The Mavs were involved in a complicated 4 team and 9 player trade. Not only were they involved in it, but they initiated it. Not only did they initiate it, they pushed it through and worked through all the snags that came up trying to make it work. And put aside the "they", this was Mark Cuban's trade. The Mavs had reached an agreement to sign free agent Howard Eisley to the $2.25 million exception (a 2 year contract with a player option (highly likely to be used) after the 1st year), but Cuban decided he wanted Eisley signed to a longer contract and at a higher value. So this trade was worked out. The key elements for the trade were Eisley, Donyell Marshall, and Danny Fortson. To complicate things further, 4 of the players involved were free agents and needed to be re-signed first (as a sign-and-trade) to make the deal work. The teams involved: Dallas, Utah, Boston, Golden State The sign-and-tradees Utah re-signed Howard Eisley to a 7 year, $41 million contract ($4.25 million for 2000-01) with a team opt-out after the 6th year. Boston re-signed Danny Fortson to a 7 year, $38 million contract with a player opt-out after the 5th year. Dallas re-signed Bruno Sundov to a 3 year, minimum contract. Only the 1st year is guaranteed. If Sundov is on Utah's roster for opening day (October 31), the last 2 years become guaranteed. Golden State re-signed Bill Curley. [Haven't seen numbers or years, but the 1st year is guaranteed and it is likely minimum.] The trade Dallas Traded away: Robert Pack, John Williams, Bruno Sundov, over $4 million Received: Howard Eisley, Bill Curley, Dana Barros Utah Traded away: Howard Eisley, Adam Keefe, conditional 2001 1st round draft pick Received: Donyell Marshall, Bruno Sundov, over $1 million Boston Traded away: Danny Fortson, Dana Barros Received: Robert Pack, John Williams, $3 million [basically to pay for the injured Williams' salary], conditional 2001 1st round draft pick Golden State Traded away: Donyell Marshall, Bill Curley Received: Danny Fortson, Adam Keefe As part of the trade, Dallas and Boston agreed to wave physicals [traded players have to pass physicals before trades become official]. John Williams has a back injury and his NBA career is likely over and Dana Barros says he has an injured back that is causing numbness in his left leg. Neither are likely to be on their team's roster by at the start of the season - though Barros may, but he'll have to earn a spot. Barros may also be traded in the next few weeks if some team wants him. I've included Eisley's career stats at the end. I'm not including Barros' or Curley's stats as I don't think they'll be here long. My opinions: When I heard that the Mavs were going to sign Eisley at the $2.25 million exception, I though it was great and that the Mavs were getting a bargain. However, I wasn't too thrilled at a 7 year, $41 million (or 6 year, $33.5 million) contract. It seemed quite a big and long term contract to commit to a player that has been a backup his entire NBA career, even though he was backing up the great John Stockton [hmmm, sounds a heck of a lot like the extension Dallas gave to Steve Nash]. [And I'm not a believer in the per minute hype.] On the other hand, this trade did great things for the Mavs' reputation. Just look at the quotes from Rick Pitino and Danny Fortson's agent below. The Mavs' image as to how the team treats players has gone up. The concept of a team actually going out and getting a player a better deal is mindblowing and the impression such a move has on other players and agents may be worth over-paying Eisley and giving him such a long contract. The loss of Pack, Williams, and Sundov doesn't affect the team - none of them were going to be on the team next season. I don't think Curley or Barros will be here either. The addition of Eisley does give the Mavs two solid point guards (but no star) and they'll likely split the point minutes evenly. This was a need for Dallas. Only having Nash and Eric Murdock as true point guards was concerning. Having Eisley signed to a multi-year contract does affect the amount of money the Mavs will have available next summer, but the Mavs had already said that they had changed their outlook due to the lack of big names in next summer's free agents and were no longer targeting a big splash free agent signing for next summer. Quotes Howard Eisley: "The perception has changed about the Mavericks. Before, you used to look at Dallas and know you were going to get a win. Now that has changed. Utah was great for me. I couldn't have asked for a better team to learn from. Now I'm ready to move forward and test the waters a little bit." Eisley on he and Nash competing for point guard minutes: "We're both going to push each other, and it's going to help make both of us better players. No one has guaranteed me anything. I come here to help this team. If I start, great. If not, that's great, too." Mark Cuban on Eisley: "Howard brings playoff experience, Finals experience. We saw what he did in the playoffs last year, single-handedly trying to take over games. He's the type of player that we want. He's the type of player the franchise hasn't had in a long time." Cuban on Nash's position with the team: "He is safe. I want depth and competition. We have had so many injuries over the past years, I want to get better and play it safe." Cuban: "The idea is not [to build] the team with the fewest players or the team with the optimal salary construction. It's the team with the best players that wins." Cuban: "I just want to have them compete and pick the best 12-15 guys. If it means someone ends up getting cut that we have a guaranteed contract with, that's okay. I'd rather face the risk of having to pay a guy that we have to release than not having enough guys." Cuban: "The more guys I have, the more opportunity I have to consolidate guys to do deals. If I only had 12 or so guys, and I liked those guys, I couldn't do a deal." Cuban on working the deal, wanting to get Eisley signed to a larger and longer contract than the $2.25 million exception: "So I called up Kevin O'Connor at Utah and asked if there was a player he was looking for. He gave me Donyell's name. I called Saint [Jean at Golden State] and asked him if there was a player he wanted, and of course he said Danny. We then went to Chris Wallace of the Celts and the Mavs had something he wanted. So I put together a little spreadsheet that does all the cap analysis, and lo and behold, there was a way to get there from here." Cuban on making the trade come to be: "I built a little Excel spreadsheet and I starting plugging in players and calling different teams saying, 'This fits and that fits, this works and this works. I heard that you were looking for this guy and you were looking for this guy.' And all the pieces fell into place." Cuban on the possibility of moving Barros: "I'm working with Frank [Catapano, Barros' agent] to see if there's a better opportunity for Dana. If not, then may the best player win." Don Nelson: "Hopefully we're not done yet [with the summer moves]. We'd like to do a little more. We still have a $2.25 million exception. There's sure a possibility we're going to continue to make deals." Nelson: "We are still working. It's not over yet. Not yet." Rick Pitino: "Dana Barros is the consummate pro, great guy, but the flip side is Dana Barros is coming into the last year of his contract. If he sticks on with Dallas, there's no finer place to be and to become a wealthy young man. If he plays well for them, Mark Cuban is someone who rewards his athletes very well." Raymond Brothers, Danny Fortson's agent: "You know who the NBA rookie of the year is? Mark Cuban. Mark Cuban is a phenomenal person and owner. He knows how to get things done." Kevin O'Connor [Utah] on Sundov: "We're going to do what's best for Bruno, because that's what I promised his agent. We're going to sit down in the next week or two and talk, and evaluate what's good for him. You never know. There may be something else on the move." Note: Earthlink/Mindsprings is closing all Netcom shell accounts, so please don't mail to patricia@netcom.com anymore [after 7 years of having that account ]. patricia Howard Eisley - 6? Position: Guard Height: 6-2 Weight: 180 Birthday: December 4, 1972 Birthplace: Detroit, Michigan High School: Southwestern High School (Detroit, Michigan) College: Boston College '94 1994 Minnesota draft pick, 2nd round (#30) Acquired from Utah 8/16/00 as part of a complex 4 team trade that had Dallas trading away Robert Pack, Bruno Sundov, John Williams, and $3 million Played 94-95 with Minnesota and San Antonio Played 95-96 - 99-00 with Utah | Rebounds | Year GP-GS MIN AVG FGM-FGA PCT FTM-FTA PCT OFF DEF TOT AVG 94-95 49-4 552 11.3 40-122 0.328 31-40 0.775 12 36 48 1.0 95-96 65-0 961 14.8 104-242 0.430 65-77 0.844 22 56 78 1.2 96-97 82-0 1083 13.2 139-308 0.451 70-89 0.787 20 64 84 1.0 97-98 82-18 1726 21.0 229-519 0.441 127-149 0.852 25 141 166 2.0 98-99 50-0 1038 20.8 140-314 0.446 67-80 0.837 12 82 94 1.9 99-00 82-5 2096 25.6 282-675 0.418 84-102 0.824 23 147 170 2.1 Total 410-27 7456 18.2 934-2180 0.428 444-537 0.827 114 526 640 1.6 Year AST AVG PF-D STL TO BLK PTS AVG HI 94-95 95 1.9 81-0 18 50 6 120 2.4 15 95-96 146 2.2 130-0 29 77 3 287 4.4 14 96-97 198 2.4 141-0 44 110 10 368 4.5 14 97-98 346 4.2 182-3 54 160 13 633 7.7 22 98-99 185 3.7 122-0 30 109 2 368 7.4 17 99-00 347 4.2 223-2 59 132 9 708 8.6 23 Total 1317 3.2 879-5 234 638 43 2484 6.1 23 3-pointers: 94-95 9-37 0.243, 95-96 14-62 0.226, 96-97 20-72 0.278, 97-98 48-118 0.407, 98-99 21-50 0.420, 99-00 60-163 0.368, Total 172-502 0.343. Playoffs Played 95-96 - 99-00 with Utah | Rebounds | Year GP-GS MIN AVG FGM-FGA PCT FTM-FTA PCT OFF DEF TOT AVG 95-96 18-0 202 11.2 16-42 0.381 18-22 0.818 4 18 22 1.2 96-97 20-0 217 10.9 38-76 0.500 27-28 0.964 4 14 18 0.9 97-98 20-0 366 18.3 46-125 0.368 12-13 0.923 4 36 40 2.0 98-99 11-0 241 21.9 26-71 0.366 24-29 0.828 3 17 20 1.8 99-00 10-0 200 20.0 17-55 0.309 8-9 0.889 1 17 18 1.8 Total 79-0 1226 15.5 143-369 0.388 89-101 0.881 16 102 118 1.5 Year AST AVG PF-D STL TO BLK PTS AVG HI 95-96 44 2.4 29-0 3 11 2 53 2.9 14 96-97 40 2.0 27-1 3 17 0 112 5.6 10 97-98 81 4.1 42-0 12 31 5 112 5.6 14 98-99 32 2.9 27-0 7 20 3 81 7.4 21 99-00 19 1.9 24-0 6 13 1 51 5.1 15 Total 216 2.7 149-1 31 92 11 409 5.2 21 3-pointers: 95-96 3-9 0.333, 96-97 9-19 0.474, 97-98 8-27 0.296, 98-99 5-24 0.208, 99-00 9-19 0.474, Total 34-98 0.347. Boston College stats | Rebounds | Year GP-GS MIN AVG FGM-FGA PCT FTM-FTA PCT OFF DEF TOT AVG 90-91 30-30 1011 33.7 95-264 0.360 81-108 0.750 11 68 79 2.6 91-92 31-31 1071 34.5 118-242 0.488 88-118 0.746 18 93 111 3.6 92-93 31-31 1162 37.5 131-296 0.443 121-145 0.834 22 85 107 3.5 93-94 34-34 1203 35.4 529-1191 0.444 373-476 0.784 16 100 116 3.4 Total 126-126 4447 35.3 873-1993 0.438 663-847 0.783 67 346 413 3.3 Year AST AVG PF-D STL TO BLK PTS AVG 90-91 100 3.3 83-6 46 84 6 297 9.9 91-92 135 4.4 99-5 61 102 3 361 11.6 92-93 153 4.9 83-2 37 94 5 426 13.7 93-94 156 4.6 93-2 51 86 2 544 16.0 Total 544 4.3 358-15 195 366 16 1628 12.9 3-pointers: 90-91 26-74 0.351, 91-92 37-75 0.493, 92-93 43-104 0.413, 93-94 91-188 0.484, Total 197-441 0.447.