Wednesday night summed things up well for the Dallas Mavericks. One night after running the Knicks off the Garden court, they sojourned to Detroit to bank a win against the hopeless Pistons and improve to 19-8 on the season.
Great, they’re now playing .700 ball, which in the loaded Western Conference is good for … sixth place, one spot ahead of the possum-playing Spurs.
Rick Carlisle’s ruthlessly efficient Mavericks offense (league-best 113.6 points per 100 possessions) hummed along on Wednesday, piling up 117 points with 32 from Chandler Parsons, 25 from Monta Ellis, 18 from Dirk Nowitzki (for roughly the 1,000th time), a helpful 16 from Tyson Chandler … and zero from starting point guard Jameer Nelson.
Hence, this other Wednesday development: According to multiple reports, the Mavericks are seriously engaged with the Celtics in trade talks centered on star point guard Rajon Rondo. Yahoo! Sports reported the Mavericks would be willing to part with their 2015 first-round pick, while ESPN reported center Brandan Wright and additional picks could be part of a potential package.
Of course, the Celtics and GM Danny Ainge have been down this bait-and-switch road before with the 28-year-old Rondo, who can become a free agent after this season. Any swap for Rondo — as with the Cavaliers’ summer pickup of Kevin Love — likely would come with some assurances the pass-first point guard would sign a contract extension.
“Listen, my job is to look at all the different ways and pathways for us to be a championship team,” Ainge said Thursday morning on Boston sports radio WBZ-FM, according to ESPN. “This is the time of the year that there’s a lot of talking and calling that’s going on. Part of my job is to explore the variety of ways there are to get us to our next championship. And that’s all we’re trying to do — just build a winner.”
Speaking of winners, the Yahoo report specifically mentioned the Mavericks’ desire to close the gap on the conference-leading Warriors, who sit at 21-3 after their 16-game winning streak was snapped Tuesday by the Grizzlies — another frighteningly good squad at 21-4 that just did this to the Spurs:
The Rockets — currently in line for the third seed with a 19-5 record following a heart-pounding overtime victory Wednesday in Denver — were the other club mentioned by both Yahoo and ESPN as an active Rondo suitor. The Trail Blazers (No. 4 seed) and Clippers (No. 5) have franchise point guards in tow, or perhaps they would be involved as well. The West’s arms race is real, and it is spectacular.
ESPN also flagged the Kings, Lakers and Knicks and their Loads of 2015 Cap Space as interested parties.
Rondo is currently tops in the NBA with 10.8 assists per game, while adding 8.3 points and 7.5 rebounds and an astonishing free-throw percentage of 33.3.