Mavs Make Off-Season Moves

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This time last week, the Dallas Mavericks seemed like a team in the rebuilding stages of their season as their hopes of landing Deron Williams was squashed. With the help of amnesties and sign and trades, the Mavericks have gathered together a veteran team that is at least capable of making it to the playoffs.

The Dallas Mavericks had two plans when they found out they weren’t getting Williams. One was to sign players for short term contracts and the other was to save salary cap space which were both attained while gathering a slew of seasoned veteran players.

The first acquisition of the Dallas Mavericks was finding another big man to play the center position. They looked no further than Hornet’s center Chris Kaman. Kaman was a member of the German olympic team with Dirk Nowitski and averaged 13.1 points and 7.8 rebounds for the Hornet’s last season. Kaman was signed to the Mavericks for a one-year deal worth $8 million.

After acquiring Kaman, the Mavericks used the amnesty clause that they had on Center Brendan Haywood to save cap space for new players in free agency. The Charlotte Bobcats won the highest bid for Haywood.

The next move was acquiring an athletic point guard to fill the void that had been left after the failed attempt at getting Williams to leave the Brooklyn Nets. In a surprise move, the Dallas Mavericks traded center Ian Mahinmi to the Indiana Pacers in a sign-and-trade deal for point guard Darren Collison and shooting guard Dahntay Jones.

Collison averaged 10.3 points, 4.8 assists and 3.1 rebounds in last year’s lockout shortened season. Jones looks to fill the void left after Jason Terry’s decision to join the Boston Celtics. Jones averaged 5.3 points and 1.8 rebounds last year and will likely play backup to Maverick’s guard Vince Carter.

The Mavericks latest acquisition came on Friday afternoon after learning that they had won the amnesty bid for Sixers guard Elton Brand. The Mavericks are responsible for only paying $2.1 million of the contract for the 33-year-old power forward/ center. Brand averaged 11.0 points and 7.2 rebounds last year for the Sixers.

There are also other possibilities for the Mavericks in free agency including re-signing combo guard Delonte West. West averaged 9.6 points, 3.2 assists and 1.3 steals while splitting starting point guard duties with the New York Knicks newly acquired point guard Jason Kidd.

With the signing of new players, the Mavericks have added some upside to what seemed to be a low upcoming season and look to have yet another year as a playoff contending team.

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