Midday Crumbs & Cobwebs: 'Jerry Stackmouth'

Mike Fisher -- DB.com

Clearing out the midday Crumbs & Cobwebs. …

ITEM: If Devean doesn’t check-off on this thing, the Mavs can flush him down the NBA toilet. I’ve now said it on DB.com, on radio on TV.  Allow me to clarify:

Early Bird Rights are worthless if your team cuts you. Will the Mavs angrily cut Devean? Doubtful, because he might come in handy some time in the next few months. Will they bury him on the bench? Sure, because when everybody is healthy, he’s a third-teamer.  (Despite the fact that his delusional agent keeps saying Devean is “a starter.’’)

Early Bird Rights are also worthless if your team angrily refuses to put you in the money-making position of being in a summer sign-and-trade. Will the Mavs bury him that way?

Damn straight.

ITEM: More details on this later, but I am quite certain that Dallas moved forward with the thing assuming Devean HAD checked off on it – and that agent Mark Bartelstein THEN either changed Devean’s mind or otherwise slowed the thing down.

Is Cuban pissed at Devean? Maybe not. Is Cuban pissed at Bartelstein? Seeeeeeeeething.

ITEM: Just when we didn’t need a team spokesman, we get “Jerry Stackmouth.’’

ITEM: Question about the NBA’s ability to “veto’’ the trade because of Stackhouse’s premature celebration: How does Stern “veto’’ a trade proposal? How does Stern “veto’’ a conversation between a team and its own player? Working on the assumption that the Mavs and Nets didn’t actually write into the verbiage of the proposal the wink-wink  boomeranging of Stack. … how do you “veto’’ an idea?

ITEM: More on that veto: The whole existence of the 30-day rule is an acknowledgement that NBA teams do wink-winks all the time.  You think Cuban and Thorn aren’t loaded for bear, prepared to argue that fact to Chancellor Stern?

 ITEM: We keep saying PJ Brown oughta be the Mavs’ post-Kidd-trade backup center. In Seattle, though, they might want to give us Kurt Thomas.

ITEM: Quit pretending you know how these Mavs will react if Devin ends up staying. Maybe this whole process steels him to NBA life. Or maybe he feels unloved. Who knows?

ITEM: Devean says the more he participates in games, the more he wants to stay in Dallas. Playing 43 minutes in Thursday’s 109-97 loss at Phoenix “made me want to stand firm,’’ he said.

So is Avery goofing this thing up? Is Fate intervening? Heck, there is a conspiracy theory that suggests that Cuban WANTS George to veto due to buyer’s remorse.

149pm feb 15 2008