The departure of Terry and Kidd was painful

DALLAS -- The loss of Jason Terry and Jason Kidd via free agency earlier this month was a difficult proposition for the Dallas Mavericks.

Terry signed a three-year, $15 million contract with the Boston Celtics, while Kidd changed his mind at the 11th hour and agreed to a three-year, $9 million deal with the New York Knicks. Those were painful losses for the Mavs, because they're wo players who helped them win the 2011 NBA title, and  two players who were very instrumental in the Fort Worth/Dallas community.

“It was hard because those are very special guys and those are guys that were not just part of our culture and success, but quality guys that are all about winning and doing it the right way,'' general manager Donnie Nelson said. "So when you lose those guys -- whether guys retire or whether you lose them through free agency -- it is hard.

"Those are big shoes to fill.''

The Mavs started free agency by losing out on point guard Deron Williams, who decided to re-sign with the Brooklyn Nets instead of returning home to play for Dallas. That put the Mavs in Plan B mode, particularly since they had targeted Willians as their top free agent priority.

"Eventually you’ve got to make those decisions, some of those situations you make, and some of those decisions are made for you,'' Nelson said. "I think with the D-Will thing we had the flexibility to go out and be aggressive with an offer.

"We put our best foot forward, we got to the 1-yard line and we didn’t punch it in the end zone. When things don’t go your way you can sit there and feel sorry for yourself, or you can pick yourself up by the boot straps and hop back in the saddle and get back out in the marketplace, and that’s what we did.''

-- Dwain Price

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Comments

[Maneesh]

I will miss Terry more than Kidd. At the same time, I believed that Terry will be gone given the non-sense he had spewed about the free agency (IIRC) during the playoffs. Hopefully, Juice can more than fill up the void on prime-time offense that Terry was loved for, and then some besides being over a decade younger.

With Kidd... I say good riddance. He had to go to allow the youngster develop, and if his conversation about convincing D-Will to stick with Nets weren't just a media creation, I say, good riddance. He himself chose to leave the Mavericks... to go training Lin (to boot).

As for D-Will, I think money played a significant role in his decision even though it will not be accepted as a motivation. Nets' ability to extend $98 million to retain versus Dallas' max at $75m (the CBA limitation). That, and D-Will's acknowledgement that, like Lebron, he isn't one who a team can be built around. They need long term commitments from fellow super-stars (or those close to it) to be successful. It is why, Dirk rules!

[Susan]

I really thought Kidd might want to retire from the same team that drafted him.