Mavs nuggets

Note to self: Signing stiff white guys is not good

Famed ESPN columnist Bill Simmons did a two-part column using quotes from the film "Almost Famous" to tie into the goings-on of the NBA off-season.

The fact that the World Wide Leader is publishing this is crazy.

However, he gives the Dallas Mavericks a couple of mentions:

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41. Ladies and gentlemen, the evening is over. We hope you all enjoyed yourselves and we'll see you all again in 1974. Good evening!

Or in the case of the Dallas Mavericks, 2004. Because that's the only way a crunch-time five of Nowitzki, Shawn Marion, Josh Howard, Jason Kidd and Jason Terry is competing for an NBA title -- if we threw everyone into a time machine and headed back to 2004. If you're a Mavs fan, you have to be worried about a decade of poor drafting, lavish spending and questionable talent evaluations, as well as a front office that nearly fell apart five years ago. (As detailed in the eye-opening transcripts from the Cuban/Nelson lawsuit, in which it was revealed that current GM Donnie Nelson had to be talked out of taking Pavel Podkolzin FIFTH in the 2004 draft after his father learned that he didn't have final say for the pick and begged him, "Well, if that's the case, then as your father I'm asking you, don't draft Pavel Podkolzin." I don't even have a follow-up joke here.)

Thank goodness there's a media member actually calling out the Dallas Mavericks. Simmons hits the nail on the head here particular about the last decade of mismanagement that no one wants to talk about.

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42. They don't just put someone with one little hit on the cover of Rolling Stone f---ing magazine!
Congrats, Orlando, you're now paying $33 million to a guy who plays 10 minutes a game.
To Marcin Gortat, who parlayed one "little hit" (a solid playoff performance) into a $33 million deal that, if you're a Dallas fan, you should be happy isn't clogging up your cap right now. I liked Gortat heading into the summer as a great value risk in the "four years, $17.6 million" range. Nothing higher. Dallas offered him nearly double, which made sense because this is the same team that inked Raef LaFrentz, Shawn Bradley, DeSagana Diop and Erick Dampier to more than $225 million in "Why the hell did we do that?" deals. Then Orlando shocked everyone by matching … you know, because any time you can pay $7 million a year for someone who plays 10 minutes a game, you have to do it.

So what now? Poor Gortat is being stalked by the ghosts of Jon Koncak, Jim McIlvaine, Jerome James, DeSagana Diop, Luc Longley, Todd MacCulloch and every other free-agent center who was overpaid in the $30-33 million range and immediately turned into a stiff. Dallas had to go to Plan B: throwing away $4.5 million on a goofball like Drew Gooden. As for Orlando …

I really feel the Mavs dodged a bullet missing out on Gortat. It felt good at the time. Doesn't mean it was good.