The wheeling-and-dealing continued in Dallas. This time the team traded Cedric Ceballos, Eric Murdock, John Wallace, and $3 million for Christian Laettner and Terry Mills. In a sign-and-trade deal, Mills had been first signed to a 3 year, $4.725 million contract, but only the first year (worth $1.4 million) is guaranteed. Laettner is in the final year of his contract and will earn $6,765,000 this year. Of note about this trade was that it disrupted a major 4 team trade that would have had the Lakers receiving Laettner, New York receiving Vin Baker and Glen Rice, Seattle receiving Patrick Ewing (and signing Maurice Taylor as a free agent), and Detroit receiving David Wingate, Vernon Maxwell, Greg Foster, Tyronn Lue, Vladimir Stepania, and John Celestand and draft picks. When word about this trade leaked, the Mavs got on the phone trying to convince Detroit that they were getting a bad deal and a bunch of spares and that the Mavs' offer of Ceballos, Murdock, and Wallace that they had made a few weeks before was much better for Detroit. Detroit eventually came to their senses. Both Laettner and Mills have had a serious injuries in the past few years. Laettner suffered a ruptured right Achilles tendon in September 1998. He played in only 16 games in the lockout shorten 98-99 season averaging a career low 7.6 points. His 12.2 points last season was the 2nd lowest in his career and his 6.7 rebounds last season was the 3rd lowest in his career, but he did play and start in all 82 games. Mills only played in 1 game in 98-99 due to knee injuries, but did play all 82 games last season. [I've included Laettner's and Mills' career and college stats at the end.] Laettner is a finesse big man whose natural position is power forward, but can play center - and with Dallas he will see lots of minutes at center. Laettner has a terrible reputation of being a problem child - not getting along well with teammates, causing problems in the locker room, gripping about not getting enough shots, etc. He definitely has talent, but he has an ego that exceeds it. Mills is a bulky forward who can also play center and has a soft touch and is very accurate from behind the arc. He is a role player (doesn't demand the limelight). The Mavs lose a good guy and positive locker room influence in Cedric Ceballos. We never heard any complaints from Ced with his fluctuating minutes. He was hit with 2 unfortunate injuries in his 3 years with Dallas, but showed his heart when he continued to play in the Denver game where he fractured both of his wrists - he played knowing his season was over and even shot a free throw with his off hand as it was too painful with his right hand and finished with 20 points and 13 rebounds (the injuries occurred at the end of the 1st quarter). However, his minutes with the team this year would have been severely limited. Most of the small forward minutes will go to Dirk Nowitzki and Michael Finley (with a number of the shooting guard minutes going to Courtney Alexander, Hubert Davis, and Greg Buckner in addition to Finley). Eric Murdock and John Wallace didn't have much of a role with the team. According to Nelson and Cuban, the Mavs roster is pretty set. The Mavs have Steve Nash, Howard Eisley, Dana Barros, Michael Finley, Courtney Alexander, Hubert Davis, Greg Buckner, Dirk Nowitzki, Donnell Harvey, Gary Trent, Etan Thomas, Eduardo Najera, Christian Laettner, Terry Mills, Shawn Bradley, and Bill Curley. The Mavs have said that they will try to trade Dana Barros and I really don't see Curley making the team. All of those players, except for Harvey, are under contract for this season. I still don't know why Harvey hasn't been signed yet. The excuses that have been briefly given (agent busy, working on the payment schedule) sound extremely flimsy. Because he hasn't signed yet, Harvey can still be traded (where as the other rookies can't until December). The Mavs also still have the $2.25 million exception available to use. My opinion of the trade: If it wasn't for Laettner's locker room history, I'd be all for this trade. But that is a _big_ "if". I do not like this trade. Laettner is a whinner and has caused problems with each of the 3 teams he has been with and the fans have been glad to see him go each time he left. It is foolish to think that he will be different with Dallas. As we saw with Rodman (but Laettner is no where near as bad as Rodman), chemistry does make a difference and Laettner is one who can disrupt good chemistry. In addition, Laettner is in the last year of his contract, so he will be playing for a new contract (somewhere). I don't see how he will be happy not getting starters minutes (I'd guess he'll average about 25 minutes, maybe 30 on the far outside) and being the 3rd or (more likely) 4th option on offense. I just don't see it working out. I'd love to be proven wrong, but I'm not optimistic. I like Mills, but I don't see where he fits in this team. The only thing I like about this trade is that it disrupted the LAL-Sea-NY-Det proposed trade. Quotes Don Nelson: "This is another piece to our puzzle. We felt that getting another big player was a priority this summer and we are pleased that Christian Laettner and Terry Mills are with the Mavericks. I expect Laettner to play two positions for us and they are both welcome additions to our team." Nelson on interfering with the NY-LAL-Sea-Det trade: "We got our greasy little hands in that big trade. Oh, we broke it up. No question." Nelson on the NY-LAL-Sea-Det trade: "That was as bad a trade as I've ever seen come down the pipe for Detroit. And we really liked Christian Laettner, so we started talking logic to them. We said, 'Why would you do a bad trade when you can do a good one?'" Nelson: "That earlier four-team deal would have been the worst trade we've ever seen for Detroit. They were an hour from putting that thing to bed, but we gave them a reason to take a second look. It was a lot of phone calls and a lot of hard work. But the bottom line is we got a couple of good players and Detroit made a much better deal than they would have." Nelson on getting Laettner and disrupting the NY-LAL-Sea-Det trade: "It's a coup because of two things. First of all, we got Laettner. And second, we messed up the big trade and kept Seattle from getting better and the Lakers from getting better." Nelson on any more moves: "I don't think you ever stop working, but we can definitely take a rest now. We have a team that we really like, and we have our problem areas identified and addressed. Something else would have to really knock our socks off for us to do it." Nelson: "I'm so excited I'm ready to come back to training camp right now. Man, we're going to have some fun this year." Mark Cuban: "We are excited to add Christian Laettner and Terry Mills to our team. Christian is a proven contributor who can bring rebounding, scoring and depth to our front court. Terry is a great 3-point shooter who will fit in nicely into Nellie's offense. Nellie and I are excited to have them both." Cuban on Laettner: "He'll get a lot of minutes and he'll get a lot of shots, just like Ced did. So we're ready for him to contribute, but not to be the focal point. Christian is the absolute student of the game. I think he'll really enjoy the sets that we run; they're not really complicated and they give everybody on the court a chance to excel." Lon Babby, Laettner's agent: "He's very, very excited about coming to Dallas and being part of what I think is clearly a revitalized franchise." patricia ---- Christian Laettner - ?? Position: Forward-Center Height: 6-11 Weight: 245 Birthday: August 17, 1969 Birthplace: Angola, New York High School: Nichols School (Buffalo, New York) College: Duke '92 1992 Minnesota draft pick, 1st round (#3) Acquired from Detroit with Terry Mills 8/29/00 for Cedric Ceballos, Eric Murdock, John Wallace, and $3 million Played 92-93 - 94-95 with Minnesota Played 95-96 with Minnesota and Atlanta Played 96-97 - 97-98 with Atlanta Played 98-99 - 99-00 with Detroit | Rebounds | Year GP-GS MIN AVG FGM-FGA PCT FTM-FTA PCT OFF DEF TOT AVG 92-93 81-81 2823 34.4 503-1061 0.474 462-553 0.835 171 537 708 8.7 93-94 70-67 2428 34.7 396-883 0.448 375-479 0.783 160 442 602 8.6 94-95 81-80 2770 34.2 450-920 0.489 409-500 0.818 164 449 613 7.6 95-96 74-71 2495 33.7 442-907 0.487 324-396 0.818 184 354 538 7.3 96-97 82-82 3140 38.3 548-1128 0.486 359-440 0.816 212 508 720 8.8 97-98 74-49 2282 30.8 354-730 0.485 306-354 0.864 142 345 487 6.6 98-99 16-0 337 21.1 38-106 0.358 44-57 0.772 21 33 54 3.4 99-00 82-82 2443 29.8 379-801 0.473 237-292 0.812 175 378 553 6.7 Total 560-512 18718 33.4 3110-6536 0.476 2516-3071 0.819 1229 3046 4275 7.6 Year AST AVG PF-D STL TO BLK PTS AVG HI 92-93 223 2.8 290-4 105 275 83 1472 18.2 35 93-94 307 4.4 264-6 87 259 86 1173 16.8 29 94-95 234 2.9 302-4 101 225 87 1322 16.3 26 95-96 197 2.7 276-7 71 187 71 1217 16.4 28 96-97 223 2.7 277-8 102 218 64 1486 18.1 37 97-98 190 2.6 246-6 71 183 73 1020 13.8 25 98-99 24 1.5 30-0 15 19 12 121 7.6 17 99-00 186 2.3 326-10 83 186 45 1002 12.2 28 Total 1584 2.8 2011-45 635 1552 521 8813 15.7 37 3-pointers: 92-93 4-40 0.100, 93-94 6-25 0.240, 94-95 13-40 0.325, 95-96 9-39 0.231, 96-97 31-88 0.352, 97-98 6-27 0.222, 98-99 1-3 0.333, 99-00 7-24 0.292, Total 77-286 0.269. Played 95-96 - 97-98 with Atlanta Played 98-99 - 99-00 with Detroit Playoffs | Rebounds | Year GP MIN AVG FGM-FGA PCT FTM-FTA PCT OFF DEF TOT AVG 95-96 10 334 33.4 59-122 0.484 38-54 0.704 27 54 81 8.1 96-97 10 403 40.3 62-153 0.405 48-56 0.857 19 53 72 7.2 97-98 4 87 21.8 12-35 0.343 15-17 0.882 3 14 17 4.2 98-99 5 123 24.6 20-47 0.426 11-14 0.786 6 8 14 2.8 99-00 3 75 25.0 7-17 0.412 6-8 0.750 2 13 15 5.0 Total 32 1022 31.9 160-374 0.428 118-149 0.792 57 142 199 6.2 Year AST AVG PF-D STL TO BLK PTS AVG HI 95-96 15 1.5 41-1 12 21 10 157 15.7 26 96-97 26 2.6 32-0 10 31 8 176 17.6 25 97-98 4 1.0 16-1 6 8 1 39 9.8 25 98-99 11 2.2 14-0 4 3 1 51 10.2 15 99-00 6 2.0 14-0 0 3 1 20 6.7 ?? Total 62 1.9 117-2 32 66 21 443 13.8 26 3-pointers: 95-96 1-3 0.333, 96-97 4-21 0.190, 97-98 0-3 0.000, 98-99 0-0 0.000, 99-00 0-0 0.000, Total 5-27 0.185. All Star Games | Rebounds | Year Site GP-GS MIN FGA-FGM PCT FTM-FTA PCT OFF DEF TOT 1997 Atl 1-0 24 3-5 0.600 1-1 1.000 4 7 11 Year AST PF-D STL TO BLK PTS 1997 2 4-0 1 2 1 7 Duke stats | Rebounds | Year GP-GS MIN AVG FGM-FGA PCT FTM-FTA PCT OFF DEF TOT AVG 88-89 36-16 607 16.9 115-159 0.723 88-121 0.727 58 112 170 4.7 89-90 38-38 1135 29.9 194-380 0.511 225-269 0.836 129 235 364 9.6 90-91 39-39 1178 30.2 271-471 0.575 211-263 0.802 102 238 340 8.7 91-92 35-35 1128 32.2 254-442 0.575 189-232 0.815 82 193 275 7.9 Total 148-128 4048 27.4 834-1452 0.574 713-885 0.806 371 778 1149 7.8 Year AST AVG PF STL TO BLK PTS AVG 88-89 44 1.2 104 35 58 28 319 8.9 89-90 84 2.2 120 59 101 41 619 16.3 90-91 76 1.9 111 75 121 44 771 19.8 91-92 69 2.0 90 74 116 32 751 21.5 Total 273 1.8 425 243 396 145 2460 16.6 3-pointers: 88-89 1-1 1.000, 89-90 6-12 0.500, 90-91 18-53 0.340, 91-92 54-97 0.557, Total 79-163 0.485. Terry Mills - ?? Position: Forward Height: 6-10 Weight: 250 Birthday: December 21, 1967 Birthplace: Romulus, Michigan High School: Romulus High School College: Michigan '90 1990 Milwaukee draft pick, 1st round (#16) Acquired from Detroit with Christian Laettner 8/29/00 for Cedric Ceballos, Eric Murdock, John Wallace, and $3 million Played 90-91 with Denver and New Jersey Played 91-92 with New Jersey Played 92-93 - 96-97 with Detroit Played 97-98 - 98-99 with Miami Played 99-00 with Detroit | Rebounds | Year GP-GS MIN AVG FGM-FGA PCT FTM-FTA PCT OFF DEF TOT AVG 90-91 55-2 819 14.9 134-288 0.465 47-66 0.712 82 147 229 4.2 91-92 82-24 1714 20.9 310-670 0.463 114-152 0.750 187 266 453 5.5 92-93 81-46 2183 27.0 494-1072 0.461 201-254 0.791 176 296 472 5.8 93-94 80-74 2773 34.7 588-1151 0.511 181-227 0.797 193 479 672 8.4 94-95 72-69 2514 34.9 417-933 0.447 175-219 0.799 124 434 558 7.8 95-96 82-5 1656 20.2 283-675 0.419 121-157 0.771 108 244 352 4.3 96-97 79-5 1997 25.3 312-702 0.444 58-70 0.829 68 309 377 4.8 97-98 50-0 782 15.6 81-206 0.393 25-33 0.758 34 118 152 3.0 98-99 1-0 29 29.0 3-8 0.375 1-2 0.500 3 1 4 4.0 99-00 82-78 1842 22.5 214-488 0.439 25-34 0.735 50 340 390 4.8 Total 664-303 16309 24.6 2836-6193 0.458 948-1214 0.781 1025 2634 3659 5.5 Year AST AVG PF-D STL TO BLK PTS AVG HI 90-91 33 0.6 100-0 35 43 29 315 5.7 20 91-92 84 1.0 200-3 48 82 41 742 9.0 25 92-93 111 1.4 282-6 44 142 50 1199 14.8 41 93-94 177 2.2 309-6 64 153 62 1381 17.3 35 94-95 160 2.2 253-5 68 144 33 1118 15.5 37 95-96 98 1.2 197-0 42 98 20 769 9.4 24 96-97 99 1.3 161-1 35 85 27 857 10.8 29 97-98 39 0.8 129-1 19 45 9 212 4.2 20 98-99 0 0.0 3-0 1 3 0 9 9.0 9 99-00 85 1.0 242-4 38 46 24 548 6.7 24 Total 886 1.3 1876-26 394 841 295 7150 10.8 41 3-pointers: 90-91 0-4 0.000, 91-92 8-23 0.348, 92-93 10-36 0.278, 93-94 24-73 0.329, 94-95 109-285 0.382, 95-96 82-207 0.396, 96-97 175-415 0.422, 97-98 25-81 0.309, 98-99 2-4 0.500, 99-00 95-242 0.393, Total 530-1370 0.387. Played 91-92 with New Jersey Played 95-96 - 96-97 with Detroit Played 97-98 with Miami Played 99-00 with Detroit Playoffs | Rebounds | Year GP MIN AVG FGM-FGA PCT FTM-FTA PCT OFF DEF TOT AVG 91-92 4 77 19.2 10-27 0.370 7-11 0.636 9 15 24 6.0 95-96 3 48 16.0 5-20 0.250 5-6 0.833 3 2 5 1.7 96-97 5 196 39.2 24-55 0.436 2-4 0.500 4 31 35 7.0 97-98 2 11 5.5 1-5 0.200 1-2 0.500 0 3 3 1.5 99-00 3 120 40.0 9-15 0.600 1-2 0.500 0 6 6 2.0 Total 17 452 26.6 49-122 0.402 16-25 0.640 16 57 73 4.3 Year AST AVG PF-D STL TO BLK PTS AVG HI 91-92 8 2.0 18-0 1 7 2 27 6.8 10 95-96 4 1.3 6-0 1 1 0 16 5.3 10 96-97 7 1.4 14-0 6 4 0 59 11.8 17 97-98 0 0.0 3-0 0 0 0 4 2.0 4 99-00 1 0.3 12-1 2 2 0 25 8.3 ?? Total 20 1.2 53-1 10 14 2 131 7.7 17 3-pointers: 91-92 0-1 0.000, 95-96 1-8 0.125, 96-97 9-26 0.346, 97-98 1-4 0.250, 99-00 6-9 0.667, Total 17-48 0.354. Michigan stats Year GP-GS MIN AVG FGM-FGA PCT FTM-FTA PCT TOT AVG 87-88 34-33 884 26.0 181-341 0.531 51-70 0.729 216 6.4 88-89 37-37 999 27.0 180-319 0.564 70-91 0.769 218 5.9 89-90 31-31 961 31.0 237-405 0.585 88-116 0.759 247 8.0 Total 102-101 2844 27.9 598-1065 0.562 209-277 0.755 681 6.7 Year AST AVG PF-D STL TO BLK PTS AVG 87-88 56 1.6 90-1 21 67 35 413 12.1 88-89 104 2.8 95-3 20 77 49 430 11.6 89-90 68 2.2 81-5 37 75 27 562 18.1 Total 228 2.2 266-9 78 219 111 1405 13.8 3-pointers: 87-88 0-2 0.000, 88-89 0-2 0.000, 89-90 0-0 0.000, Total 0-4 0.000.