Josh Dhani is a weekly writer for NBATipoff.com.
It was a blockbuster deal when four-team eight-player trade took place a couple of days ago. The star? The Dallas Mavericks and the superstar player we call Shawn Marion. It was a great deal. So now here we are, we have Marion in Dallas.
How is everything going to turn out? Will Marion have success? What is his impact with the Mavericks? Whoa, cool down! I have everything for you! You all know what this is, this is the NBA Talk!
So now we have this kid named Shawn Marion in a Dallas Mavericks uniform. It’s all going good, but wait, it’s going to get much much better. The Mavericks have also acquired guys like Marcin Gortat, Jason Kidd (in re-signing means), Greg Buckner, Kris Humphries, and Nathan Jawai.
Although John Hollinger of ESPN says that Buckner may not be staying with Dallas, there is a possible chance of Brandon Bass. But hey, he may not be coming at all either, so they mainly just got Humphries, Jawai, Kidd, Gortat, and of course, Marion.
These are some solid players that the Mavericks have acquired, which makes this solid lineup look like this:
PG: Jason Kidd
SG: Josh Howard/Jason Terry
SF: Shawn Marion
PF: Dirk Nowitzki
C: Erick Dampier/Marcin Gortat
You are probably wondering why Josh Howard is at small forward. Well, due to the fact that Marion is there, Howard has to be in the starting lineup and it looks to me that the shooting guard spot may be his only decision (yet of course you can turn drunk and be a center). I like the change of Howard because it makes Dallas look like a much stronger team.
Kidd, he was going to start anyways. Jason Terry, he’s going to bring a lot of light off the bench in big D. We then have Shawn Marion tearing it up with shots and dunks you can’t deny. Dirk, we all know how he rolls. The center spot is questionable. Hollinger picked Gortat, I like Dampier. It’s going to be a battle at that spot but whoever wins, the center spot will be very strong anyways.
It makes the lineup look impossible to stop. Just look at these players, I mean it’s just heaven for the fans of Dallas. With all these stars on the squad, and up and rising ones, Dallas looks like a tough team to beat in the Western Conference.
But some things may affect them. First, you have a group of players that are 30-years-old or older: Jason Kidd (36), Erick Dampier (34), Jason Terry (32), Dirk Nowitzki and Shawn Marion (31), and Josh Howard (30).
Probably the youngest star may have to be Gortat at 25. Although age may not be as big of a deal because all of those players of that 30-years-old or older list still have some in the tank and can still tear you up on the NBA court.
So it’s not that big of a problem, the only problem may be is the other teams in the Wild West.
We have the Los Angeles Lakers, who look more dangerous than ever with the addition of Ron Artest. We then the Houston Rockets, who may be rolling this year with T-Mac and Trevor Ariza. We then have the Denver Nuggets, who recently got Ty Lawson. Then the Spurs with Jefferson and many other teams that look to strike this year.
It’ll be a tough matchup in the conference and it’s going to be a blood-gushing, hard-nosed, Pacers-Pistons brawl matchup. The Wild West is going to strike bigger than ever coming into the 2009-10 season.
And so far, Dallas has already become one of the leaders. With just one player in this big fat a** trade, oh heck yes, it does make a big impact. But this is just the start of a big season that looks to come for us, NBA fans.