Jason Kidd Trade---about To Happen Again?

SUMG · February 18, 2008

It's looking more and more like Jason Kidd's start for the road team in Sunday's NBA All-Star Game will indeed be his farewell to the Eastern Conference.

That's because the New Jersey Nets and Dallas Mavericks are again closing in on a deal that would send Kidd back to his original team, according to NBA front-office sources.

A reconfigured trade likely won't be submitted for league approval until Monday -- and is bound to draw a longer-than-usual examination from the league before it's approved after the many complications that derailed the teams' original agreement on Wednesday -- but sources say that the Mavericks and Nets have reached a tentative agreement on the two major changes to save the blockbuster swap.

Sources say Mavs swingman Trenton Hassell and the retired Keith Van Horn will be plugged into the trade in place of Jerry Stackhouse and Devean George. If the newly proposed deal goes through, New Jersey would receive 24-year-old point guard Devin Harris, center DeSagana Diop, guard Maurice Ager, forwards Hassell and Van Horn, two first-round draft picks and $3 million in cash for Kidd and Nets forward Malik Allen.

To make up for the removal of George -- who blocked his inclusion by citing a little-known league rule that prevents certain players with one-year contracts from being traded without their consent -- Dallas has secured Van Horn's participation via sign-and-trade in George's place. Out of the game since the 2006 NBA Finals, Van Horn will be required to report to New Jersey and submit to a physical to complete the transaction, with sources adding that the amount Van Horn receives this season -- believed to be more than $4 million -- will not be pro-rated even though Van Horn would be joining the Nets with less than half the season remaining.

The Nets, meanwhile, have apparently given their blessing to taking Hassell from Dallas instead of Stackhouse. The Mavericks have been pushing for that switch since Friday in the wake of Stackhouse's quotes Wednesday that gave the impression that the teams had already arranged for the Nets to immediately buy out the 33-year-old's contract so the Mavericks could re-sign him after a 30-day waiting period.

It's believed that New Jersey had been resisting Hassell because his guaranteed salary in 2009-2010 ($4.4 million) is more than twice as much as Stackhouse's guarantee that season ($2 million) and because Hassell might be less amenable to a buyout than Stackhouse. But it looks as though the Nets will consent to the change to end a saga that had dragged on for days because George unexpectedly blocked the trade, even though they preferred the long-term financial implications of taking Stackhouse and buying him out.

If Van Horn's inclusion is sanctioned by the league Monday, this deal will likewise create a bigger luxury-tax bill for Mavs owner Mark Cuban than the original, with Dallas keeping Stackhouse and George.

At its core, though, both teams appear poised to ultimately get what they wanted in spite of a growing list of obstacles.

Dallas would come out of the protracted negotiations with an elite veteran point guard for the first time since Steve Nash's departure in the summer of 2004. Kidd's arrival also creates a foursome to rival any star core in the West -- along with Dirk Nowitzki, Josh Howard and Jason Terry -- and a likely antidote to the Mavericks' well-chronicled troubles with mental toughness, confidence and leadership in back-to-back playoff humblings by Miami and Golden State.

The bottom-line equation would stay the same for New Jersey as well, with Nets president Rod Thorn coming away with a highly regarded young point guard to replace Kidd in Harris, two expiring contracts (Diop and Van Horn) and the two first-round picks. It's a pretty good haul for a 34-year-old whose recent public disclosure that it was time for the Nets to trade him could have weakened Thorn's bargaining position.

NT03 · February 18, 2008

Van Horn will be missed :ph34r:

UNT_92_Fan · February 19, 2008

Officially Done... J-Kidd is back in Dallas

KRAM1 · February 19, 2008

Well, good luck to the Mavs! Interesting trade...am I the only one who thinks Dallas is "mortgaging its future" for the sake of a run this year? Kidd is a great guard, but at 35 I wonder how much is left in the tank? Did the Mavs give up more than they received?

Time will tell...if the Mavs win it all this year...it will all be seen as a great move by Mr. Cuban...if not, well...we'll see.

It will be interesting to see how fast Kidd works into the flow at Dallas...my guess, pretty fast!