No Screaming Headlines, A Few Screaming Fans

Today’s headline in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer: “Cavs reportedly make a play for Ron Artest and Trevor Ariza’’

   Today’s headline in the Dallas Morning News: “Mavs making pitch to former SMU, Kimball star Quentin Ross’’

   Why do the Cavs have shopping habits that make them appear to be assembling their own wing in the Basketball Hall of Fame … while the Mavs have shopping habits making it seem as though Donnie Nelson is getting a one-year head start on assembling his Frisco D-League team?

   While it seems the Mavs are closing in on Marcin Gortat, I’ve got three possible explanations for why the Mavs are short of signings and short of exclamation-marked headlines:

1 DISCRETION IS THE BETTER PART OF BEING PUBLICALLY SPURNED

   Two summers ago, DallasBasketball.com broke the very real story of the Mavs’ pursuit of Kevin Garnett. The scoop was scoffed at by some (I endured) and even after Mark Cuban acknowledged on the record that my story was accurate, scoffers scoffed.

    And just as painful, even the True Believers turned, in a sense. They bought the story – but then wondered why Dallas didn’t pull it off.

    The same thing happened last summer. DB.com, in great detail, explained Dallas’ wishes to trade for Sacramento’s Ron Artest. When Artest instead landed in Houston, DB.com explained in great deal how disappointed the Mavs were.

    And then, for months, I heard from a fan base that was disappointed, too.

    Where am I going with this?

     Imagine if the team openly announced a “Mavs’ Summer Wish List.’’ It’d be pretty cool!

     “Here’s our targets and here’s our plan,’’ Donnie would say at a press conference. “No. 1 is re-upping Kidd for three years with the final year half-guaranteed. Then we want to use the MLE and The Stack Chip, one way or the other, on a new starting center and a new starting 2-guard. We’re going to start with Rasheed Wallace and Marcin Gortat as the big-man targets. And then for a swingman, we really like Trevor Ariza, with Matt Barnes as a fall-back. Mark will be in New York, Carlisle is going to Florida, I’ll be the point man here in Dallas. We’ve got Dirk, Josh and soon Kidd manning the phones and open tabs for potential signees at all the Dallas gentlemen’s clubs. Eddie, Randy, Sturm, Fish, Stein, Followill, Coop, I’ll call you all with updates throughout the day and night.’’

    It’ll be cool … and exciting. … but what would be the result when the plan didn’t unfold as announced?

     A KG Backlash, that’s what.

     So the Triangle of Trust is sacrificing some buzz in exchange for some privacy.

     Not announcing the plans might also help with the personnel targets themselves. Our story that suggests Gortat was told “he’s the only center Dallas is targeting’’? That’s probably a wiser approach than telling the Polish Hammer, “Eh, you or ‘Sheed or McDyess. It doesn’t matter to us.’’

    How did we find out about the parameters of the Kidd Bidd? The numbers we suggested 60 days ago were recently confirmed.

     How did we find out for certain about the interest in Gortat? The 75-Member Staff was on a plane with Carlisle as he flew to Orlando.

     How can we guess Dallas is interested in Artest this summer? Because Dallas was interested in Artest last summer.

    The Mavs will announce things when they announce things. Discretion is the better part of avoiding putting a Nike in your mouth.

2 THEY ARE PREPARING FOR A LOT OF THIRD-PLACE FINISHES

    The good news? The Mavs do not have $30 million of cap room, as do the Pistons (who, by the way, just spent it on Villanueva and Gordon and, frankly, I’m not sure the Pistons are actually better today than they were yesterday). And yet they are somehow players in the market.

    The bad news? There is a however-slight chance they finish second in the Kidd Bidd. And that they finish second in their pursuit of Gortat. And that they finish third in their pursuit of Artest. And than they finish fifth in the race for Birdman.

     That doesn’t mean they won’t land a viable piece with the MLE. (The Lakers, the Cavs and the Blazers CANNOT SIGN EVERYBODY.) It might mean they sign a well-fitting piece or pieces that don’t cause “SportsCenter’’ to assign Ed Werder to come a-runnin’.

     My buddy RJ Choppy said to me last night on 103.3 ESPN Radio, “The Mavs aren’t doing anything!’’

     My calm-and-measured response: “Yes, Chop. You’re right. Cuban and Donnie and Carlisle are all spending free-agency time vacationing together. In Aruba. Drinking pina coladas.’’

     The truth: The Dallas Mavericks are pedaling as fast as they can.

     And peddling, too.

     In the end, I bet Dallas signs Jason Kidd. It has a better than 50-50 shot at Gortat. It will use The Stack Chip on another front-line player. And you will get your headlines.

3 “THE QUINTON ROSS PLAN’’

    Did the Mavs mistakenly think they were pursuing Quentin Richardson? Are they mistaken about the quality of SMU basketball? Is today in Free-Agent Shopping sponsored by the letter “Q’’?

   Why in the name of Quinton Ross would the Mavs pursue … Quinton Ross?

   And more, why did the Dallas Morning News attach to the flirtation with Ross the same importance that the Plain-Dealer attached to the Cavs’ wishes for Artest and Ariza?

    Actually, while it is something short of a “Quinton Ross Plan,’’ Dallas’ desire to add the unheralded journeyman free agent to the Mavs stable might just indicate a plan.

   The 75-member Staff explains:  

   We begin with Eddie Sefko’s note:

   It appears the Mavericks also already have touched base with Quinton Ross, the former SMU and Kimball High standout. The 6-6 swingman played for Memphis last season and spent four years with the Clippers before that. He's a career 4.6-point scorer.

   Well, that sort of says it all.

    Or does it?

    Let’s add up roster spots as the Mavs look forward to piecing together 15 guys who can play:
    Right now, it’s Dampier at the 5, Dirk at the 4, Howard at the 3, Wright at the 2 and Kidd at the 1.
    Their backups, respectively, are Hollins, Bass, Singleton, Terry and Barea.

    Again, we don’t know about the futures of the FA’s, but that’s 10 guys.
    Then come: Veterans George, Green, Williams and Carroll. That’s 14.
    Then come rookies Beaubois and Nivins. There’s 16.
     An MLE signee is coming. A BAE signee might be coming. That’s 18.

    Oh, and the estimable Quinton Ross. That’s 19.

     Folks, the Mavs aren’t pursuing Quinton Ross instead of pursuing Ron Artest. They are assembling a training-camp roster, they are considering Plans C and D, and maybe, just maybe, they are putting together puzzle pieces in anticipation of the moving of The Stack Chip in a way that would create a Ross-sized vacancy.

    So why would the Dallas Morning News make a headline out of Quinton Ross? Maybe Sefko is simply going old-school, making sure his facts are straight. Maybe it proves there is a reason for the DMNews to do its job its way, for DallasBasketball.com to do the same, and for other outlets to bellow half-truths and guesses because they need the webhits.
    Either that, or Sefko – a proud SMU alum – just wanted to give some pub to a fellow Pony.

222p july 2 2009