By JD

The Mavs, like many other NBA teams, decided to stick with what they have instead of making a trade.  Now, the Mavs don’t feel they don’t need any more personnel to make a run at another title, it’s just that the Mavs have basically called this season a wash.  They’ll never admit it, but after striking out with Derron Williams this past offseason, the Mavs decided to wait until Dwight Howard hit the market.   Now Dwight was traded to the Lakers before the start of the season, and logic would indicate that the Lakers trading for Howard ended the D12 sweepstakes.  Then, something great happened (if you’re a mavs fan or lakers hater), the Lakers ended up having a terrible 1^st half of the season.  The team of Kobe, Nash, and Howard has been such a disaster that Howard staying in LA doesn’t seem like a slam dunk anymore. 

Lakers took a big gamble trading for Howard, knowing he only had 1 year left on his contract, and knowing he publicly stated he didn’t want to play for the Lakers.   The Lakers hoped his attitude would change, and winning with Kobe in Hollywood would make Dwight fall in love.  Well, the Lakers worst nightmare is occurring, Dwight and Kobe don’t seem to get along, and the Lakers aren’t even a playoff team as of today. 

All this is good news for 3 NBA teams, the Rockets, Hawks, and Mavs.  These are the 3 teams with enough cap space to sign Howard, if he chooses to leave LA.  Now the big challenge will be for the Mavs to convince Howard to come to Big D.  The Hawks and the Rockets have more young talent to surround Howard with, so the sell will be a tough one for Mark Cuban.  But the Mavs can sell 1 thing, and that is recent success.  The Mavs have been one of the top franchises in Basketball for the last 10 years, and Cuban has shown a willingness to do what it takes to get back on top.   It won’t be easy, but never count out Cuban, he struck out this past offseason, and will be ready to redeem himself. 

Now all the Mavs have to do is sit back, hope the Lakers continue to implode, and get ready to go all in on D12.  Cuban might want to skip Shark Tank this time around, because if the Mavs miss out on Howard, it might spell the end of the Dirk era of competing for titles.