[V]

From Mike Fisher at Dallasbasketball.com

Wallace, the troubled Portland ought-to-be-a-superstar-but-isn’t, is the subject of so many Mavs-related trade rumors that we’ve decided to quit laughing it off as some sort of nightmarish joke and to instead give it serious consideration.

Rasheed Wallace – the man who brother-in-Blazerdom Bill Walton recently referred to as a “chronic underachiever,’ “a malcontent,’’ “a disruptive force,’’ “a negative personality, selfish, emotionally immature, bitter, endlessly angry, ‘a boor,’ ‘a bully,’ “a lost soul’, a lunatic, “obnoxious,’ “sad’ and ‘pathetic’ (and that was all in just one Walton paragraph) – as a member of Mavericks Utopia?
Maybe.

Let’s deal with the basketball stuff first. Most of the rumors have Dallas giving up someone of quality (Antoine Walker? Michael Finley) to acquire Wallace. Purely in terms of basketball ability, that sort of a swap would be tempting. Mavs officials scoff at anything like this, insisting that it is Portland soliciting deals, none of which have tempted Dallas. Still, in terms of Dallas’ on-court needs, Wallace gives the Mavs things they do not presently have.

Between Dirk Nowitzki, Antawn Jamison and others, the Mavs can find people to do Walker-like work. Between Nowitzki, Tony Delk and Josh Howard, the Mavs can find people to do Finley-like work.
No, Walker and Finley aren’t superfluous here. Dallas simply is loaded with perimeter offensive talent.

But – and this is only on-court-related now – people who can do the things on both ends of the court like Wallace does them (or at least can do them) are hard to find.

The 6-11 Wallace, still just 29, is a brilliant post defender (have the Mavs employed one of those in our lifetime?), a quality perimeter defender of 4’s and maybe even 3’s, a capable rebounder (8.2 boards once upon a time), a good leaper and shot-blocker (1.7 blocks a game this year), and a versatile scorer with range beyond the arc (and even with the 3’s he’s shot better than 50 percent from the floor in five of his nine seasons).
The greatest conflict between Rasheed’s personality and his game: On the floor, he is exceedingly unselfish, a fine and willing passer. Wallace could possibly handle a Don Nelson ‘point forward’ role, and at the very least could be like what Nowitzki is working to be in terms of having the offense run through him.

However, if it was just about basketball talent, Portland would never give him up. Ever. He’d be Mr. Blazer. He’d be a six- or seven-time All-Star instead of a two-time All-Star. His Portland teams would be achievers, and he’d be the leader of the achievements.
Unfortunately for the Blazers, Rasheed Wallace is a nut.

And now we get to the juicy non-basketball issues.

Wallace is constantly in trouble with either the team, the league or the law. When he doesn’t speak (refusing to cooperate with the media in last year’s playoffs), the NBA hits him with a $30,000 slap. When he does speak, he says things like:

“I know I'm Public Enemy No. 1. … They (NBA higher-ups) look at black athletes like we're dumb-ass n------. It's as if we're just going to shut up and sign for the dollars and do what they say. … In my opinion they just want to draft n------ who are dumb and dumber, straight out of high school. … I ain't no dumb-ass n----- out here. I'm not like a whole bunch of these young boys out here who get caught up and captivated into the league.’’

I’ll admit one thing: If I were a Blazers fan, man, would I be longing for the days when Rasheed did get captivated by being in the NBA.
And just when Wallace supporters worked to make known his extensive contributions to charity, Rasheed made known his decision to keep his pot habit hidden came to him only after his wife told him the controversy reflected badly on her and the kids.

Says ex-Blazers superstar Bill Walton: “Wallace is a chronic underachiever, a malcontent, a disruptive force, a negative personality -- and that does not even begin to address his selfishness, emotional immaturity, bitterness and endless anger. I have also personally found him to be a boor and a bully. Those of us with the misfortune of ever having anything to do with this lost soul had to unfortunately accept the lunacy and obnoxious behavior of this sad and pathetic individual.’’
Says NBA commissioner David Stern: "Mr. Wallace’s hateful diatribe was ignorant and offensive to all NBA players. I refuse to enhance his heightened sense of deprivation by publicly debating with him.’’
It has been argued that Wallace’s ignorant remarks came by design – that he was attempting to create a stir that would force Portland to trade or release him. Nice try, but Wallace’s career-long behavior has been this ignorant, and therefore, using that logic, what? He’s been trying to win his release from Portland since the day he got there?
His pedigree (North Carolina, fourth overall pick, a Philly-born respect for basketball’s roots) belies his problems. Wallace’s volatility could, theoretically, be funneled in the proper direction. So far, playing ‘Angry Young Black Man’ has mostly added up to league records in technical fouls.

The Blazers now seem intent on getting their finances and their image in order. The recent trade of equally troubling Bonzi Wells to Memphis for guard Wesley Person, cash and a first-round draft pick was such a step. Person will be a free agent next summer, so the Blazers open up cap room and open up the nuthouse gates with the deal.
Can Rasheed Wallace be had in the same manner?

The Blazers could let Wallace walk when his contract expires next summer. But they’ll get nothing for him until then except continued headaches. If they swap him? Forget about reports that the Blazers must get a big man in return, or anything else in return. In the Portland public eye, trading him for someone with talent who also has a quality rep as a good person (Finley?) would be applauded. Period.
That same concept – perception, reputation – would be on the line if Dallas ever pulls the trigger on this deal. Nellie has been here before, with that really good Golden State team that, he finally decided, needed to roll the dice to get bigger and better. It didn’t work there. It didn’t work again in New York, when Nellie thought he could rescue Patrick Ewing’s career and instead discovered that he wasn’t really in charge of Ewing at all.

Nellie talks often of how much he enjoys coaching ‘these kids,’ the members of the Mavericks culture who don’t skip practices, don’t get arrested, don’t buck the system unnecessarily. Dallas fans have become spoiled by the good nature of this bunch. Having to deal elsewhere with headstrong, volatile, angry superstars has been Nellie’s undoing twice, and if the Mavs’ Bible-Belting public had to deal with Wallace (and too few major successes), it could be the franchise’s undoing.
You could sew Ewing and Webber together, ‘Stuck On You’ style, and it wouldn’t add up to the ugliness Rasheed Wallace brings.
Bottom line: Other players whisper about how Rasheed is loafing in games (17 points and seven rebounds a game are numbers he could achieve without even trying). He openly talks about the money ($17 mil this year, in his case) being the overriding issue in everything. And there is a story going around that when Wallace goofs up in a game, opposing players poke fun at him by suggesting -- to his face – that he’s high.
You want Rasheed Wallace? You take him