Nelson benching veterans: Mavs could trade for Maggette and Jackson in summer 2009 - Dallas-Mavs.com Forums

eyedentifyme · 03-03-2009, 06:36 PM

Jamal Crawford Benched as Don Nelson Plans for the Future

Posted Feb 27th 2009 6:40PM by Matt Watson (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Warriors

Jamal Crawford will be a spectator tonight, watching from the bench as the Warriors host the Bobcats. Is he injured? Not at all. Suspended? Hardly. Instead, he's the victim one of Don Nelson's whims.

Despite the fact that Golden State's backcourt is already short-handed -- Monta Ellis (ankle) has already missed one game and will likely miss several more -- Nelson decided that tonight is a good time to begin randomly benching veterans in order to give younger players more playing time. C.J. Watson is expected to start, and Anthony Morrow and Marco Bellinelli should see a few more minutes, as well.

In addition to missing Ellis, the team is still without Brandon Wright (shoulder) and practiced without both Stephen Jackson, who had emergency dental work on Thursday, and Corey Maggette, who received treatment for a sprained hand. If Nelson is serious about winning, it just doesn't make sense to pick this game to sit Crawford, the team's third-leading scorer at 19.0 points per game.

Call me a cynic, but the timing makes me wonder if Nelson is already looking ahead to the lottery. The Warriors (20-37) aren't a very good team, but even without Ellis they'd certainly have a fighting chance to beat the lowly Bobcats (23-35), right? Rather than risk that, it seems like Nelson figured he may as well shoot his team's chances to win in the foot right now.

Also interesting: Crawford can has the option of walking away from the final two years of his contract at the end of the season. Is Nelson jerking him around in hopes of convincing him to leave to create some cap space? It's a possibility, although it's worth mentioning that other veterans will be getting the same treatment in the near future -- Matt Steinmetz of Examiner.com reports Stephen Jackson will sit on Sunday against the Jazz followed by Andris Biedrins a week from today in Pistons.

ghazi · 03-03-2009, 06:43 PM

Not a big fan of either to be honest.

Can we get some DIFFERENCE makers up in here? Maggette and Jackson to me are not true difference makers.

TheMaverick · 03-03-2009, 07:03 PM

why is the thread title in all caps?

eyedentifyme · 03-03-2009, 07:16 PM

Sorry I must have had my caps lock button on.

SMC0007 · 03-03-2009, 09:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ghazi

Not a big fan of either to be honest.

Can we get some DIFFERENCE makers up in here? Maggette and Jackson to me are not true difference makers.

Crazy talk man... Jax is a big difference maker!

21.1ppg

5rpg

6.4APG

Solid defender. He has heart and fire probably more than anyone on our team. Has the balls to take the last shot and wants the last shot too. More than can be said for JHO. I would love to have him here.

eyedentifyme · 03-04-2009, 03:57 AM

We should trade JHo and Stack for Maggette and Jackson. We re-sign Kidd. We give Rasheed Wallace our full MLE. We also should try to sign Ron Artest, even though I know we can't since we used the MLE on Sheed.

sphincs · 03-04-2009, 08:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eyedentifyme

We should trade JHo and Stack for Maggette and Jackson. We re-sign Kidd. We give Rasheed Wallace our full MLE. We also should try to sign Ron Artest, even though I know we can't since we used the MLE on Sheed.

Oh I'd like to see this situation...with Jackson we could have a good defender (as well as Artest) and with Sheed we could have a great player under the basket finally! But I think that Sheed would sign with a contender team better than us

spreedom · 03-04-2009, 09:54 AM

Sheed hardly even plays under the basket anymore. He's starting to mail it in and fade away (literally on the latter)... I don't think he's worth close to the MLE anymore.

dalmations202 · 03-04-2009, 10:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spreedom

Sheed hardly even plays under the basket anymore. He's starting to mail it in and fade away (literally on the latter)... I don't think he's worth close to the MLE anymore.

Sheed is the perfect 5 for this team, IF, you put a player like Diaw, or AK47 at the SF position. A player that likes to play inside. Sheed can go inside, but he isn't an inside player. He is Dirk with major attitude and less ability.

With that said, if Dallas can get a SF that loves to post up, then they could make Sheed a great player, IMO.

Getting Jackson for the SG, Diaw/AK47 for the SF, and Sheed for the C position along with Kidd, Terry, and Dirk would be a very interesting lineup.

TheMaverick · 03-04-2009, 10:17 AM

Sheed would be perfect for Dirk because of his demeanor on the court and the way he plays defense.

Underdog · 03-04-2009, 10:24 AM

One big downside about 'Sheed: this team doesn't need LESS respect from the refs...

TheMaverick · 03-04-2009, 11:23 AM

The refs actually respect Sheed a lot. Many of the techs, he's literally asking to be T'ed up.

antoinewalker · 03-04-2009, 11:46 AM

stephen jackson would give us the toughness that we need.

Windmill360 · 03-12-2009, 11:40 AM

Quote:

Nelson To Crawford: ''Opt Out Or We'll Move You''

March 12, 2009 5:53 AM EST

Don Nelson spoke to the San Francisco Chronicle about his conversation with guard Jamal Crawford regarding opting out of his contract at the end of the season.

"I've always been very open and honest with my players and I did tell him he probably would either opt out or we would move him next year," Nelson said Wednesday, two days after refusing to go into specifics.

"That's a fact and I just don't see that that's going to work. I'm loaded in the backcourt. If I'm going to move (Stephen) Jackson into the backcourt now, I'm really overloaded. I think he's too good a player to be a 10- or 15-minute player, as a backup player."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...d=rss.warriors

fluid.forty.one · 03-12-2009, 12:31 PM

I'd take either of the players in a heartbeat.

sphincs · 03-12-2009, 04:22 PM

According to realgm.com, Don Nelson would have told Crawford to opt out this summer otherwise he will be traded!
Concerning Don Nelson, Crawford is a good player but is a back up of Jackson

spreedom · 03-12-2009, 05:14 PM

I'd like Crawford most out of the three.. he might be a bit of a chucker, but he also plays hard and seems tailor made for a role as a second option. I'd trade Josh straight up for any of those three without thinking twice. On paper, Josh is better than all of them, but he has no heart and is ABSOLUTELY overrated as a defensive player nowadays -- those three guys all play with a lot of heart (albeit Jackson only when his team is winning). Sure, it might mortgage our opportunity to add a huge FA in '10, but I'm not sold that we're serious contenders for any of the max-level players out there. '09 will be a buyers' market and I think we should take full advantage of it.

I don't know who thinks AK47 is an inside player, but that person is nuts.

sphincs · 03-12-2009, 06:05 PM

according to me, Crowford is a back up of Terry...so we shouldn't trade for him

TheMaverick · 03-12-2009, 06:16 PM

Would you guys do Crawford/Jackson for Terry/Howard.

That's a tough one.

frankvizza · 03-12-2009, 07:02 PM

Would you guys do Crawford/Jackson for Terry/Howard.

That's a tough one.

are you on drugs?? lets also give them dirk while we are so generous

TheMaverick · 03-13-2009, 01:27 AM

So you think Terry/Howard is clearly better than Crawford/Jackson?

BGMaverick9 · 03-13-2009, 01:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheMaverick

So you think Terry/Howard is clearly better than Crawford/Jackson?

Jackson is better than Howard, IMO.
Crawford being better than Jet...? I don't know a LOT about Crawford. I do know he can score, but Jet seems a lot more efficient and brings raw energy that the crowd feeds off of.

So half of the trade sounds really great, the other half doesn't sound that thrilling.
I'd like to think we could get something for Josh alone and still keep Jet.

Thespiralgoeson · 03-13-2009, 04:04 AM

I'd prefer we get guys under 30, but I'd still love to get either of them on this team. I've always thought Jackson was one of the more underrated players in the league. For the life of me, I never could figure out why the Spurs didn't hang on to him, but they did manage to win two more titles without him, so I guess they don't regret it too much.

Between the two of them though, I'd rather get Maggette. The guy is really one of the best athletes at his position, and that's saying quite a bit.

sphincs · 03-13-2009, 05:46 AM

Jackson is better than Howard overall in defense.
But as this summer Artest will become free agent, why don't we try to sign him? He is a wonderfull defensor with a great physical force and he is also a good player in attack shooting also from 3-point line.

TheMaverick · 03-13-2009, 12:39 PM

Imagine if we traded Howard for Jackson or Maggette then signed Artest to the full MLE.

*drool.