Gooden Or Big Z To Mavs? No Luck, Says Donnie

    Don’t count on the Mavs being able to sign Drew Gooden. Don’t count on the Mavs being able to sign Zydrunas Ilgauskas. What Dallas hopes it can count on at center?

    “We told Erick Dampier to go drink from the same fountain of youth as J-Kidd is drinking from,’’ Mavs GM Donnie Nelson jokingly tells DallasBasketball.com. “And we ordered Brendan Haywood to stay out of foul trouble.’’

   Donnie could be playin’ possum on the subject of trying to sign a big man based on what our David Lord calculates to be the critical date of Thursday, February 25. (We’ll explain momentarily); the club can’t say “no sale’’when it doesn’t even know what’s at market. But Donnie’s got a great and on-the-record feel for the futures of targeted big men Gooden and Ilgauskas. ... and that “good feel’’ suggests Dallas might as well start aiming at other targets.

    Some insights from Donnie Nelson ...

   *On Gooden, who we are certain – after talking to Dallas locker-room pals of his -- was absolutely hoping to make his buyout escape from the Clippers for a return to Dallas:

    “No, it looks like (the Clippers) are going to ride it out,’’ says Donnie of Gooden, so valuable as a backup here for the first half of this season before being dealt to Washington … and then to LAC.

     As we’ve written, despite some potential loopholes along the way. ... and now, despite a weird DNP … LAC holds the reins here … and holds very tightly on the purse strings, too.

    *On Ilgauskas, and the subject of rumors insisting that the NBA would preclude him from re-signing with Cleveland after he negotiates a buyout from Washington:

   “You hear all that hogwash about the NBA blocking that,’’ Nelson tells me. “But there’s no truth to it.’’

     Ilgauskas has made it clear his preference is to play in Cleveland, where he’s spent his entire 12-year NBA career. Nevertheless, the Mavs publically expressed a just-in-case interest. ... But Donnie seems quite sure Big Z will be allowed to re-up with the Cavs.

    *On Dampier, sitting out with that nasty dislocated finger:

    “It still looks like, hopefully, a total of three weeks before he’s back,’’ Donnie says. “In the meantime, Eddie (Najera) is doing exactly what we’d hoped for as a short-term solution. He creates problems for teams. And Brendan Haywood has been terrific. We’ve just told him to keep it up, and we ordered Brendan Haywood to stay out of foul trouble.’’

    *Finally, those calculations from our David Lord about the timely signing of some other to-be-bought-out free agent:

    1. The only issue here is playoff eligibility. If a player is released after March 1, another team still has the latitude to sign him for any or all of the remainder of the regular season, if they wish.
   2. But, if we calculate correctly, the deadline will be Thursday, Feb 25 for a player to be waived/bought out/cut (all synonymous acts) if he wants to be able to sign with another team and become playoff eligible. That is because he must clear waivers (the process of every other team saying they don't want him for his old contract, an event which takes two business days) by March 1, and the NBA is closed for the weekend.
   3. If a player is waived in time, what's the deadline for him to be signed? There isn't one. A player who hasn't been on any other NBA roster after March 1 can be signed at any time thereafter and be playoff-eligible.

   Those are some of the in’s and out’s of what the Mavs were hoping to do with Gooden or Ilgauskas … and maybe will try to do with someone else. (They are working to sign Von Wafer, as DB.com reported last night. And maybe there will be a buyout target who isn't a big.) In the meantime, Haywood’s a stud, Najera’s a pest, and Dampier is sipping from Kidd’s fountain.