The Stackhouse Connection

You know Mark Cuban was either silently shitting himself or just cursing at inanimate objects after the Lakers stole Pau Gasol and the Suns went all-in by acquiring Shaq. He's even more pissed because he wanted to be the one who stole a top player without dipping into his top 7 players. He had vowed loudly that he would not trade multiple contributors from his roster to acquire Jason Kidd or any one of his ilk. And Shaq is untradeable. I remember when Juwan Howard was untradeable and he was traded twice. Cuban traded for him and then traded him away a season later. Cuban likes making big moves, has big money and pry drives a big fuckin truck. (If you don't have a big truck you can lease one for cheap - See Funkmaster Flex - Big Truck Series Volume 3) Point being he likes big moves and he likes making them first. Jason Kidd is the biggest name left out there and he started his career in Dallas. So Cuban is pissed at the Suns and the Lakers who also happen to be two of his team's arch rivals. So fuck it, let's gut the roster.

For the record, I think this trade is a wash for Dallas. I think the thing that they'll regret most is throwing in 2 first rounders. One should have been enough. The good news is Kidd will be their emotional leader and has Finals experience. And he only has one more year left on his deal. Which means (Unless Cuban gives him an extension and the rumor a month ago was that Cuban would give him one more year @ $20 million) that next year if he didn't work out he would be an extremely valuable expiring contract for teams trying to create cap space for the free agent bonanza after the 2008-09 season. The bad news is Dallas has no depth now. They better find some unsung heroes because they just got small and shallow. But they may now have the fortitude to win a couple tough road playoff games against superior teams.

Of course this trade might not happen now. I knew that when I started writing this. But I think both teams have gone too far to abandon this deal now. But this situation was eerily familiar to me. In case you don't know the (hit the title for a link) Devean George has exercised a contractual right to veto his being included in the Kidd trade because he would have to forfeit his "Bird Rights" to do so. Simply put, Bird Rights means that if a player has been on a team for a long time even if that team is over the cap they can make a large offer to him. That's the general idea. So George is worried this will hamper his ability to ever get any deal larger than the mid-level exception ever again. This has happened before.

In the summer of 2000 the Philadelphia agreed to a four team trade that would have sent Allen Iverson and Matt Geiger to the Detroit Pistons. The trade was announced in all news media, players were packing their bags, press conferences and last interviews were being given. But then something happened. The Pistons were very close to the cap after making the trade, which they had made under the assumption that Geiger (thrown in to make salaries match) would wave his trade kicker (his salary increased 10-15% when traded) which he refused to do. So the Pistons couldn't make the deal work. And it collapsed. At the time of the trade, all parties (except Geiger) seemed happy with the deal. The fates of the Sixers and Pistons were forever altered. The Sixers were forced to rebuild on the fly around Iverson. He won the MVP award the next season and the Sixers lost to the Lakers in the Finals. (Everybody forgets the Lakers were undefeated until the Finals. The Sixers won Game 1 and lost Game 2 in overtime when Iverson was raped by Tyrone Lue) The Pistons were forced to moved in a different direction. They used their mid-level exception to sign Chauncey Billups. They traded Stackhouse for Rip Hamilton instead. The very same Stackhouse who would've gone to Philly for Iverson. The Pistons went on to draft Tayshaun Prince and trade for Rasheed Wallace. This is probably the greatest trade that never happened. I cannot see how either team would have done better had they made the trade.

Which brings us back to now. History has a real sense of symmetry. I can picture the Mavericks playing the part of the Sixers. They keep their players and instead make a deal for Jermaine O'Neal without giving up Harris or Diop. Much better deal and they get the size they need. The Pacers would probably be more than happy to dump Jamal Tinsley's contract to them if they could make the numbers work. The Nets finish the season playing hard and move Kidd and or Carter in the summer for a much better deal.

Maybe I'm full of shit. But I like both teams better if the trade didn't happen. But I think it will. But history has a funny way of repeating itself.

NOTE - I seriously tried to find a way to contact Matt Geiger for a comment but I couldn't find any contact info for the dude. I did find out that he's a pretty smart man with cash so maybe he knew what he was doing when he refused to waive his trade kicker. If you want some more reasons to hate your life and loathe professional athletes check out the links.

Hate Yourself

Kill Yourself



Surprisingly, I couldn't find any compilations of Matt Geiger's career highlights. This was the closest that I could come. Do you realize he had an almost $50 million contract and isn't even worthy of a 2 minute clip on YouTube?