They traded two future second round picks (not further described) and Eddie Jones for Shawne Williams. Following on the Kidd/Harris trade, resigning Desagana Diop to a $31 million contract and then signing Gerald Green, it seems they are willing to 1) mortgage their future; 2) take risks on players with character issues who others have given up on; and 3) spend, spend, spend. They are basically out of draft picks. They had a second round pick this season, but traded the first round pickl to the Nets along with the 2010 pick. (That means by the way, they cannot trade a first round pick til the 2012 pick since league rules prohibit teams from trading picks in consecutive years.) Now they have traded two second round picks. If Green and Williams, both 22, don't work out--or worse, they are screwed. It sounds like the JailBlazer strategy: rich owner willing to take all sorts of risks.
The MAVs suck now, Kidd was great but he isn't good enough now to turn a shawne williams into an effective player. My only interest with the MAVs this year is seeing if Diop can score more than 2pts a game.
There not a bad team, they still have a good enough roster to get to the playoffs, just maybe not homecourt.
Mavs need to take risks. They don't have money to spend (which is why I believe they re-signed George and Wright). And if Nets finish with a better record than the Mavs, I will be truly shocked.
When I read this, I immediately was like "no way, you're crazy!" But I'm mulling it over....I think if I got decent odds on it, I might wager on it.
When Kidd was the Nets, the Nets took similar risks: Boone, M. Williams, S. Williams, all player who were considered to have either work ethic or attitude issues. The gamble was that Kidd would whip these guys into shape. Dallas I think has the same mentality now that they have Kidd.
Someone somewhere thought Boone & Marcus were risks at #21 & #22? Who? And, as I remember it, the guy the Nets were considering at SWat's spot was Big Baby. And really can't wait to see Kidd bring Mavs to an NBA Title this season, and get his $22 mil extension from Cuban.
Boone was considered a lottery pick early on. M. Williams was expected to go top 10. Both were considered risky due to their attitude troubles. In Boone's case, he didn't hustle in pre-draft workouts, which made a bunch of team pass him in the first round. M. Williams was considered a slacker, with bad work ethic. The Nets felt that both were steals at 21 and 22 because they considered the attitude on a team lead by Kidd to be conducive to players working hard for their money. Edit: If the team had no Kidd or Jefferson, they would not take such risks because who would keep these bums in line? If you put a bunch of lazy bums on the team, your going to get a lazy inconsistent team.
I always thought that Boone was a fine pick. I saw him as a potential 8/6 guy as a rookie, with his ultimate upside around 11/8 or so, with above-average post defense and decent rebounding skills. There are very few non-lottery bigs who have achieved that over the past eight years (with the exception of high school kids who needed a few years to develop). [there have also been a subset of players who were considered "undersized", like Boozer, but proved everyone wrong]
A) Kidd & Jefferson were lazy bums for last years Nets team. B) with no Kidd or Jefferson, Nets would have gotten a much higher draft pick. C) Boone and Marcus were considered steals, not risks, at their draft spots, and considering where Nets needed help the most.
A) Both were leaders by example. Both played hard night in and night out. The wins and stats may not show this, but both worked hard and push their team mates as far as they could push them. B) True. The higher draft pick would have allowed the Nets to pick up much less risky options. C) I wouldn't say both were steals. Boone as shown that he can be a decent starter in the NBA, Marcus on the other hasn't even shown he was worth a top second round pick. I think Boone is playing like a mid-to-lower first round pick, which he was.
Boone wasn't considered a steal. The pick was universally panned by the so-called "experts" and other assorted analysts. They saw him as a second-round pick. Again, I thought Boone was a great pick in the early 20s, simply because of the success rate of non-lottery bigs, and I though that Boone could develop into a rotation-quality player.
Marcus was definitely considered a steal. But as it turns out, he wasn't. His attitude problems, which caused teams to pass on him, are killing his career so far. Boone wasn't considered a steal, but as it turns out, he was. I don't think there will be 20 players from his draft class who have better careers than him, when it's all said and done.
Williams was considered THE steal of the draft after summer league and preseason. Going into the season, he was ranked one of the top rookies...with one writer claiming he was the top rookie. He had done spectacularly well in both the summer league and preseason, at least on offense. Boone was listed in the second round in some mock drafts, because of his attitude. Most had him at the end of the first or top of the second. In his autobiography, Jim Calhoun wrote of Boone's lack of confidence and his anxiety over whether to declare for the draft. Calhoun said that anxiety had hurt him and the Huskies in the NCAA tournament. Boone had a horrible tournament, as you may recall. (Calhoun also wrote that of the four players he had in the first round that year--Gay, Armstrong, Williams and Boone--he thought Williams was the most emotionally stable.) The Knicks supposedly were ready to take Boone at #29, but other than the Nets and Knicks, there were no reports of other teams being interested in him in the late first round. In fact, Stefanski said he had a long and tough talk with Boone about his attitude after his workout and people may also remember that the day before the draft, the Nets had Ryan Hollins in for a second workout. They were considering him for that #29 pick as well. Also, it was widely reported the Nets had tried to trade the #22 and #23 picks to the Hornets that night so they could get either the #12 or #15 and take Hilton Armstrong, who Thorn thought and later said was a better pick than Boone. Filip Bondy wrote about Thorn's Draft Night in the epilogue of his book on the 1984 draft. He also wrote the Nets had interest in Saer Sene if they could have traded the picks to Seattle for #10. Luckily, both those efforts failed.
Yea, Williams was considered a steal, I get the Kings feed and on draft day, their broadcast lead guy, Grant Napier went ballistic on Kings management when they passed on Williams for Douby. Mavs got 14 years younger. 2nd round picks are a dime a dozen, though Cuban was actually shocked at the price tags this past draft when they tried to get another 2nd rounder. Well if he plays himself into a rotational piece this year, then Mavs made out. I would think any lip service you get that he's part of the future, it's just to sell tickets at this point. Mavs control his rights for another 2 years. If he gets his off court act together, then his on court stuff should fall into place. Saw some draft reports that he compared to Mike Miller. I also think there's more weight on what Wright can do, then what Green can do. Green won't be much, if he's anything, it will be later in the season. His lack of basketball knowledge is hurting him early on.
