Mavs Sunday Notebook! All Rumors Must Be Sold!

    Sale! Sale! Sale! Fourth-of-July-Weekend Sale! All rumors will be sold! Make an offer!

   DallasBasketball.com's Sunday Morning Notebook is like Donuts only it's all-you-can eat. ... so lengthy you'll need a Barcalounger, so smart you'll need a calculator, so informed that you'll feel fully "in-the-know'' about Jason Kidd, Brandon Bass, Tom Hicks, David Lee, Hedo, Farrah Fawcett, JJ Barea, Sarah Palin, Rasheed Wallace, Marcin Gortat, Lamar Odom, Joanna Krupa, Michael Jackson, Ryan Leaf, Glen 'Big Baby' Davis and more. ...

    In fact, let's start with Big Baby... and Mark Cuban's kind-but-unneccesary help on the matter. ...

  

    Here’s a report out of Boston that has the Mavs as “one of five teams’’ chasing Glen “Big Baby’’ Davis. The report is a little sloppy; it talks about “the money being too good to turn down’’ and how “Baby wants to be a starter.’’

   It's certainly possible that Dallas, doing its due diligence, has called Davis. But if he wants to get big money and be a starter – the Mavs, you know, are already spending their “big money’’ and already have a “starter’’ at the 4 – I’m not sure why Davis would even answer that phone.

   Seriously, Baby is a RFA. He’ll get a middling offer from somebody with more money to spend that Dallas. Boston will match it. He’ll stay a Celtic. End of story.

    Therefore, while it was nice of Mark Cuban to keep us posted on this with a Sunday morning Twitter denial ...

    contrary to reports, the Mavs are not pursuing Glenn Davis. Great player, but we like our guys

   ... the informed fan/media member already knew it didn't smell right.

 

    Speaking of reports that don't add up: Here’s the reason that I don’t believe Brandon Bass has yet been offered a five-year deal near the full-MLE:

    Because if Brandon Bass has been offered a five-year deal near the full-MLE, HE WOULD HAVE ACCEPTED IT.

   

     You Marcin Gortat critics are going to have to help me out here: Did you want Dallas to NOT use its MLE? Did you want Dallas to NOT sign a center? Do you think Dallas DOESN’T need a 25-year-old post presence? Did you really think Dallas SHOULDN’T spend $5 mil a year to locate such a player?

    Try it this way: What if your post-Gortat views had been observed and followed by the Mavs. What if they HADN’T signed Gortat because the Rockets or the Thunder out-maneuvered the Mavs. They what would be your view?

    If the plan was to get a big man with the MLE. … maybe you preferred ‘Sheed or McDyess (which is your right, though they are a decade older than Gortat. But at least that complaint from you would reflect a plan, some forward thinking.

    But otherwise? You’re just bitching to bitch.

    The same logic applies to views on Jason Kidd, by the way. “He’s too old. … too expensive. … let him go.’’ Fine. Done.

   And what do the Mavericks do in his wake? And what will your critical reaction be to that action?

 

   I’m not suggesting the Mavs put on a Turn-Back-The-Clock Season when I keep bringing up the name of Marquis Daniels. I am saying he’s not getting phone calls, he’s cut loose because $7 mil was too rich for Indy’s blood, he’s still best pals with Josh Howard …

    Hey, remember how J-Ho went south after another buddy, Devin Harris, left town? Wouldn’t ‘Quis cause J-Ho to maybe go north again?

 

  Why is Gov. Sarah Palin leaving Alaska? I hear she got traded to South Carolina for Gov. Mark Sanford and a sex scandal to be named later.

  

   One interesting offshoot of Nuclear Winter: Lots of guys are going to be playing for $1 million or so. … chump change … and maybe on one-year deals. And those guys – say, somebody like Matt Barnes, who is already a rather ferocious athlete – might just use 82 games to prove the other 29 teams wrong.

 

   Another guy in that sort of boat … only it’s a boat sailing back home from Europe: Jannero Pargo.

   Remember him? He was a very solid CP3 backup (and kind of a CP3 play-alike) two years ago for the Hornets … yes, he was very effective against Dallas in the playoffs.

   Now it’s all coming back to you, isn’t it?

   Pargo went to play in Europe last summer, but something didn’t work out and now he has the option of coming home. … and I can imagine he might just be dirt-cheap.

   I bring this up not because a Mavs person steered me to his name – but because a Mavs person steered me to his position. For the right guy at the right price, Dallas wouldn’t mind adding a waterbug point guard to back up Jason Kidd. And part of the reason for that is the thought that JJ Barea’s most effective position is as a backup not at PG, but rather at the 2-guard.

 

   Why couldn’t LeBron James recruit Ron Artest to Cleveland. Why couldn’t LeBron (or Shaq) recruit Trevor Ariza to Cleveland? Why hasn’t LeBron or Shaq brought ‘Sheed to Cleveland?

   Believe this: It has nothing to do with “Mistakes By The Lake’’ or “Brown Town.’’

   It has everything to do with money.

   There’s a show-biz saying: “In Hollywood, it’s all about the numbers.’’

   Pro sports is exactly like that. Oh, Kidd is thinking of New York (because he’s a good daddy ;) ) and Hedo wanted to have his wide and baby in an accepting place like Toronto. But Kidd is getting paid and Hedo is getting paid and everybody’s got to get paid. In Hollywood, it’s all about the numbers, meaning box-office and salaries. Don’t bring one, you don’t get the other.

     In the NBA, it is no different. … No matter what anybody tells you.

     

    So Hedo’s wife made the decision for him to skip out on Portland and sign with Toronto? The wife ran the show? Who’s Hedo married, to Mrs. Doug Christie?

   Kidding.

   Seriously, on the subject of Hedo, one website chided him for the decision to go to Toronto, where there is an international flavor and (I’m told) a large Turkish community. The website wrote that he “overreacted’’ by chosing to play outside the U.S.

    A little jingoistic, no?

 

   JJ Barea is in Puerto Rico, dating a Miss World finalist. He’s the Donald Trump of Puerto Rico!

 

    Regarding Gortat: You may find this encouraging. … The reason Orlando is now chasing Rasheed Wallace is to fill the roster spot they’d hope would belong to Gortat. In other words, the Magic ranked keeping Gortat ABOVE acquiring ‘Sheed.

 

   Funny line from DB.com Boards, discussing whether or not the Mavs can sign affordable wings like Anthony Parker: “In this market, you can get a dozen wings for eight bucks.’’

 

   Fox is coming out with a new “The Bachelor’’-style dating show. It’s called “More To Love,’’ and it features a big fat guy choosing from a bevy of overweight bachelorettes. (Seriously.)

   I already know how this is going to turn out. I already know who the guy will choose.

   The least-fat one.

 

    The Girls of Wimbledon: Audio Sports Porn.

 

   I hear T.O.’s new team, the Buffalo Bills, is thinking of hiring Joanna Krupa as their conditioning coach.

  

   A must-read from David Lord regarding Utah, Okur, Boozer, Millsap and The Stack Chip. 

 

    While I make media enemies debunking bunk (it’s nothing personal, fellers), please allow me to debunk another angle – this one from the regal LA Times – that has Lamar Odom being so high on the Spurs’ wish lists that the team is willing to “clear cap space’’ to give him his desired $10 million per?

   This is the sort of story that was either written by a) a reporter who doesn’t understand the rules, or b) allowed Odom’s agent to dictate the story into the reporter’s laptop.
    To accomplish such a thing, do you realize what the Spurs would have to do? They would have to trade either Duncan, Parker, Jefferson or Manu.

    Does that sound like a viable plan to you?

    If it’s not a viable plan, it shouldn’t be a viable story.

   Michael Jackson and Farrah ‘deeply affected your life’? Maybe you need to get one.

   I wonder if the Blazers got Hedo’s nose all bent out of shape. Of course, that would be doing him a favor, because if he got that snout of his bent out of shape, it’d actually be bent back into shape.

 

   Tom Hicks is a true Dallasite. He's like a $30,000 millionaire. … Only he's a $3,000,000 Billionaire, you know?

 

   I’m not going to pretend I didn’t want Dallas to get Shaq. But I wrote repeatedly that one of the reasons the Mavs soured a bit is their belief that he would arrive in town, smile at the press conference, express gratitude at the opportunity to make $20 mil for his one season under contract. … and then ask Cuban for a private meeting to demand a three-year extension.

   And bingo. He did exactly that in Cleveland – but worse, he went public with it, using the exciting moment to explain to his new fans that he deserves to be paid until he’s 40.

 

   Yao Ming has a bad foot. But aren’t the other six-and-a-half feet enough?

 

   The Utah paper says the Jazz “have no current desire’’ to trade Andrei Kirilenko for Tracy McGrady and therefore turned down Houston’s offer. I’m sure the Jazz have a reason to steer clear of wanting a $22-million expiring contract in exchange for a non-star … but I can’t figure out what it is.

 

   I’m assuming the Blazers are ready to flirt with Shawn Marion and Andre Miller and especially with David Lee. … Or maybe by “assumption’’ I mean “hope,’’ thus distracting them from putting Kidd back on their wish list.

 

   The Philly paper says the Sixers offered PG Mike Bibby a deal. A one-year deal. Bibby wants to go back to Atlanta, and heck, he made $14 mil there last year!

   Somebody might want to inform Mike that “$1 million’’ isn’t an insult and that “$14 million’’ isn’t a reality.

 

   The Celtics’ bid for Rasheed Wallace reportedly includes the full-MLE but no promise of a starting role. Would he start in Orlando? Would he start in San Antonio? Those questions explain why he hasn’t gone ahead and accepted Boston’s offer.

 

   My review of ‘Transformers 2’: Too many hours of loud noises interrupted by too many minutes of “cute’’ swearing.

 

    The Toronto Globe and Mail writes, “In a sudden rush at the end of a frenzied week, the Toronto Raptors have remade their roster and signed free-agent forward Hedo Turkoglu …’’

    Well, the Globe and Mail is right about the suddenness and the rush and the frenzy and the signing. But re-make their roster? The Raptors haven’t re-made it. All they’ve really done is un-make it.

 

The Texas cops picked up Ryan Leaf. … but immediately regretted not picking up Peyton Manning.

   Another of those illogical “somebody-doesn’t-understand-the- rules’’stories out of New York (traditional nesting place for “illogical somebody-doesn’t-understand-the-rules stories’’): The NY papers/David Lee’s agent are claiming “nearly 15 teams’’ have proposed Sign-and-Trades for Lee. Problem: BYC will almost certainly preclude anybody from acquiring Lee in that way. But 15 teams – who know the rules – are calling the Knicks trying to do the undoable?  

 

   It’s getting down to 86 degrees in DFW this week. Bundle up.

 

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1044am july 5 2009

 

                                                            

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