Guess stein is an idiot as well.
http://espn.go.com/nba/dailydime/_/p...505/daily-dime
"These are the circumstances that everyone in Big D at least understood, if not accepted, when the lockout ended in December and culture-changing center Tyson Chandler was sign-and-traded to New York. The failed gamble on Lamar Odom -- billed as Dallas' answer to a wild card like Harden for a season -- realistically snuffed out any hope of a playoff run of any substance … which only strengthened the notion around the league that the Mavs' primary objective this season was winning the offseason.
Only now the offseason has arrived faster than any Mav imagined even in their nightmare scenarios. Nowitzki, for starters, insisted from the interview podium that he couldn't yet process the idea that title-team stalwarts such as Jason Terry and Shawn Marion might have made their final appearances in Mavs colors on Cinco de Mayo, despite Dallas' well-chronicled intentions to clear as much salary-cap space as possible in July to try to steal North Texas' own Deron Williams away from the Brooklyn Nets.
"The end kind of snuck up on us now," Nowitzki said.
Carlisle tried to sound an optimistic note, comparing Chandler's departure to Steve Nash's in 2004: "I remember when Nash left, everyone thought this thing was over. But Donnie Nelson and Mark Cuban, they have a resourcefulness about them."
The reality, though, is that, to use the local football parlance, Dallas has seen the goalposts move since letting Chandler go. Sources close to the situation told ESPN.com this week that the Mavs were convinced early on in their 2012 planning that having sufficient salary-cap space to be able to legitimately recruit Dwight Howard alongside Williams was the surest route to landing Williams. The problem there, of course, is Howard's unexpected decision in March to delay his free agency to 2013 has left Williams solo on the Mavs' list of "big fish" -- to use a term both Nelson and Nowitzki have mentioned to local reporters -- while they remain well shy of possessing the requisite trade assets to offer Orlando for Dwight via trade.
And it naturally doesn't take a great leap from there to start asking yourself if a frontcourt duo of Nowitzki and Chandler, had Dallas independently elected to spend what it took to keep them together, might have appealed to D-Will more than any other potential tandem of teammates he's offered this summer now that hooking up with Howard is no longer feasible.
We just don't know yet.
I've believed from the start that Cuban, after delivering Dallas its first NBA crown and spending millions in luxury tax over his decade-plus in charge to get there, has more than earned the right to try to build a team any new way he sees fit. Yet the huge risk remains for him that Dallas has no fish of consequence to pursue if Williams chooses to stay with the Nets, who can offer one more season contractually than the Mavs along with added marketing opportunities because of their new address.
One source well-acquainted with Williams' thinking told ESPN.com this weekend that the Mavericks, in their current state, have no better than a "50-50 shot" of getting D-Will's signature in July ... despite the fact that the Nets aren't any closer to landing Howard than they are."