crc21209
02-16-2008, 02:09 PM
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
(Archive)
The NBA does permit its teams to consummate trades during All-Star Weekend, but it's increasingly likely that the allowance won't even matter this weekend in New Orleans.
All those recent concerns about which team Jason Kidd would play for Sunday -- East or West -- have been forgotten amid the rising possibility that Kidd's expected trade from New Jersey to Dallas won't happen before the league's trade deadline at 3 p.m. ET Thursday.
"I'd have to say it's going away," offered one source close to the negotiations.
Although NBA front-office sources told ESPN.com that the New Jersey Nets and Dallas Mavericks continued to exchange trade ideas Friday, quiet optimism from both sides that a done deal was inevitable after the teams reached an agreement in principal Wednesday has given way to growing pessimism, with obstacles stacking up against the completion of the original seven-player swap.
The latest obstacle, sources say, is Dallas' insistence that the Nets take back Trenton Hassell instead of swingman Jerry Stackhouse, whose controversial comments earlier in the week have complicated his inclusion in the trade. Sources say New Jersey, however, has no interest in Hassell, presumably because Hassell's guaranteed salary of $4.4 million for the 2009-10 season is more than double Stackhouse's $2 million guarantee.
Obstacle No. 1, of course, was the refusal of Mavericks forward Devean George to consent to being traded, which is George's right thanks to a little-known league rule that prevents certain players with one-year contracts from being dealt without their permission.
Dogged attempts over the past 48 hours by the Nets and Mavericks to convince George to relent have proven unsuccessful. Agent Mark Bartelstein has for days maintained his initial claim that "Devean is not inclined to change his stance." And George himself sounds even more determined to stay in Dallas now after Mavs coach Avery Johnson curiously responded to the furor caused by George's decision to play him for a combined 76 minutes in the two games since.
"If I can get minutes here, no brainer," George told reporters in Phoenix on Thursday night after logging a season-high 43 minutes in a loss for Dallas, more than he ever expected even with the Mavericks carrying several injuries. "I don't want to go nowhere."
Obstacle No. 2, meanwhile, was Stackhouse and what he said Wednesday afternoon when the trade was imminent. "I get 30 days to rest, then I'll be right back," Stackhouse told The Associated Press. "I ain't going nowhere."
Those comments prompted a widespread outcry from rival team executives, who contend that the statements prove Dallas and New Jersey have struck an illegal arrangement for the Nets to buy out Stackhouse's contract immediately and thus set him up to re-sign with the Mavs after a mandatory 30-day wait.
ESPN The Magazine's Chris Broussard reported Friday that the NBA has already informed the Mavericks that they won't be able to re-sign Stackhouse if they trade him to New Jersey and the Nets do buy him out, although league officials dispute that. Said NBA spokesman Brian McIntyre: "We are not investigating whether there was a prearranged deal between the Nets, Mavs and Stackhouse at this point."
Yet club sources say that Dallas remains convinced that the NBA's reaction would be a harsh one if Stackhouse isn't lifted from the deal, ranging from rejection of the trade entirely to a ban from re-signing Stackhouse to possibly even additional sanctions from the commissioner's office if it tries to keep the 33-year-old in the swap.
That's apparently one reason why the Mavericks are intent on replacing Stackhouse with Hassell and trying to solve their George problem by signing-and-trading the retired Keith Van Horn to the Nets along with 24-year-old point guard Devin Harris, center DeSagana Diop, guard Maurice Ager, two first-round picks and $3 million in cash for Kidd, forward Malik Allen and possibly guard Darrell Armstrong.
For the Nets, though, that's two key pieces -- George's expiring contract and Stackhouse's $6.75 million salary this season -- missing from the deal they thought they were getting.
"If he doesn't [change his mind]," Nets president Rod Thorn said of George in Saturday's editions of The New York Times, "it doesn't look that good for the deal."
Earlier Friday, Thorn acknowledged that the two teams were still searching for a workable trade combination, saying: "There are a lot of different scenarios that might be feasible."
But the Nets, sources say, regard Hassell over Stackhouse as a deal-breaker. And it has not yet been confirmed if Van Horn would be willing to physically report to New Jersey, which league sources say is a must if he's part of the deal. Sources say that the Los Angeles Lakers' recent acquisition of Pau Gasol was only approved by the league office when the retired Aaron McKie -- who was working as a volunteer assistant coach with Philadelphia when the Lakers called to inform him that they had to sign him and throw him in for salary-cap reasons -- agreed to join the Grizzlies as opposed to collecting checks in retirement.
Yet it also remains to be seen if the Mavericks and Nets are truly prepared to walk away from this trade after coming so far. Sources say that Dallas has resumed its longstanding attempts to recruit a third team to help facilitate the deal, but the league consensus holds that the Mavs are New Jersey's only realistic suitor for the 34-year-old point guard.
Kidd has been quietly hoping for a trade to Dallas all season and was so near to it Wednesday that the Nets held him out of their game that night in Toronto. Yet Kidd told reporters Friday that he'll be "at peace" even if the Nets (and the Mavs) are forced to pretend starting next Friday after the trade deadline passes that nothing happened.
"My gut said it was done," Kidd told The Dallas Morning News in New Orleans. "And it's been put on hold. I'm a big believer that things happen for a reason. Whatever happens is meant to happen. I'm a Net right now. But I would love to be a Mav if it works out."
Equally eager to see it is the Mavericks' Dirk Nowitzki, whose locker room -- still healing from the emotional fallout from eight losses in Dallas' last 10 playoff games -- has been rocked by the near-trade and all of its subplots. Even Kobe Bryant sounded sympathetic to Nowitzki's plight, remembering that it was the Nets and Lakers discussing a deal this time last year that almost sent Kidd to L.A.
"I don't know how he's dealing with this," Bryant said of Nowitzki, "[coming] that close to getting Jason Kidd."
Close enough for this trade to be resuscitated, then?
Said another source close to the negotiations: "The trade might be dying, but this thing has taken about eight turns so far. Who's to say it won't take one more turn?"
Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here.
ESPN.com
(Archive)
The NBA does permit its teams to consummate trades during All-Star Weekend, but it's increasingly likely that the allowance won't even matter this weekend in New Orleans.
All those recent concerns about which team Jason Kidd would play for Sunday -- East or West -- have been forgotten amid the rising possibility that Kidd's expected trade from New Jersey to Dallas won't happen before the league's trade deadline at 3 p.m. ET Thursday.
"I'd have to say it's going away," offered one source close to the negotiations.
Although NBA front-office sources told ESPN.com that the New Jersey Nets and Dallas Mavericks continued to exchange trade ideas Friday, quiet optimism from both sides that a done deal was inevitable after the teams reached an agreement in principal Wednesday has given way to growing pessimism, with obstacles stacking up against the completion of the original seven-player swap.
The latest obstacle, sources say, is Dallas' insistence that the Nets take back Trenton Hassell instead of swingman Jerry Stackhouse, whose controversial comments earlier in the week have complicated his inclusion in the trade. Sources say New Jersey, however, has no interest in Hassell, presumably because Hassell's guaranteed salary of $4.4 million for the 2009-10 season is more than double Stackhouse's $2 million guarantee.
Obstacle No. 1, of course, was the refusal of Mavericks forward Devean George to consent to being traded, which is George's right thanks to a little-known league rule that prevents certain players with one-year contracts from being dealt without their permission.
Dogged attempts over the past 48 hours by the Nets and Mavericks to convince George to relent have proven unsuccessful. Agent Mark Bartelstein has for days maintained his initial claim that "Devean is not inclined to change his stance." And George himself sounds even more determined to stay in Dallas now after Mavs coach Avery Johnson curiously responded to the furor caused by George's decision to play him for a combined 76 minutes in the two games since.
"If I can get minutes here, no brainer," George told reporters in Phoenix on Thursday night after logging a season-high 43 minutes in a loss for Dallas, more than he ever expected even with the Mavericks carrying several injuries. "I don't want to go nowhere."
Obstacle No. 2, meanwhile, was Stackhouse and what he said Wednesday afternoon when the trade was imminent. "I get 30 days to rest, then I'll be right back," Stackhouse told The Associated Press. "I ain't going nowhere."
Those comments prompted a widespread outcry from rival team executives, who contend that the statements prove Dallas and New Jersey have struck an illegal arrangement for the Nets to buy out Stackhouse's contract immediately and thus set him up to re-sign with the Mavs after a mandatory 30-day wait.
ESPN The Magazine's Chris Broussard reported Friday that the NBA has already informed the Mavericks that they won't be able to re-sign Stackhouse if they trade him to New Jersey and the Nets do buy him out, although league officials dispute that. Said NBA spokesman Brian McIntyre: "We are not investigating whether there was a prearranged deal between the Nets, Mavs and Stackhouse at this point."
Yet club sources say that Dallas remains convinced that the NBA's reaction would be a harsh one if Stackhouse isn't lifted from the deal, ranging from rejection of the trade entirely to a ban from re-signing Stackhouse to possibly even additional sanctions from the commissioner's office if it tries to keep the 33-year-old in the swap.
That's apparently one reason why the Mavericks are intent on replacing Stackhouse with Hassell and trying to solve their George problem by signing-and-trading the retired Keith Van Horn to the Nets along with 24-year-old point guard Devin Harris, center DeSagana Diop, guard Maurice Ager, two first-round picks and $3 million in cash for Kidd, forward Malik Allen and possibly guard Darrell Armstrong.
For the Nets, though, that's two key pieces -- George's expiring contract and Stackhouse's $6.75 million salary this season -- missing from the deal they thought they were getting.
"If he doesn't [change his mind]," Nets president Rod Thorn said of George in Saturday's editions of The New York Times, "it doesn't look that good for the deal."
Earlier Friday, Thorn acknowledged that the two teams were still searching for a workable trade combination, saying: "There are a lot of different scenarios that might be feasible."
But the Nets, sources say, regard Hassell over Stackhouse as a deal-breaker. And it has not yet been confirmed if Van Horn would be willing to physically report to New Jersey, which league sources say is a must if he's part of the deal. Sources say that the Los Angeles Lakers' recent acquisition of Pau Gasol was only approved by the league office when the retired Aaron McKie -- who was working as a volunteer assistant coach with Philadelphia when the Lakers called to inform him that they had to sign him and throw him in for salary-cap reasons -- agreed to join the Grizzlies as opposed to collecting checks in retirement.
Yet it also remains to be seen if the Mavericks and Nets are truly prepared to walk away from this trade after coming so far. Sources say that Dallas has resumed its longstanding attempts to recruit a third team to help facilitate the deal, but the league consensus holds that the Mavs are New Jersey's only realistic suitor for the 34-year-old point guard.
Kidd has been quietly hoping for a trade to Dallas all season and was so near to it Wednesday that the Nets held him out of their game that night in Toronto. Yet Kidd told reporters Friday that he'll be "at peace" even if the Nets (and the Mavs) are forced to pretend starting next Friday after the trade deadline passes that nothing happened.
"My gut said it was done," Kidd told The Dallas Morning News in New Orleans. "And it's been put on hold. I'm a big believer that things happen for a reason. Whatever happens is meant to happen. I'm a Net right now. But I would love to be a Mav if it works out."
Equally eager to see it is the Mavericks' Dirk Nowitzki, whose locker room -- still healing from the emotional fallout from eight losses in Dallas' last 10 playoff games -- has been rocked by the near-trade and all of its subplots. Even Kobe Bryant sounded sympathetic to Nowitzki's plight, remembering that it was the Nets and Lakers discussing a deal this time last year that almost sent Kidd to L.A.
"I don't know how he's dealing with this," Bryant said of Nowitzki, "[coming] that close to getting Jason Kidd."
Close enough for this trade to be resuscitated, then?
Said another source close to the negotiations: "The trade might be dying, but this thing has taken about eight turns so far. Who's to say it won't take one more turn?"
Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here.