Remember all the talk about the Mavs being better off without Nash? Well...
Obviously we have seen Dirk improve his game in the two years since Cuban's embarrassing miscalculation that the Suns could only offer him $8MM per year and his decision not to match that was driven by personal grudge in lieu of basketball sense.
Equally obviously, we have seen Nash mature just as much if not more so.
We are left to consider a Mavericks team that won 60 games, went to the Western Conference Finals, and gave the all-universe Spurs everything they wanted and then some before Dirk went down with injury--a team that was on the rise, that had steadily improved each and every season, and that contained two All-NBA players, two MVP candidates, whose games were just beginning to reach the next level.
Whoever wins the MVP this year, if it's either Dirk or Nash, the sheer folly of that decision will be underlined--in a big, fat red marker. If Nash wins it, the Mavericks will have decided against a two-time MVP on the basis of a couple million bucks a year and the idea that Nash was getting ready to more injury prone than Devin Harris.
If Dirk wins it, then we are reminded that the '03 team, that team stuck on a steady ascent, comprised not one but two MVPs! Teams don't typically break up such combos.
But then again, something can be salvaged if the Mavs can win a championship this year.
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