Dallas Mavericks '97-98

The basketball parallel with Al Davis appears to be Dallas General Manager Don Nelson. Nelson was the mastermind behind much of the tremendous talent that went to Milwaukee and Golden State. But his recent forays at picking players have proven to be less successful. Giving away so much talent in the Shawn Bradley trade indicated Nelson's terrible sense of market value if not plain talent. Two teams have now given up on Bradley after seeing him get harassed enough by ordinary contact to miss a large fraction of his shots. No one knows what Nelson has been seeing.

The Mavericks drafted Kelvin Cato this year, an apparently solid defensive player out of Iowa State. According to my best draft source, Cato was a pretty good choice. So Nelson traded him for Chris Antsey. My source didn't really like this move and I have reason to believe it after seeing that Cato is doing pretty well with Portland and Antsey is not playing in Dallas.

The entire Dallas team is now Don Nelson's. He has completely cleaned house (except for the coach, who will be gone no later than January 10th). Not a single player remains from the start of last season. Not a single player on this year's roster was even a 0.500 player last year. If this team turns out any positive results, it will be the epitome of a rebuilding job.