Brian Grant was almost a Mav, said Sefko

NBA sources said Dallas and Miami have had discussions regarding Grant, a 6-9 center-forward who was one of the league's best rebounders last season. However, the Heat would want one of the Mavericks' key players in return. The deal was close to happening Thursday, but complications on Miami's end unraveled it, sources said.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcon...ies/stories/080203dnspomavslede.e8b8aafd.html

Search for help at center tests Mavs' patience
Adding big man via trade likely to cost premier player
08/01/2003
By EDDIE SEFKO / The Dallas Morning News

The free-agent hopes and dreams are long gone. There's no sense lamenting the Mavericks' failure to bring in a key player to patrol the paint without losing somebody in return.

Instead, it's time to look forward.

The Mavericks are on record that significant player additions from here on out will come not from the paper-thin leftovers of free agency, but via a trade. The time frame now extends to the February trade deadline during the 2003-04 season.

This is good news for fans who have watched with frustration as San Antonio, Sacramento, the Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota have stockpiled so much talent in the past month.

Fighting Karl Malone and Gary Payton with Predrag Drobnjak or even Derrick Coleman does nothing to stir the Mavericks' imagination.

And so, the question becomes who goes and who stays for the Mavericks. If you are measuring any and all trades, as those inside and outside the organization say they are, then clearly you are prepared to give up something in return. But who?

It's a perilous tightrope that the Mavericks' management trio of owner Mark Cuban, president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson and coach Don Nelson now walk. They agree that the team they have assembled deserves a chance to see if it can win a title.

In Dirk Nowitzki, they have one of the league's best young players. In Steve Nash and Michael Finley, they have proven all-stars. In Nick Van Exel, they have a strong backcourt force off the bench.

But it's that glaring lack of toughness – coupled with the improvements going on around the rest of the Western Conference's top teams – that has put the Mavericks in a position of weakness just two months after they were playing in the conference finals.

"Pressure comes with the job," Donnie Nelson said. "Clearly, what's happened increases the pressure. But if you can't handle pressure, you're in the wrong industry.

"What we're not, is complacent. It's not like we're feeling so good about ourselves that we don't understand the needs of the team. We're just not going to throw the baby out with the bath water."

So are the Mavericks willing to offer one of their premier players if it affords them a chance to pick up a quality big man in the vein of Miami's Brian Grant, Portland's Dale Davis or Rasheed Wallace,
New York's Kurt Thomas or Toronto's Antonio Davis?

"We're not afraid to make a deal that makes sense to the club," Donnie Nelson said. "But we will not do anything lateral."

So they ponder the possibilities.

NBA sources said Dallas and Miami have had discussions regarding Grant, a 6-9 center-forward who was one of the league's best rebounders last season. However, the Heat would want one of the Mavericks' key players in return. The deal was close to happening Thursday, but complications on Miami's end unraveled it, sources said.

No matter where the Mavericks look, the players will come with a price.

Other teams must be willing to make it work, which can be difficult. For instance, why would Portland, which stands to have excellent salary-cap flexibility after this season, want to acquire a contract like Raef LaFrentz's, which extends six more seasons?
What it boils down to is everybody around the league likes the Mavericks' best four players, but not much else on their roster, save for perhaps Eduardo Najera and rookie Josh Howard.
"Obviously, we'd like to be sitting here with our No. 1 priority – a center – taken care of and be ready to go to war," Donnie Nelson said. "But just because the warrior cannon is silent, doesn't mean we're not cognizant of what's going on."

At least one insider believes the Mavericks will find a big man to give them some interior grit.

"Over time, Dallas is one of those teams that will get things done and this is no different," said Tony Dutt, the Houston-based agent for Van Exel and Avery Johnson, among others. "When it's all said and done, I guarantee you they'll have somebody in there to play center."

Last season, Van Exel said that if he were running the Mavericks and had a chance to acquire a quality big man, he'd trade himself. But after Van Exel's salty run in the playoffs, the Mavericks seem less inclined to dangle him as trade bait. Dutt added that Van Exel has grown to love the Mavericks organization.

"It's changed his perception on life," Dutt said. "If he were to be traded now, it would just crush him."

Van Exel is one of the celebrities in Mike Modano's charity baseball game Saturday in Frisco.

"I want to be here," he said during an informal workout Friday. "I think we still have a good team, but you can never count out what Nellie and Cuban will do. You just have to stay positive and be ready for it."

If Van Exel has earned status as a must-keep Maverick, then that leaves LaFrentz, whose name pops up in most trade discussion involving the Mavericks.

"I don't know what they have in mind, but Raef is working out with [strength coach] Robert Hackett and we're treating it as if he's going to be there next season," said Michael Higgins, LaFrentz's agent.

For now, the best thing the Mavericks can have is patience. Give other teams around the league a chance to panic before doing so themselves.

After all, a 60-win team that returns virtually intact would be a joy to have in many other NBA cities.

Staff Writer Calvin Watkins contributed to this report.
E-mail esefko@dallasnews.com

 

The cost to getting him is just too dear.

MoT and Mooch for BG, OK.

But not Rice (his contract situation makes him too valuable) and not EG (his rookie contract/age/size make him too valuable) and not Cato (his size and acceptance of role make him too valuable) compared to what Grant would bring.

But, MoT and Mooch? Sure, do it.

 

IMO, Finley could be had for the right deal. I don't believe Cato is in that deal, but MF may well be plying his trade elsewhere this season.

I hope so because I feel he is that good.

I could see Portland and Dallas in a blockbuster allowing Patterson/Nash to houseclean.

 

Good question. Anyone know?