[thebac]

There are many reasons why this trade won't work.

First, AW and Fin each make about the same as T-Mac. B/c Grant Hill is the only other player making a significant amount of money on the Magic, the Mavs would have to take back several players to make it work. Now, one might ask, why don't the Magic ship Hill and T-Mac here for AW and Fin and start anew. Well, thing is Fin has a player option in 2006 (which he probably won't exercise), but otherwise his contract runs until 2008. They can't build around Fin (and AW). Also, you don't trade one great player for two good (or even very good) players, at least in the NBA (in football you can do that, since you need a lot more players, and each individual player's performance is less important).

Moreover, unless the Magic know something about T-Mac's back other teams don't, they wouldn't trade T-Mac for Dirk straight up (I don't think salaries quite match, but you could throw in a minimum player or two). I could see them *considering* a trade for Dirk and Nash (maybe Fin instead of Nash, even--plus filler, obviously). Don't get me wrong, Dirk's my favorite player, but once you have one of the consensus top 10 players in the NBA (both T-Mac and Dirk are, though T-Mac is more highly regarded), you don't trade them unless you get an offer you can't refuse.

As for your point that no one saw the Walker (or Jamison) trade coming, neither Walker nor Jamison come close to the caliber of player T-Mac is.

Personally, I'd trade any two (maybe even three) players from the Mavs not named Dirk for T-Mac+filler.