Jason Kidd was hit with a fine. (Getty Images)

Posted by Ben Golliver  

Everyone seems to agree that Jason Kidd will one day make an excellent NBA coach. He got a jump on his future this week, when he blasted off on a group of officials for doing a poor job and for not paying his Dallas Mavericks the respect they deserve as defending 2011 NBA champions.

The NBA announced on Wednesday that Kidd has been fined $25,000 for comments he made following a Monday night loss to the Thunder in Oklahoma City. The Mavericks led late but wound up losing 95-91 and shot just 10 free throws while Oklahoma City attempted 33. Kidd was upset about that free throw disparity as well as a late, questionable foul call.

Here are the offending quotes via ESPNDallas.com.

"We don't get the benefit of the whistle," Kidd said. "I don't think we're looked upon as champions, but that's a whole other story. Dirk [Nowitzki] should live at the line if they would call it the way it's supposed to be. But, he doesn't."

"He didn't foul him. It was a bad call. Clean block," Kidd said. "I just said [to referee Pat Fraher] it wasn't a foul. He blocked the ball and after the play he said he bumped him with his body. I don't think so. It was a bad night for the officials. It happens."

According to StoryTellersContracts.com, Kidd, 38, is on the books for $9.6 million this season.

Deron Williams could be considering Dallas in free agency. (Getty Images)

By Matt Moore 

Hold on, let me barricade this post against the Nets fans hordes who freak out when you talk about any scenario other than Dwight Howard going to Brooklyn. There. Everything has been all quiet on the Dwight Howard front this weekend at All-Star Weekend. No trade rumors, no trade demands, no explosive quotes, no late night meetings between general managers and Howard. But the New York Daily Newsreports of an indication that seems to be gaining steam with a lot of experts, including NBA.com's David Aldridge, among others, that the Mavericks are very much in the heart and mind of Deron Williams. From the Daily News (emphasis mine): 

The ultimate disaster for New Jersey would be if Williams and Howard end up playing together, but not in Brooklyn. With some roster alterations that are doable, including using their one amnesty move on Brendan Haywood, the Mavs could be set up, cap-wise, to accommodate both players.
“The Mavs want to do what Miami did and put together their own big three,’’ said another GM. “That’s their goal.”

Williams privately told members of the Mavs last June during their Finals celebration that he would love to go back home and be a part of team with Dirk Nowitzki. But he said Friday he wants to continue to be a Net. So until further notice, the Nets think they still have a good shot to move into Brooklyn with Williams and Howard.

via Dwight Howard center of attention in Orlando as March 15 deadline to ship Magic Superstar looms - NY Daily News.

You'll remember that Ken Berger of CBSSports.com reported last year during All-Star Weekend that Williams had told people close to him he wanted to play in a bigger market. He denied the reports. Then he was traded a few weeks later to the Nets. Williams was indeed in the locker room during the Finals, and his body language certainly indicated a warmth and desire to be a part of the Mavericks.

Know why? They were in the Finals. It could have been Washington Generals and he would have wanted to be a part of it. The Bobcats would look good after taking a lead in the Finals 3-2. 

Williams is from Dallas, that's where all this starts. A return home would make sense. It would also make sense for Dwight Howard, who wants a big market, to compete for a title, supporting stars, and warm weather. (Howard grew up in Georgia and has played in Florida his whole life; you ever tried randomly trying to adjust from that kind of weather to anything north of the Mason-Dixon? It's a nightmare.) So to review, the Mavericks offer:

A super-active owner who often acts as GM and who has shown a committment not only to spending, but spending wisely.

A Hall of Fame power forward scoring machine who should be able to keep playing for three-to-four more years at a high level.

A large market that attracts a lot of attention from sponsors and benefits as the economic center of a state which is essentially its own country.

A favorable tax situation.

Warm weather.

A return home for Deron Williams.

An organization that has won a championship in the past 14 months.

That's a pretty solid package.

And yet, the Nets remain in the lead for the services of both. It comes down to convenience. The Nets have movable pieces. Even if their trade assets aren't as impressive as some, they can still move them. The Mavericks' are all older players and unproven guys. They have no prime components to send Orlando. Howard is willing to wait till this summer to make his decision. But if he gets it settled sooner, all the better as long as it's the right decision. The Nets have the best chance at getting him between now and the trade deadline, and they believe they have the deal.

But if this thing goes to the summer, if it's a free ageny tour between Brooklyn and Dallas for both players, things could get very interesting. The Nets would do well to make sure Mr. Cuban doesn't get a shot in the competition.

(HT: IAmAGM.com) 

Posted by Ben Golliver 

The Dallas Mavericks will reportedly be without starting point guard Jason Kidd for a week or more.

The San Antonio Express News reports that Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle told reporters that a calf strain suffered by Kidd in the first quarter of a Friday night game against the Utah Jazz will keep the point guard out for "at least a week."

Kidd, 38, did not suit up for Sunday's game against the San Antonio Spurs. In his place, Carlisle started third-year guard Rodrigue Beaubois.

A one-week absence would cause Kidd to miss four additional games. The Mavericks travel to Phoenix to play the Suns on Monday, return to Dallas to host the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday and the Indiana Pacers on Friday and then embark on a 3-game road trip that includes stops versus the Cleveland Cavaliers on Feb. 4, the Denver Nuggets on Feb. 8 and the Minnesota Timberwolves on Feb. 10.

Kidd is averaging 4.1 points, 4.4 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 1.6 steals in 28.7 minutes per game this season for the Mavericks. He missed some time earlier in the year due to a back injury.

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Posted by Royce Young

Jason Kidd left the Mavericks game against the Spurs Thursday night with a lower back injury in the first quarter. He did not return and could miss time for Dallas.

Kidd, if you remember, is 38 years old.

By Matt Moore  

As much as everyone outside of the state of Florida may have wanted to enjoy watching the Heat as the Mavericks get their championship rings, it's not to be. Those interested in schadenfreude will have to settle for the Miami 3 watching the Mavericks' first championship banner be raised. 

WFAA in Dallas reports that Mark Cuban has informed them the Christmas Day season opener against the Heat will not be ring ceremony night for the Mavericks. It's customary for the first home game of the season to be ring ceremony night, but Cuban says that due to so many people likely having made other plans for Christmas in light of the ongoing lockout, he didn't want to leave them out. 

However, the banner will be raised to the rafters so fans can celebrate their championship team on their home floor for the first time. The Heat of course lost to the Mavericks in six games in last season's Finals.

The story should be about the Mavericks, but it will, as always, be about the Heat. How will they react watching the banner they were two wins away from obtaining be raised in front of them? Does it spell an omen or serve as motivation? Will it affect how they approach their first game of the season? A loss would leave the Heat 0-2 in season openers under the new Triad after last year's loss to the Celtics in Boston.

Either way, it's going to be a fairly brutal process for the Heat to sit and watch the title they nearly won be celebrated on their opponents' home floor. Great drama, just the thing to kick off the season with to start moving past the lockout.  

By Matt Moore 

The Mavericks and Spurs have had some titanic battles through the course of the past decade-plus during this time of contention for both teams. For the first time, we would be seeing the Mavericks as the defending champs, as the team that figured things out, while the Spurs are the team that couldn't put it together, who fell apart at the wrong time.

These battles are precious. We're only going to see Dirk Nowitzki go at Tim Duncan so many more times as both head towards retirement. Already Duncan is not the player he used to be, as Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker take more of a role. But it's still Duncan vs. Dirk, Parker vs. Jet, Manu vs. well, whoever the Mavs put on him. The Mavericks now have the bruisers inside, Tyson Chandler and Brendan Haywood, while it's the Spurs with the defensive sieves in DeJuan Blair and Matt Bonner.

This game would still be a huge clash of juggernauts, though, especially with the shooters on each side. Both teams had titanic offenses last week, while it was only the Spurs who ran into the iceberg against Memphis.

Jason Kidd against Tony Parker is a smarter matchup than it seems, while Kawhi Leonard would be facing Caron Butler in a past-face-present. It would have all the rivalry that Texas teams demand, and the drama of a battle between two teams with five championships and six Finals appearances over the past twelve seasons.

And we get none of it.

Today is Day 127 of the NBA Lockout.

By Matt Moore

Tuesday night would have been a reckoning if there were a season. It would be about more than just a good season. It would be about the past and the future. About a decade of tireless effort, of painstaking consistency and a drive to get it right, and it would be about the years to come, and how bright and hopeful they are.

If there were an NBA season, we'd be watching Bulls-Mavericks Tuesday night.

The Dallas Mavericks suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous NBA fortune more than any team short of the Trail Blazers over the past ten years. They built a championship core, and instead of rebuilding or tearing it down when it didn't work, they kept tinkering, adjusting, taking what worked and trying to make it better. Mark Cuban sunk hundreds of millions into the team in payroll, staff, training, promotion, everything. It's a massively powerful organization, that still didn't have a ring to show for it. Tuesday night would have been the night that Dirk Nowitzki could take a step back and appreciate how far he'd come, how all the work and the trust and the blood, sweat, tears, and teeth in his arm were worth it. For Jason Kidd it would be a sweet way to usher in the sunset of his career. And the Mavericks, a tighnit group of professionals, could savor entering the season as the top dogs.

The Bulls would just be hungry. Hungry to spit that taste of embarassing defeat from their mouths, hungry to show they still have the best defense in the league, show they were not a flash in the pan, that they don't need massive overhauls. Derrick Rose would be ready to ask "Why not me, again?" for MVP.

It would be a terrific matchup.

Jason Kidd's experience, bruising defense against Rose's blistering speed, which would require long stints from Caron Butler in help defense, along with every other Maverick between Rose and the rim, especially Tyson Chandler. We'd see a chess match between two of the best tacticians in the league in Rick Carlisle and Tom Thibodeau, as Thibodeau would seek to body and help on Dirk at every turn and Carlisle would seek to continue to do what the Mavericks did last season, punish teams for helping by burying them from deep, and collecting offensive rebounds for extra possessions. Joakim Noah vs. Tyson Chandler is some sort of future-present meet past-present. J.J. Barea (assuming he re-signed, along with Chandler), would be going at it with C.J. Watson. And Carlos Boozer, at least for some limited possessions, would be left on an island with the Finals MVP.

Oh, the fun we would have had.

It would have been such a great way to follow up from the most exciting season in over ten years, to embrace a team made up of stars of the past ten years who are in no way done versus a team of stars for the next ten years (plus Carlos Boozer) who are just getting started. It would have been fierce. It would have been fun to argue about who should get the shots in crunch time, whether Rose looks healed mentally and physically, whether the Mavericks really can make a run at a repeat.

Instead, American Airlines Center will be silent and dark Tuesday night. It is day 124 of the NBA lockout.