« The NBA Comes to OKC | Home | Josh Howard Apologizes »
Artest to Houston. Mavs Do Nothing.
By Daniel Dessinger | July 29, 2008
While I did not expect Artest to become a Maverick, it was because I thought he might actually stick it out in Sacramento. But tonight’s headlines tell us that Ron Artest will be headed to Houston in a trade for Bobby Jackson and probably Donte Greene.
Another opportunity bites the dust. How did Mark Cuban and Donnie Nelson manage to spend so much energy and money getting Jason Kidd to Dallas and fail so miserably to shop Josh Howard? It can’t be THAT hard to trade him. He’s still pretty talented.
Sure, another trade could go down during the summer. That is not an impossibility. But Artest for Howard made the most sense. Dallas would have gained a confident defender and scorer who would have fit the need here nicely. Instead, Houston just became a much tougher team. The triple threat of Yao Ming, Ron Artest, and TMac launches Houston backinto elite Western status. That’s not including Shane Battier or Rafer Alston.
So what’s left for Dallas? Is there even a shot at Josh Smith? Shaun Marion? Anyone? I know a LOT of Dallas fans who will be sorely disappointed if Josh Howard is still on this team in November.
Topics: Houston Rockets, Trade Talk |
July 29th, 2008 at 9:23 pm
[...] that the Houston Rockets are trading Bobby Jackson and another player to Sacramento for Ron Artest. MavsUpdate has more on the story. [...]
July 30th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
The Mavs were never going to cut ties with Howard for Artest and I am glad they didn’t do that kind of deal….because it makes no sense too… you lose your starting 3 spot to solidify your 2 spot…who you going to put at the 3 when that kind of deal happens? The deal the Mavs proposed was Stack and Bass and we would have taken on Kenny Thomas contract. I am pissed because Sac took the deal from Houston when our deal was just as good they were busting our balls…Moving Howard at this point is just a lateral move unless we some how trade Howard for a legitimate SG and then some how acquire a small forward that is just as good as Howard that’s when you see a josh for josh making sense… if you some how also do a sign in trade for JR Smith, Mike Miller, Cuttino Mobley, Wally Szerbiak …Somebody other than Terry, Green or Stack…..But it seems like the mavs FO are busy doing other things like buying the Cubs or being an assitant coach for the national China team.
July 30th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Aaron, I get that Josh Howard did not have to be part of that deal. Brian Estridge on ESPN Radio made that clear this afternoon. Sacramento ended up taking practically nothing for Artest. So what does that say about the Mavericks? Comparing what we offered to what Houston offered, I’d say either Dallas dropped the ball or someone doesn’t like our front office.
Having said that, I would have done the Howard for Artest trade simply because Dirk could handle the 3 in a pinch while Bass handled the 4 spot. We have the players. There will always be defensive matchup problems because of Dirk, but that hasn’t stopped them yet.
Still, it irks me to know that we could have easily had Artest and we don’t. We need a 2 guard, obviously, but we also need to shop Howard and see what we can get. If we don’t, plenty Mavs fans are going to be disgruntled that he’s on the team.
November 18th, 2008 at 8:39 am
as long as josh is on the mavericks, my eyes will not be watching a game, nor will i set foot in AA.. unless it’s the stars