Mavs "Close" To Trade With Wizards...Details!

The Dallas Mavericks are apparently "close" to getting a deal done with the Washington Wizards. After Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton pulled guns on each other and earned suspensions, the Wizards season has pretty much been over. So naturally they have been trying to revamp their roster. They are currently over the salary cap and into luxury tax territory. Therefore, the Mavs who are looking to find a way to bolster their roster for the late season playoff push, are talking to the Wiz about a mutually beneficial trade. Here are those details...

The Mavs' needs are obvious:
1) Josh Howard. He has fallen from "X-Factor" to "0-Factor". He has been ineffective and lazy. So the idea is trade Howard with his expiring contract to Washington for Caron Butler. Butler is a much more effective scorer than Josh and would be an awesome true 2 guard that could definitely give Dallas much need help there.

2) Center. I like very much what Drew Gooden has brought to Dallas. He has typically come off the bench and generated very nice, hard working double-doubles. But he has a very attractive expiring contract. Dampier who early in the season play quite surprisingly well has had some "balky" knee issues the past month and a half that has slowed him down and kept him out of a few games. The solution? Brendan Haywood. He's a starting caliber big man who could put up great numbers and run the floor better than anyone the Mavs' have had.

3) Inspiration. This is not necessarily a material need. It is something that a player or an attitude or even a change in scenery can bring to a team. Dallas has been very stale lately. Mark Cuban even admitted to the team looking "bored" on the court. And a breath of fresh air at the AAC could do them a world of good. Josh Howard has been an off the court problem child from day one, and as soon as his off-court issues go away he becomes an on-court problem. So maybe getting some new guys in the locker room will change the atmosphere a little and get the Mavs' back on track...we hope anyway.

How the trade looks:
It looks like Dallas will be giving up Howard, Gooden, and Ross and getting back Butler, Haywood, and Stevenson. Butler is putting up 17 points and 7 rebounds a game, and Haywood is posting career highs of 10 points and 10 rebounds. Stevenson is just a contract that the Wiz would like to not deal with. Now on paper this will effectively get the Wizards under the cap which means they will pay no luxury tax this season, and in theory it makes the Mavs' a much better interior team. There are still a few things that must be worked out before this trade goes through. The rumors have been out about this for weeks, but I chose not to write anything until it was almost certain something would be done. And right now it appears that when the NBA opens up on Monday this trade could get approved and finalized. So we'll see what happens, and hope that everything if this gets done it makes Dallas better!