Fresh Meat!

First of the new blood, the future swinging big dicks of the NBA, cannonballed into the talent pool last night. Check out the live blog at Dallas Basketball dot com, or the video clip at the Morning News.

Speculation that the Mavs were planning on buying a first round pick came to zip as the Organization stuck with #51. I hope Mr. Nelson and the rest of the suits know what they're doing. The next few seasons is when the Mavs have to start developing talent ready to take over the team when Dirk retires. I'm all for finding a vampire and making Dirk immortal, but the NBA probably has rules against undead players. They're shortsighted that way.

But, nobody was willing to bite with what the Mavs were offering ($3 million) . . . at least not publicly. As Mr. Fisher points out, the back-door deals are also beginning, teams trading picks for established players, cash, and so on.

For now, our FNG is a young man by the name of Shan Foster. He's a graduate of Vaderbuilt University and that school's all-time leading scorer. He's being considered (how seriously is a matter of speculation) as a backup shooting guard or small forward.

With the draft done, free agency begins to warm up. Negotiations between franchise reps and players' agents begins July 1, players can sign on July 9. I'll look up those particulars later.
-BJ