The Mavs signed Oliver Miller to a 1 year, league minimum contract.
Miller averaged 12.9 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks in 33.1 minutes.
Despite problems Miller has had in the past (most notably with his
weight), this is a good pick up for the Mavs.  Since he was signed to a 
minimum contract, he will be playing for next season - how he performs
this season will determine how much money he'll be offered as a free agent
next year.  He really wants to play here.  He had the opportunity to play
for Chicago (for league minimum) or earn more money playing for Orlando,
Utah, or the LA Clippers, but wanted to play for his home team and likes
Jim Cleamons.  In addition, he is only 26 years old.  If he can keep his 
weight under control he can easily set team records in shot blocking and 
be a strong part of the team's future.  If not, we didn't have to give up 
anything to get him and have not committed a lot of money in him.

The surprise announcement from yesterday was that Keith Grant resigned as
vice president of basketball operations a mere 3 months after he was
promoted.  Grant had been with the team since 1980 and had worked his way
up from his original job of equipment manager.  His resignation was a
shock to me.  In his press release (I haven't heard an interview with him
yet), he cited burnout for his reason for resigning.

Grant: "What's been accomplished with the Mavericks in the last four 
months is really incredible, but the pace we've been operating at has 
placed a strain on my personal life.  There is an element of burnout 
involved in the decision."

Minority owner Frank Zaccanelli will be the interim GM and take over
Grant's duties while a new GM is found.  Zaccanelli insists that he does
not want the job permanently.

As expected with such a surprise announcement, there has been a lot of
speculation as to what the "real" reason for the resignation was.  
Zaccanelli said that Grant is a perfectionist and that when things did not
work out the way he wanted them to (such as the Meyer non-trade) it would
bother him greatly.  [I recall after the Mavs' draft when the Mavs' first
choice was twice selected right before the Mavs' pick (Lorenzen Wright and
Moochie Norris) that Grant looked very disappointed (others described him
as devastated) even though the Mavs still got good players.]  Other
unnamed sources are saying that Grant was bothered by the lack of strong
power he was given, that Zaccanelli had to sign off on everything, and
that some of his opinions and recommendations were being ignored.  Those
people are also saying that Grant was not in support of the signing of 
Miller.

Based on what I've heard, I'd say that this was definitely not a force
out.  It was Grant's decision to leave and Zaccanelli would have rather he
had stayed.  I'd say Grant's reasons for leaving were a combination of the
stress of the job and some disagreements with some of the moves the Mavs
have made or tried to make and maybe not having total control of the
direction of the team.

Some of the local media have been tossing the name of Mark Aguirre around
loosely.  From I've been hearing, Aguirre had nothing to do with Grant
leaving.  Grant said that he has no problems with Aguirre and Zaccanelli
insists that Aguirre does not want the vacant job and that Aguirre will
not be a candidate for the job [Zaccanelli was very defensive on the talk
shows Friday morning, saying that some of the things being said were
"irresponsible"].  


patricia