Full-Court Press

He shoots, he scores

In the first five minutes against the Hornets, Jason Kidd has a couple of turnovers, once when he tried to lead a 1-on-3 fast break. He later passed to Josh Howard and left to make a cut, not anticipating a return pass that was picked off by New Orleans.

After the timeout, his first bucket as a returning Mav was an 18-foot jumper. So now he has at least one of each in points, steals, rebounds and turnovers.

Yes, Kidd is starting; so is George

Jason Kidd, Devean George, Erick Dampier, Josh Howard and Dirk Nowitzki are the starters for the Mavs in Kidd's first game back with the Mavericks in more than 11 years. Kidd and George? Would you call that a nice touch by Avery?

The game starts and, boom, Kidd throws an alley-oop pass to Howard for his first assist. An immediate return.

Sometimes, you do skip steps

Avery Johnson has always been one to say that there are no shortcuts to success. Or as he puts it, you can't skip steps.

But in trading for Jason Kidd, it would seem that the Mavericks skipped forward nearly 11 years in age with Kidd over Devin Harris. So Avery was asked about that Wednesday.

"When you get a player of Jason Kidd's caliber at the point guard position, I don't know that it's necessarily skipping a step." Johnson said. "I think because he's so knowledgeable  and we're hoping he can blend in pretty quickly because he has that type of game -- some old man game in a way. but at the same time, he plays with a lot of energy. We're hoping that some things that may take a long time can come together a little bit sooner."

Avery said he is going to get Kidd as many minutes as possible the next few games to try and integrate him into the lineup quicker. And he's also hoping to have completely healthy team on Friday. Jerry Stackhouse is not playing tonight because of his strained hamstring, but Johnson said Stackhouse should be ready to play in Memphis.

-- Jan Hubbard

Cuban's favorite agent

This talk about P.J. Brown can officially stop. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said Wednesday before the Mavericks-New Orleans game that he has no interest in signing Brown, the 6-10 veteran who has not played this year.

Cuban said that Brown and Juwan Howard are basically the same player and Howard has been with the Mavericks all season, so Brown would not make sense.

But Cuban couldn't help but to take a shot at agent Mark Bartlestein, who not only represents Brown, but also is the man who advised Devean George to exercise his no-trade clause that torpedoed the first deal for Jason Kidd last week.

When asked if he was interested in Brown, Cuban said: "I don't think so. He's a  Bartlestein guy and all things being equal, we'd say no."

Cuban was obviously taking a shot at Bartlestein -- but he wasn't smiling.

-- Jan Hubbard

No triple double for Dirk

Well, he had his first this season and it's a pretty safe bet that as long as Jason Kidd is healthy, Dirk Nowitzki won't have another triple-double. It's hard to imagine Dirk getting double-figure assists with Kidd on the floor.

Early in the season, Dirk actually was ahead of Devin Harris for the team lead in assists, although Devin finally got the lead and held it. Harris left for New Jersey leading the Mavericks in assists with 5.3. Dirk averages 4.0

Kidd averages 10.4, more than Harris and Dirk combined.

So it seemed appropriate to ask Dirk if he officially had given up his quest to lead Dallas in assists. He broke into a big smile and said of Kidd:

"I'll let him get all the assists he wants. "I think my job goes back to putting the ball in the basket now."

-- Jan Hubbard

Catching up with...the New Orleans Hornets

With all the madness going in Dallas lately, it is once again time to remind everyone that there is actual basketball to be played. And what a better way to get back into the swing of things than meeting the new kings of the Southwest, the New Orleans Hornets.

That's right, they're No. 1
The Hornets finally busted the Mavs' 21-game win streak earlier this year, and that isn't the only thing they're busting up. They own the Western Conference's best record at 36-15 and have a young core that should be reliable in keeping them near the top for the remainder of the season. They have also won four straight.

A Big Three to envy
What if your favorite team had a Big Three that combined to average 17.4 points, 8.5 rebounds and 4.7 assists and had and average age of just over 25 years old? You'd probably wet your pants with glee. Well, that's what the Hornets have in Chris Paul, David West and Tyson Chandler. They have a perfect balance of big and small, and have equal parts athleticism and skill. Pair that with their youth, and the Hornets are quickly becoming one of the scariest teams in the NBA.

Efficient as they come
They are in the top 10 in all the shooting percentages (three point, field goal and free throw) and are third lowest in the league in turnovers. Much of this begins with their point guard Chris Paul, who has one of the league's best assist-to-turnover ratios at more than 4 to 1. Because he wasn't really a candidate for it last year, the voters won't give him the MVP award this year, but you can bet he'll be up near the top of voting next year.

Burning question
Can they overcome their lack of playoff experience and go deep into the playoffs this year?

-Scooter Hendon, Hoops Nerd

The New Jersey story

Nets GM Rod Thorn had a press conference to announce the Jason Kidd trade today, and he made reference to Kidd losing interest in the team in December. Thorn didn't say it, but Kidd missed a game against the Knicks with a migraine headache, and team officials told reporters privately they thought it was a Kidd protest.

Anyway, here are some excerpts from Thorn:

Q: Were you prepared to go the rest of the season with Kidd in NJ?

Thorn: If we didn’t make a deal last night we would have practicing with the players who are going to Dallas right now today. If we couldn’t make a deal that I felt we could live with I was prepared to do it, yes. Was I concerned? Yes. But I was prepared to do it. I was concerned about the morale of the team. I was concerned about the players you’ve traded coming back. How’s that going to work? Those two things.

Q: Can you describe Devin Harris?

Thorn: He’s got good size, great quickness, good defender, he can push the ball.

Q: What happened to make the deal work?

Thorn: Mark and I kept talking. Nothing specific, we were rehashing things we had already been over and finally agreed.

Q: Do you have any regrets that you couldn’t make Jason happy?

Thorn: From a professional standpoint and a personal standpoint, I’d always considered that Jason would play his career out and be part of the Nets for a long time. Other than Dr. J back in the ABA days, he’s the best player this franchise has ever had. That’s the way that I always thought about it. He’ll play it out and if he wants to still be with the Nets he’ll still be with the Nets. But things don’t always work out the way that you think they’re going to work out. But that’s part of it. It’s unique in that it took so long. To have a deal and the deal break down when you’re already in the league office and then to have it go on as long as it did, that’s the uniqueness of it. Otherwise, it happens. It happens. And you see it happen in different sports every year basically, so it’s not unique from that standpoint.

Q: Could you have gotten more for Kidd?

Thorn: That’s a good question. I couldn’t say if you could or you couldn’t. I think anytime you’re trading a player who is 35 years old and making that kind of money there has to be a lot of different elements in the deal, unless you’re just trading him like Miami basically traded Shaq for Marion because their contracts weren’t that much different. Here, in most of the teams we talked to it was going to include a whole bunch of different pieces. I think that was the biggest deterrent if you will to concluding something had more to do with the size salary Jason has it takes a lot of different elements to make a trade.

Q: Was this something that had to be done for the health of the franchise?

Thorn: Yes. It just wasn’t going to work. I know Jason probably as well as anybody. Over the course of time it became very evident that his heart wasn’t in it. With him, the kind of player he is, if his heart’s not in it then he’s not the same player. And it became evident to me that his heart wasn’t in it here anymore over the course of this season. And it’s not to denigrate his play at all because obviously he made the All-Star team, he had a whole bunch of triple-doubles, but the element to Jason Kidd that separates him from most is the intensity and the heart. That’s what separates him. There are other players that may have skill set, but that’s what separate him. And when he’s playing with that then he’s at another level and when he’s not playing with it he’s at a lower level. If you look at our team and look at where we’re trying to do it was obvious to me that if we could we should look to do something.

-- Jan Hubbard

Jason Kidd trade talk

The principals speak!

Jason Kidd: “There’s no bigger reward than to have that championship trophy in your hand. That’s why I’m here. Because Dallas has its eye on that prize.”

Mark Cuban: “It’s been the most amazing, interesting trade we’ve ever done, and we’ve done some doozies here. I’ve never seen anything like it, but all’s well that ends well. We got the right guys.”

More Cuban: “In any business there’s lulls. Everybody was waiting for the postseason to start. You can’t just say, ’OK, turn it on in the postseason.’ I think Jason ... being that iconic All-Star will spark a lot of people.”

Nets coach Lawrence Frank, on Kidd: “He’s a once-in-a-lifetime type of guy to play with and coach. He’s had an unbelievable impact on everyone in this organization and we wish him nothing but the best.”

Nets president Rod Thorn: “Over the course of time it became very evident that his heart wasn’t in it. The kind of player he is, if his heart’s not in it then he’s not the same player, and it became evident to me that his heart wasn’t in it anymore. It just wasn’t going to work.”

Mavs coach Avery Johnson: “We understand the competition [in the West] is fierce, but we’re not afraid of the competition. We feel [Kidd’s] skill set can help us finish stronger, finish games better. Obviously he’s not the guy we’re going to lean on for points, points, points, points. He’s going to help us because at the end of games, he just knows how to win."

It's done: Kidd's a Mav

The long-awaited, comically difficult Jason Kidd-to-the-Mavs trade is finally official, according to espn.com.

Devin Harris on a jet plane to New Jersey

The deal is done. Devin Harris is headed to New Jersey this morning to meet with the Nets' medical staff. The soon-to-be 25-year-old point guard is a just few formalities away from becoming the property of the New Jersey Nets. Meanwhile, Jason Kidd is headed back to Big D.

Here's the story.

-- Jeff Caplan