Mavericks back on track with Nets to get Kidd
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
(Updated: February 17, 2008, 8:00 PM ET
It's looking more and more like Jason Kidd's start for the road team
in Sunday's NBA All-Star Game will indeed be his farewell to the
Eastern Conference.
That's because the New Jersey Nets and Dallas Mavericks are again
closing in on a deal that would send Kidd back to his original team,
according to NBA front-office sources.
One source close to the process told ESPN.com that a conference call
with the league to review the trade details is scheduled for Monday
morning.
The reconfigured trade can't be completed until Monday's call and is
bound to draw a longer-than-usual examination from the league before
it's formally approved after the many complications that derailed the
teams' original agreement on Wednesday. But sources say that the
Mavericks and Nets have reached a tentative agreement on the two major
changes needed to save a blockbuster swap that appeared to be
crumbling for much of All-Star Weekend.
Sources say Mavs swingman Trenton Hassell and the retired Keith Van
Horn will be plugged into the trade in place of Jerry Stackhouse and
Devean George. If the newly proposed deal goes through, New Jersey
would receive 24-year-old point guard Devin Harris, center DeSagana
Diop, guard Maurice Ager, forwards Hassell and Van Horn, two first-
round draft picks and $3 million in cash for Kidd and Nets forward
Malik Allen.
To make up for the removal of George -- who blocked his inclusion by
citing a little-known league rule that prevents certain players with
one-year contracts from being traded without their consent -- Dallas
has secured Van Horn's participation via sign-and-trade in George's
place. Out of the game since the 2006 NBA Finals, Van Horn will be
required to re****t to New Jersey and submit to a physical to complete
the transaction, with sources adding that the amount Van Horn receives
this season -- believed to be more than $4 million -- will not be pro-
rated even though Van Horn would be joining the Nets with less than
half the season remaining.
The Nets, meanwhile, have apparently given their blessing to taking
Hassell from Dallas instead of Stackhouse. The Mavericks have been
pu****ng for that switch since Friday in the wake of Stackhouse's
quotes Wednesday that gave the impression that the teams had already
arranged for the Nets to immediately buy out the 33-year-old's
contract so the Mavericks could re-sign him after a 30-day waiting
period.
It's believed that New Jersey had been resisting Hassell because his
guaranteed salary in 2009-2010 ($4.4 million) is more than twice as
much as Stackhouse's guarantee that season ($2 million) and because
Hassell might be less amenable to a buyout than Stackhouse. But it
looks as though the Nets will consent to the change to end a saga that
had dragged on for days because George unexpectedly blocked the trade,
even though they preferred the long-term financial implications of
taking Stackhouse and buying him out.
If Van Horn's inclusion is sanctioned by the league Monday, this deal
will likewise create a bigger luxury-tax bill for Mavs owner Mark
Cuban than the original, with Dallas keeping Stackhouse and George.
At its core, though, both teams appear poised to ultimately get what
they wanted in spite of a growing list of obstacles.
Dallas would come out of the protracted negotiations with an elite
veteran point guard for the first time since Steve Nash's departure in
the summer of 2004. Kidd's arrival also creates a foursome to rival
any star core in the West -- along with Dirk Nowitzki, Josh Howard and
Jason Terry -- and a likely antidote to the Mavericks' well-chronicled
troubles with mental toughness, confidence and leader****p in back-to-
back playoff humblings by Miami and Golden State.
The bottom-line equation would stay the same for New Jersey as well,
with Nets president Rod Thorn coming away with a highly regarded young
point guard to replace Kidd in Harris, two expiring contracts (Diop
and Van Horn) and the two first-round picks. It's a pretty good haul
for a 34-year-old whose recent public disclosure that it was time for
the Nets to trade him could have weakened Thorn's bargaining position.
Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click
here.
|
