What the Mavs could do next

Yesterday’s news that the Mavs were getting Shawn Marion energized a lot of Mavs fans, including myself. While this trade doesn’t necessarily push the Mavs over the top, I definitely think it makes them better. But, the Mavs are far from a finished product, and Cubes and Donnie could have another couple of ideas about what they want to do to improve the team.

There are still a couple of big trade pieces the Mavs could use as part of a package to improve their team once again.

What the Mavs need the most right now is a shooting guard. As presently constructed, Jason Terry is the best on the roster, but he was also the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year, so the Mavs needs to find a shooting guard worthy of starting. If they pull off a trade like this, that shooting guard which they would trade for could be used as part of a smaller crunch-time lineup.

Does Dallas really need to do anything? I think they do, but their roster as presently constructed is definitely an upgrade over last year’s. With a starting five (probably) looking like Kidd-Howard-Marion-Dirk-Gortat, and a bench with Terry, Dampier, Humphries, Barea and Ross, the Mavs probably are near the top of the Western Conference contenders. Still, to get themselves on the same level as the Lakers, I think they need to make another move.

There are a few different shooting guards I think the Mavs can pursue (I have no info to suggest that they have already), including Detroit’s Richard Hamilton, Phoenix’s Jason Richardson and Milwaukee’s Michael Redd.

Redd comes with a hefty contract, though, as the soon-to-be 30 year old guard is due to make more than $16 million next season.
Richardson is slated to make a little more than $13 million, and Hamilton is due to make a little more than $11 million.

In order to make a trade like this work, the Mavericks would probably have to give up Josh Howard, whose contract expires after this coming season but holds a team option for 2010-11. Erick Dampier will be entering the sixth year of a seven-year contract in 2009-10, so he won’t be going anywhere.

It’s still possible that the Mavericks could be able to make a trade, but judging by their salary situation (loaded with contracts already), its unlikely that the Mavs will be able to take on too much more money. So while I don’t think the Mavs are going to make another deal, I’m not ready to count them out of the trade market either.

Contract data taken from USATODAY.com