Well, it looks like I’m wrong about the Dallas Mavericks trade. I thought Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban added Devean George with full knowledge that his inclusion would automatically set off George exercising his Early Bird Clause rights and nixing the trade. I don’t know that any player would want to lose up to $10 million and be moved to a losing team if he could avoid it and I felt Cuban wanted to mollify the Mavs fans and his star Dirk Nowitzki without actually making a move. As it stood, Cuban would have traded his future point guard, Devin Harris, his glue player, Jerry Stackhouse, and his only reliable interior presence, Desagana Diop.

Well, it turns out that Cuban is willing to trade his future and his best interior defender for Jason Kidd (at least he keeps the glue).

Trenton Hassell and Keith Van Horn are to take the place of Stackhouse and George while the rest of the players are to remain the same, and the trade looks like it is going to go through.

But I still question Mavericks’ owner, Mark Cuban for adding George as a part of the trade. While others pointed to, among other things, pointed to daily newspaper writers indicating George’s iterating that he wanted to be traded, his inclusion oin the trade made no sense. Sure, George feels more productive with an active role – a starter – on the team. If that’s his mindset, that needs to be dealt with internally. But, with George’s “Early Bird” status is the primary consideration to be dealt with in considering dealing him to another team. I’ll try to get an answer today.

Jason Kidd Photo Credit: Icon SMI