Kidd spurns Knicks to stay with Mavericks
Would the Dallas Mavericks have been better served letting Jason Kidd walk and try to get younger, or are the Mavs going to make another move in addition to re-signing Kidd?
As currently constructed, this is nowhere near a championship-level team, but Mark Cuban has brought back Kidd for three years at more than $25 million despite the fact Kidd is 36 years old and averaged just 9.0 points to go with 8.7 assists last year.
Kidd, whom the Mavericks traded for in February 2008, had been pursued by the New York Knicks, among others, in the free-agent period this summer.
The Knicks could not offer Kidd a salary that would be competitive with the Mavericks. Barring a sign-and-trade, the Knicks were limited to offering a contract starting at about $5.5 million. Dallas could have paid him whatever it wanted.
Re-signing Kidd was believed to be a major factor in the Mavericks’ ability to chase other teams’ free agents, but perhaps not so much this year as in the big free agent year of 2010. With this contract, Kidd could end his career in Dallas, which is just how he started it back in 1994.
“We are excited to have Jason Kidd back in a Mavs’ uniform,” Cuban said. “He was a major contributor for us last year, and we expect more of the same next year. We also are excited to have him tutor [point guards] Roddy Beaubois and J.J. Barea. This is hopefully the first of several deals to come in the next couple weeks.”
Well, there you have it: Cuban does have bigger plans. And it probably involves Magic backup center Marcin Gortat. The 6-foot-11 unrestricted free agent averaged 3.3 points and 3.2 rebounds in the playoffs while playing behind Dwight Howard. But in the one game he started against Philadelphia when Howard was suspended, Gortat had 11 points and 15 rebounds in 40 minutes, and he is in high demand on the open market.
Dallas was 50-32 last year and lost in the Western Conference semifinals in five games to Denver. You can bet on 2009-10 NBA futures soon at WagerWeb.com.
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