Josh Howard is out Caron Butler is in

The All Star weekend was great for the Dallas Mavericks, Dirk won his All Star event for team Texas and the Mavs pulled of a 7 player deal. This trade has the potential to fix all of the roster questions that have surrounded the Mavericks for most of this season. Below are the players that are are coming and going.

The trade between the Mavericks and Wizards
Mavericks Get:
G/F Caron Butler
C Brendan Haywood
G DeShawn Stevenson

Wizards Get:
G/F Josh Howard
F/C Drew Gooden
F James Singleton
G Quinton Ross

On Dunham and Miller this morning they reported that Gooden and Howard were the Mavericks least efficient players. Haywood and Butler are the Wizards most efficient players this season.

J-Ho for Caron Butler
The biggest part of this deal is no doubt the fact that the Mavs were able to get rid of Josh Howard and his off court distractions. Caron Butler is a guard / forward that will fit better than Howard at the 2-guard spot. Another plus about Caron Butler is that from all of the accounts that I have heard he is a good guy on and off the court.

Josh Howard seemed to lose his game after his barrage of off season incidents and injuries, J-Ho never returned to the production level that the Mavs counted on in their championship run. Caron Butler improves the Mavericks 2-guard situation and can create his own offense and play a little defense, something Howard forgot how to do at some point.

J-Ho vs Caron Butler Stats 2009-2010
Josh Howard
31 Games 26:41 PPG 12.5 FG 40.1 3PT 26.7 FT 79.0 RBS 3.6 STL 0.7
Caron Butler
47 Games 39:23 PPG 16.9 FG 42.2 3PT 26.3 FT 87.7 RBS 6.7 STL 1.5

Butler has better numbers in almost every category.

The other major swap in this trade is the Mavericks F/C Drew Gooden for the Wizards C Brendan Haywood, the rest of the players were included to get the salaries right. Gooden was a nice player, but we needed him to be a true 7 footer and you can’t teach height.

Haywood is a true center that averages just under a double double a game, this will allow the Mavericks to have 2 true centers again. Watch for Haywood to edge Dampier by the end of the season for the starting job at center.

By Playoff time I believe the Mavericks lineup will be:
PG Jason Kidd
- Backups: Rodrigue Beaubois, Jose Juan Barea
SG Caron Butler
- Jason Terry, DeShawn Stevenson
SF Shawn Marion
- Caron Butler, Eduardo Najera, Matt Carroll
PF Dirk Nowitzki
- Tim Thomas, Eduardo Najera
C Brendan Haywood
- Erick Dampier, Eduardo Najera

Conclusion
If I had to score the trade I would put it at Mavericks 3 – Wizards 1. The Mavericks get 2 points for getting rid of Josh Howard and replacing him with 2-time All Star Caron Butler. The Mavs get one more point for acquiring a productive center in Haywood, I think I would take him over Gortat as well. However the Mavs lost some depth in this deal which is why I give the Wizards 1 point. Don’t get me wrong though this trade is definitely lopsided in the Mavericks favor. Gotta love owner Mark Cuban and GM Donnie Nelson.