Premature ejaculation. (Originally titled: The Return of Most Definitely.)

FUCK devean george. he doesn't do shit for this team. this has turned into the oj simpson edition post: if i did it, here's how it happened:

let's begin with a little bit of my personal history with j kidd. i've loved him since he was drafted by the mavs in 94. i've got his rookie card (i gave away some good basketball cards to get that gem) and his jersey somewhere at home. seeing him back in a mavs jersey is something i've wanted to see for a long time (though to be honest, not really this late in his career), stretching back to when he became a free agent in 2003 and had strongly considered a return to dallas.

i dont think i've ever been more jealous of albert than when he got kidd's first signature shoe (i still hate you for that, btw):

i did however get his next pair of kicks, though they were not half as cool:

(don't laugh. it was the 90's, i was young, and i just wanted to wear whatever my idol was wearing.)

anyway, onto the real sports stuff.

let's start with the bad:

he's old. he can't shoot. his style of play is different than the mavs system. he's way too expensive. we just gave away our future. harris is way underrated, and, as we've been seeing recently, is a huge reason why our team works, both offensively and defensively. i thought this season or the next would have been his coming out party. he'll never get the acclaim like kidd has, but dammit, he's gonna be good.

i do feel that this trade is mostly a reaction to what's been going on around us. the lakers definitely get the last laugh, as they gave away nothing for a dominant and ugly big man in pau, whereas the mavs and suns gave away key players. obviously, our front office thought we needed this trade to keep up with the suns and lakers. who's next? are the spurs gonna make any moves?

i'd currently grade this trade as 40% good, 60% bad. yes, this trade is a gigantic risk for our team now, and it makes our future outlook very cloudy. honestly, don't let the rest of this post fool you; i'm still very very very skeptical about this trade. i'm still having conflicting feelings about this trade. that said...



I'M SO FUCKING EXCITED!!!!!

this trade shakes things up for a team that's been lacking on the confidence and enthusiasm side. maybe it was time to let parts of the team go, releasing some of the collective bad memories of the past few years. since our finals collapse, it's just been an uphill battle, and would have remained one, no matter what we have or would have done (unless of course we won a championship).

the good things about this trade? i'm glad you asked.

don't be fooled by his age. this guy is one of the few remaining true 90's ballers left in the nba (truly a dying breed), and if you know anything about 90's ballers, you love his skills. he's a baller in every sense of the word, both on and off the court. how do i know this? well, on the court, it's obvious. total smooth operator with the rock in his hands and crashes the boards like no other pg since earvin "kind of has HIV" johnson. the biggest knock on his game, which has been an issue his whole career, is his shot. not as ugly as marion's, but it's close, with that all-wrist shooting motion. his defense has slowed with age, but he's still a great defender, especially with his size, which would be perfect for...guess who? baron davis (and i guess other big guards a la deron williams). and off the court? despite his claims that joumana was the one beating him and causing him mental anguish, i would like you to refer to exhibit A:


right.

i love that old school "no nonsense" baller mentality he's bringing to dallas. his leadership will be invaluable down the stretch, and i believe he'll come down with a case of what i like to call the "shaq effect." new team + fresh start + championship hopes = harder work ethic and an even greater hunger for the promised land. and hopefully the mavs will all feel the effect as well.

at the same time, i would like to take the time to commemorate what our departing teammates have given us over the past few years. it's obvious that we would not be where we are now without their contributions to our teamwork mentality.

just a slice of what they gave us: without harris and diop, getting past the spurs probably would not have happened two years ago. harris tortured parker with his speed on both sides of the ball. diop gave timmy a hard time down on the block, using his length to play some great defense (especially in game 7). they helped us almost solve the spurs. and that's just a small example. if they were both that important in just that one instance, then how important do you think they were when considering the big picture?

it's been fun watching both players grow, with harris maturing before our eyes and diop resurrecting his career after 4 forgettable years in cleveland (thus creating the widespread notion that he was a complete bust). we took risks in believing in both, and they have come through for us time and time again. they will be sorely missed.

devean george...blah blah something about defense, something about championship experience. he was just ok with us.

moe ager, we hardly knew ya.

hopefully stack comes back to us after he gets bought out. he'll have an extra month to rest those injured hammies, so i'll be looking forward to his fresh return (crossing my fingers). his returning (update: direct quote from stack about his trade and buyout: "i'm ain't going nowhere." as in he wants to come back. hooray!) makes this deal a lot more tolerable.


how we're going to change our system to fit kidd's style of play (or if we do that at all) remains to be seen, but i'm giddy with excitement. i cannot wait to see this new incarnation of the mavs in action. he's gonna inject some serious excitement into this team (one that, for bball fans outside of the greater dallas area, is probably boring to watch due to our style of play). thank god for nba league pass.

i also cant wait to see this head of epic proportions (or, disproportions) at our games:

(him and baby anthony lo would have been best friends.)

here's to the return, and hopefully the success, of my former favorite player, the one, the only, the most definite(ly), Jason Kidd. let's just hope toni braxton doesn't have a taste for germans.

2 comments:

Andrew said...

a good post from mavs moneyball:

"
Overreactions

-Mavs FO obviously saw that Harris was never going to be the floor general for us. Or at least not for awhile. While we could have waited for him, we've got Dirk going on 30 with already declining stats and Josh going on 28.

-Our biggest knock has always been our lack of a playmaker in the crunch--someone to set up the right play and pass. Harris wasn't that person

-Harris is young and has upside, but please don't say he's "better" than HOF Kidd who is a walking triple double

-We do give up more than I'd like, but Stack may resign with us and I'm 100% sure the FO is looking to make more deals to fill the holes they've created on the bench.

-The window was already closing on us with the emergence of new teams in the West. While Kidd may not be the answer, the team as currently constructed was likely not either.

Just my 2 cents.

by aluzzi on Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 04:57:01 PM EDT
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Albert said...

Dude those JKidd shoes were awesome. Seemed like everyone either hated it or loved it. And that is totally baby Anthony with that gigantic head.