As a long time Mavs fan this is bittersweet for me to see Howard go. I mean it was only a few years ago in which I envisioned Devin Harris and Josh Howard being the centerpiece of a Dallas Mavericks team that should have been in contention for a title every year. And just like that, both are now gone, if you can believe the Washington Post.
According to the Post's Michael Lee, the Dallas Mavericks and the Washington Wizards have agreed in principle to a deal involving Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood and Deshawn Stevenson, for Josh Howard, Drew Gooden and a few extra pieces to make things even.
As I said, this is bittersweet, because even though I was a big fan of Howard, and Harris as a potential dominant twosome, it never really happened. Harris ended up being virtually given away to the New Jersey Nets, although Jason Kidd, who we got in the deal, hasn't been terrible or anything.
And Howard, for all his talent and potential, just is a trainwreck in the mental category. Whether it's going on the air on a radio station and admitting to smoking weed, or being on camera talking about how he doesn't celebrate the National Anthem "cause I'm black", to hosting a birthday party for himself while the Mavs are getting stomped out of the first round by Golden State a few years back, the guy is, as sports radio host Jorge Sedano is fond of saying, a "mental midget".
And throw in all the games he's missed due to injuries and his horrible season this year, you just had to get rid of him while he had some value, due to his final year being a team option.
With Caron Butler we get a decent scorer, and a pretty good defensive guy at that. Haywood will give us a pretty good option at Center, something we thought we had last year when it seemed all but certain that Marcin Gortat was coming to Dallas. That was until the Orlando Magic in an admittedly brilliant move of chess, totally stabbed Dallas in the back and matched the offer when it seemed they weren't going to. Then to add insult to injury, they snapped up Da Sagana Diop, who the Mavs let go because they thought the Magic wasn't going to match Gortat.
I still haven't gotten over that, and will always wish for the Magic to fail miserably.
Stevenson, I don't know how he'll figure in, whether he'll get waived, or if the Mavs will try to find a way to fit him in.
I'm happy with this deal though.. We get rid of a guy who, despite his talent and abilities was never able to put it together minus the negative baggage, and we gain a couple guys who can help us right now as we go towards, hopefully, a good post-season run!
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