The owners passed out a ton of promotions last week. The biggest, of course, was the splitting of the GM job between two people. Keith Grant was promoted from Director of Player Personnel to Vice President of Basketball Operations and Jim Livingston was promoted from Chief Financial Officer to Vice President of Business Operations. Frank Zaccanelli, who had been the interim GM, returns to his old job in Perot's company and will now focus on the new arena situation. The owners also promoted Steve Letson to Vice President of Operations, Kevin Sullivan to Vice President of Communications, Ron Ekker to Director of Scouting, George Killebrew to Director of Corporate Sales, Tom Kelly to Chief Financial Officer, Randy Patrick to Director of Reunion Production Company (RPC), Tony Fay to Manager of Media Services, Tom Ward to RPC Senior Producer, Jill Henderson to Coordinating TV Producer, and Olivia Phillips to Community Development Coordinator. The Mavs signed Chris Gatling to a 5 year, $21.3 million contract. He will earn $3.047 million this season (that is less than any of the 3 Js). To have that money to sign Gatling, the Mavs renounced their rights to all their free agents - Lucious Harris, Lorenzo Williams, Scott Brooks, and David Wood. The Mavs now have no free money under the cap. Gatling: "Dallas was my first choice and now it's my only choice. What I bring to the team is aggressiveness and I never quit. I'm a high energy player who works hard every day. I give 110 percent in practice and in games." Keith Grant: "We're looking to get better and Chris Gatling should improve our flexibility. We went into the summer wanting to improve our center and power forward positions and the additions of Eric Montross, Samaki Walker and Chris Gatling accomplish that. Hopefully, these moves will translate into wins." Grant: "His energy and his versatility are obviously something that makes him attractive. Since before the draft, we've been looking for ways to improve our team. We've been busy. We'll continue to be busy." Apparently being busy includes the trading of Popeye Jones. The Dallas Morning News reports that the Mavs are working on a trade to send Popeye to Milwaukee for a 1st round draft pick. The pick is rumoredly for 1997 and they are working on what sort of protections will be placed on the pick. If the Mavs trade Popeye, it will open up $1.6 million to go after a free agent. I really, really, really hate the idea of trading Popeye, but it does make sense. The Mavs are currently top heavy with Eric Montross, Loren Meyer, Chris Gatling, Samaki Walker, Terry Davis, and Popeye to play the power forward and center positions. The team has been completely unsuccessful in trying to find a team to take Terry and his large contract off our hands, so it looks like he'll still be here. Since we are paying a lot of money to Gatling, you've got to play him and you have to give Walker some minutes to develop, so Popeye is unfortunately the odd man out. If Popeye is traded, the money will most likely go towards signing a guard. With the renouncing of Harris and Brooks, the Mavs currently only have Kidd, Jackson, and Dumas under contract and 2nd round draft pick Sean Harvey for guards. The team is making a strong bid for Derek Harper and have offered him a 2 year contract. They are offering less than other teams are (such as Charlotte and Detroit), but are pulling Harper's strings for the intangibles - Derek still has a home in Dallas and #12 will be eventually retired by the Mavs. Harper: "I'm not basing my decision on money. I'm at a stage where I don't have to worry about money. I'm going to base it on what I want to do, and where my family wants to live, what's going to make us the happiest." "What good is it to gain the world and lose your soul? You have to go with your soul." He hasn't made a decision yet, but it sounds like Harp is coming back to Dallas. Sigh, my current favorite Mav to be traded and one of my all-time favorite Mavs to return. My emotions are torn. For those who lost track, here is the current roster (only the rookies are not under contract): Dallas Mavericks No. Player Pos Ht Wt B-day College Exp 00 Eric Montross ......... C 7-0 270 9/23/71 North Carolina'94 2 5 Jason Kidd ............ G 6-4 208 3/23/73 California'96 2 7 Tony Dumas ............ G 6-6 190 8/25/72 Missouri-KC'94 2 15? Chris Gatling ......... F-C 6-10 230 9/3/67 Old Dominion'91 5 21 George McCloud ........ F-G 6-8 225 5/27/67 Florida State'89 6 24 Jim Jackson ........... G 6-6 215 10/14/70 Ohio State'93 4 32 Jamal Mashburn ........ F 6-8 250 11/29/72 Kentucky'94 3 40 Loren Meyer ........... C 6-10 260 12/30/72 Iowa State'95 1 43 Terry Davis ........... F-C 6-10 250 6/17/67 Virginia Union'89 7 52 Samaki Walker ......... F 6-9 240 2/25/76 Louisville'98 R-1 54 Popeye Jones .......... F 6-8 265 6/17/70 Murray State'92 3 ?? Shawn Harvey .......... G 6-4 180 12/31/73 West Virgina State'96 R-2 ?? Darnell Robinson ...... C 6-11 270 5/30/74 Arkansas'97 R-2 Head Coach: Jim Cleamons (Ohio State'71) Assistants: Butch Beard (Louisville'69) Bob Salmi (Florida Southern'84) Trainer: Doug Atkinson (UTEP'72) Gatling's stats (thanks to Jazzy J for the college stats) Chris Gatling - 15? Position: Forward-Center Height: 6-10 Weight: 230 Birthday: 9/3/67 Birthplace: Elizabeth, New Jersey High School: Elizabeth College: Old Dominion '91 1991 draft pick by Golden State, 1st round (#16) Free agent signee 7/16/96, signed a 5 year, $21,230,000 contract Played 91-92 - 94-95 with Golden State Played 95-96 with Golden State and Miami | Rebounds | Year GP-GS MIN AVG FGA-FGM PCT FTM-FTA PCT OFF DEF TOT AVG 91-92 54-? 612 11.3 117-206 0.568 72-109 0.661 75 107 182 3.4 92-93 70-? 1248 17.8 249-462 0.539 150-207 0.725 129 191 320 4.6 93-94 82-? 1296 15.8 271-461 0.588 129-208 0.620 143 254 397 4.8 94-95 58-? 1470 25.3 324-512 0.633 148-250 0.592 144 299 443 7.6 95-96 71-2 1427 20.1 326-567 0.575 139-207 0.671 129 288 417 5.9 Total 335-? 6053 18.1 1287-2208 0.583 638-981 0.650 620 1139 1759 6.2 Year AST PF-D STL TO BLK PTS AVG HI 91-92 16 101-0 31 44 36 306 5.7 ? 92-93 40 197-2 44 102 53 648 9.3 ? 93-94 41 223-5 40 84 63 671 8.2 ? 94-95 51 184-4 39 117 52 796 13.7 29 95-96 43 217-0 36 95 40 791 11.1 24 Total 191 922-11 190 442 244 3212 9.6 29 3-pointers: 91-92 0-4 0.000, 92-93 0-6 0.000, 93-94 0-1 0.000, 94-95 0-1 0.000, 95-96 0-1 0.000, Total 0-13 0.000. Played 91-92 and 93-94 with Golden State Playoffs | Rebounds | Year GP-GS MIN AVG FGA-FGM PCT FTM-FTA PCT OFF DEF TOT AVG 91-92 4-0 81 20.2 18-29 0.621 14-22 0.636 9 16 25 6.2 93-94 3-0 54 18.0 8-13 0.615 10-13 0.769 7 10 17 5.7 Total 7-0 135 19.3 26-42 0.619 24-35 0.686 16 26 42 6.0 Year AST PF-D STL TO BLK PTS AVG HI 91-92 0 14-0 2 1 10 50 12.5 93-94 4 10-0 2 2 1 26 8.7 Total 4 24-0 4 3 11 76 10.9 16 3-pointers: 91-92 0-0 0.000, 93-94 0-0 0.000, Total 0-0 0.000. Old Dominion stats Year GP MIN AVG FGA-FGM PCT FTM-FTA PCT REB AVG 87-88 27 839 31.1 239-388 0.616 126-179 0.704 244 9.0 88-89 26 822 31.6 207-357 0.580 120-179 0.670 259 10.0 90-91 32 1002 31.3 251-405 0.620 171-247 0.692 356 11.1 Total 85 2663 31.3 697-1150 0.606 417-605 0.689 859 10.1 Year AST PF STL TO BLK PTS AVG 87-88 24 88 37 78 61 604 22.4 88-89 25 91 48 76 49 534 20.5 90-91 26 103 62 90 85 673 21.0 Total 75 282 147 244 195 1811 21.3 3-pointers: 88-89 0-0 0.000, 89-90 0-0 0.000, 90-91 0-1 0.000, Total 0-1 0.000. patricia