus: "We'd love to have him out there, but it's his career. He has to make the call, weigh all his options, see all the doctors." One source close to the situation termed the idea that Roy -- who's out indefinitely -- will sit for the remainder of the season to be "an unlikely option." ...
A few more teams that have expressed interest in Sacramento's in-demand Omri Casspi have emerged since ESPN.com's report earlier this week that Chicago and New York are trying to convince the Kings to part with the second-year swingman. One source close to the situation said Toronto and Washington have likewise joined the Casspi chase, while Sam Amick of AOL FanHouse reports that Denver and the Los Angeles Clippers have inquired as well. As stated from the start, though, Sacramento will insist that any team takes on the contract of Beno Udrih or Francisco Garcia in any Casspi deal and could well ask for even more than that. The Kings' desire to find a new point guard to pair with Tyreke Evans is no secret among rival teams.
5. Film Session
Marc Stein joins Jay Harris on "SportsCenter" to discuss the likelihood of one last comeback from Yao Ming after the Houston center's latest injury setback. They also address the knee sprain that has sidelined Dallas' Dirk Nowitzki for the past six games, which matches the highest total of games he's ever missed in a single season (six in 1999-2000) in 13 seasons in the league.
6. One-On-One ... To Five
Camby
Five questions with Blazers center Marcus Camby:
Q: What's this team's mental state after losing Brandon Roy and another season filled with injuries?
A: It's tough, man. This is my first full year here, but they've been dealing with the injury stuff before I even got here. So things are tough right now.
Brandon's situation, we don't really know what's going on. As players we're pretty much out of the loop. We just heard that he's gonna be out indefinitely. It's tough when your best player's not out there. This team has weathered the storm before, managed to win 50 games and make the playoffs [last season], but we're up and down.
A lot of people like to say this team is snakebitten. And if you look at it and really analyze the whole situation, sometimes it's hard to really second-guess that.
Q: How hard is it for the players not to buy into that kind of thinking?
A: It does get frustrating at times. Especially up there [in Portland]. We're the only show in town, so that's pretty much what everybody's talking about, just the injury situation and what's going on with the team.
Q: For you personally, I'm guessing at this stage of your career you want to be competing for championships. How much harder does that make the situation?
A: Definitely want to win. But I don't like to embark on something and not finish it. Even last year I wanted to remain with the Clippers, because I felt we had a lot of young talent and I knew we had Blake [Griffin] coming back this year and things might have been different.
This is right where I want to be. I had every intention of staying here and they were pushing me to sign the extension [last April] before I was able to go to free agency. So that's pretty much what I'm banking on. I would like to remain in Portland. I still feel we have enough pieces to compete.
Q: But I'm sure you're aware that your name is popping up in trade rumors. How big a distraction is that for you and the team?
A: There's a lot of uncertainty. When there's smoke, there's fire. But I don't know if or when something's gonna happen or what type of changes they're going to make.
They're there. [Rumors are] always going to be there. I take it as applause. It's always nice to be wanted.
Q: How do you think it affects some of the younger players like [Nicolas] Batum? Do they come to you for advice on how to deal with trade talk?
A: I just let [younger teammates] know that I've been on four or five different teams. This is all they know, but it's very rare that you can play your whole career with one team. Guys like Tim Duncan, Kobe, Dirk, Paul Pierce ... they're the only ones. I always tell guys, "When they stop talking about you [in trade scenarios], that's when it's time to worry."
7. Go Wes, Young Man
Doug Pensinger/Getty Images
Playing in the place of injured star Brandon Roy, Wesley Matthews is making a case for MIP. (See Box 2)
8. Captain Jack To Big D?
Jackson
Team officials consider the Mavs' in-house harmony to be the best in their locker room for years, but sources say that it's really not chemistry concerns that would put them off the edgy Stephen Jackson. Not with Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd -- veterans Jackson respects -- around to bond with him. And not with Jackson's proven abilities to make 3s, play dogged D and perform in the playoffs ... all of which would have sounded appealing even with Caron Butler healthy.
The pause with Jackson would be mostly financial, since Jackson turns 33 in April and is in only the first year of a new three-year contract valued at $28 million. Dallas would be discouraged further if Bobcats owner Michael Jordan asks for more in trade talks than a mere Butler-for-Jackson salary dump.
The ex-Warrior wouldn't be as pricy as Philadelphia's Andre Iguodala -- who isn't as well-rounded offensively as Jackson and thus not nearly as appealing from a fit standpoint -- but one source close to the situation says Mavs owner Mark Cuban would have to be sold that acquiring Jackson is an "over the top" move.
Even in a West far more wide open than anticipated, Dallas isn't quite sure.
Houston's Kevin Martin remains a fantasy target -- coveted by the Mavs since last winter -- but the Rockets have made it clear that trading Martin is not in their plans ... and that trading him to an in-state rival probably never will be.
As Cuban noted in his Tuesday night session with reporters, speaking generally about players he'd want to go for: "The other side has to want to make the trade."
Memphis' O.J. Mayo, although he's not a small forward, is an interesting name and presumably not untouchable given all the troubles Mayo is having in Memphis. Sacramento's Omri Casspi -- whose modest $1.3 million salary more than fits into the $4.3 million and $3 million trade exceptions Dallas has available through July 13 -- is a small forward and is another name that intrigues the Mavs.
The price for either, however, would be high. The Grizzlies are expected to ask for a lot in return for Mayo, no matter how mad they are about his role in this week's fight with teammate Tony Allen on the team plane, largely because they gave up Kevin Love to get him in the 2008 draft. Casspi, meanwhile, has several teams chasing him, but sources say Sacramento wants a point guard or another need-filler in return for the Israeli, who is treasured by Kings co-owners Joe and Gavin Maloof. It remains to be seen whether the Kings will eventually be willing to work with a team offering, say, a future first-round pick and a willingness to take on Francisco Garcia's or Beno Udrih's contract.
But Dallas has begun scouring league rosters for potential trade targets in the $3 million-or-less category who, thanks to their trade exceptions, could be acquired for as a little as a future second-round pick if another team out there is simply looking to unload some money.