Donuts: Vick's Peeps Talking To Seattle, LaMarcus On The Elevator, A Monta Rumor, Stephen A. In Charge, Sessions/NY 'Footsie'

     Monday Morning Donuts … in which we continue to hammer on the Ramon Sessions thing, offer up one more intriguing name that we hear is being buzzed about as trade-gettable (Monta Ellis?!), consider hiring Stephen A. Smith to run an NBA team and welcome LaMarcus Aldridge to the neighborhood – a neighborhood in which LaMarcus’ new McMansion includes an elevator. …

     DONUT 1: Consider this a DB.com Quickie Primer just to be clear on how things work around here (especially for some of our newer friends):
    Some entries on DallasBasketball.com's home page are news stories. … just like we used to do in the newspaper. Some stories are breaking news. Some are exclusive and breaking. Some are interviews DB.com has done exclusively. We've got podcasts, an ESPN Radio gig, the occasional TV spot, editorials, FISHTOONS, nuts-and-bolts cap info, Angry Trey with practice audio, Professor Carter chasing badgers, you name it. Some of the material here is driven by interviews and quotes with those involved in the stories, i.e., Mavs coaches, execs and players. Some of the material is "sourced.’’ And some other stuff doesn't necessarily come from Mavs sources but instead from the fertile and creative minds of The 75-Member Staff. One of David Lord’s specialties is "breaking'' cap information and application and proposing ways for all of it to be engineered as Mavs-centric moves.

    So you get an “Amateur GM piece’’ from D-Lord (like the Ramon Sessions series, for instance ... one more is coming up soon, by the way), and you get it done in a way that rivals the work of any NBA writer in the country.

     The Sessions stuff? Purely speculative on our part, after discovering some cap applications to his possible chase. The Odom stuff? That was a little different; when Mark Cuban mentioned that he’d visited with Odom, that put our wheels in motion to figure out ways to do it. How did the Marion stuff come about? Was it the Mavs and DB.com thinking completely independently?

     Let’s just say that one was somewhere in between.
     Keep all of that in mind as you peruse our junk. We’ve got facts, opinions, exclusive stories, Mike Fisher baby photos, me singing Sinatra and Marvin Gaye on the radio, whatever. They all have different values and weights. Some may express some Mavs insider views. Some may just be the views of our staff. And some things may get posted here just because it makes my mom smile.

     DONUT 2: Now back to business:

     What’s this buzz we’re hearing about the availability of Monta Ellis?

     DONUT 3: In my endless effort to keep y’all posted on the Dallas sports social scene (because this ain’t LA and this ain’t NY and all we’ve got is sports):

     Welcome to the neighborhood, LaMarcus Aldridge!

     Our Las Colinas sources say LaMarcus was a gentleman and a sharp one, diving head-first into all the paperwork required of him as the Blazers star, UT-ex and DFW product closed on his luxurious new pad.

      It’s a fancy sporty ‘hood: Romo is over there, Herschel Walker is across the way, golfer Tommy Armour’s house is there and James Singleton is just down the street.

       But not all of them are on the third tee of the golf course on which they hold the Byron Nelson. Not all of them are in brand new homes. And not all of them have a house with an elevator.

     LaMarcus Aldridge … going up?

       DONUT 4: Another of our Christmas-in-Summer delights is almost upon us: The Mavs' and NBA's 2009-10 schedule is supposed to be released on Tuesday. It's 82 sugarplums dancing in our heads.

     DONUT 5: n We can talk and type Mavs-and-Ramon Sessions 'til we're blue in the keyboard. But Sessions' agent is saying he's almost done "playing footsie'' with the Knicks -- he means that as a good thing -- and that a deal can be done in the next couple of days.

    Not bad. But one problem with any Chris Kaman trade: We think he’s got a trade kicker of sorts in his contract that pays him a few million more in the event he is swapped. Put that on the “Reasons Not To Get Kaman’’ side of the ledger.

     DONUT 6: The sorts of moves we’re talking about take a bit of added payroll, but there’s something else we are forced to leave out of the equation because we just don’t know yet: What if the Mavs don’t think Sessions, for the money, is THAT much better than Barea? What if they don’t think much of Kurt Thomas at all?

    This is always the wildcard in this sort of educated-guessing game. We can say Drew Gooden is the No. 6 best big man signee available (as we did at a point in the late-going of summer shopping) … and then Mavs can decide that all things considered, he’s the No. 1 best big man signee available.

     DONUT 7: ESPN’s Mike Greenberg (“Mike & Mike’’) made a great point the other morning about what league commissioners (like Goodell and Selig) know about situations that influence their decisions (like on Michael Vick, for instance) … that the rest of us cannot possibly know.

    Greenberg meant the remark as a respectful nod to the decision-makers; we, as fans, can hoot about what teams can or should do with Vick or Pete Rose or Ramon Sessions … but there are factors involved that we cannot know.

     But we can guess.

     We can guess, for instance, that if the Mavs haven’t called the Bucks on Sessions, then maybe the Bucks ought to call the Mavs. Wouldn’t the Bucks like to avoid losing Sessions to the MLE for nothing at all? Aren’t they in money-saving mode, having just traded Malik Allen just to save between $1 mil or so? Don’t they need to send a positive message or two to a wobbly fan base?

     DONUT 8: Speaking of a wobbly fan base: I’m predicting that if you want tickets to Memphis Grizzlies games, you can probably get about 10,000 a night. … The Grizz have sliced their scouting staff down to ZERO. And in terms of paying for talent? No, that won’t happen, either. So in terms of winning games? No. Probably not.

     DONUT 9: My friend Jan Hubbard writes about Drew Gooden as if he’s an enforcer type. … that he served as “LeBron’s bodyguard’’ in Cleveland. I don’t remember it that way, and I don’t find many people who think that Gooden – despite his 6-10, 250-pound bulk – is a knock-you-on-your-ass guy. We’ll see. … but I think he’s a “banger’’ in terms of wrestling for rebounds, not a “banger’’ on terms of pulling a Gary Trent or a Jerry Stackhouse and marching into the other team’s postgame locker room threatening to clock somebody.

     DONUT 10: Is it just me, or is it stunningly odd that we’ve gone through scouting, the NBA Draft, much FA shopping, now it’s August – and the Minnesota Timberwolves are still searching for a coach?

     DONUT 11: Here’s a scoop from Stephen A. Smith, who says via Twitter: "For those who ask if I'd coach, the answer is NO! I know talent. Pres or GM.''

     So, no, Stephen A. Smith is not presently in the mood to be an NBA coach. NO! But his ability to judge talent would cause him to answer the phone should an NBA team call to offer him a job as a team president or general manager.

     That’s good to know.

     DONUT 12: Instant updates on the Mavs and whatnot from DB.com are available at twitter.com/fishsports

     DONUT 13: This is one of this “my barber knows his Realtor who used to be married to his agent’’ sort of things (minus a couple degrees of separation): Vick's people are negotiating this weekend so he can land with the Seahawks.