By now I'm sure you have the heard the big news that Tyson Chandler is once again a Dallas Maverick. The Mavs will acquire Chandler along with point guard Raymond Felton for Jose Calderon, Samuel Dalembert, Shane Larkin, Wayne Ellington and the numbers 34 and 51 picks in tomorrow's draft.
My initial reaction to the trade: HELL YES!Dallas gets back the center who helped them win the 2011 title to once again anchor a defense that needed desperately to improve. Now the Mavs once again have an elite defender at the most important position defensively. Although their is always injury risk with Chandler, he is only signed for this year, and the injuries he has suffered over the last couple years appear to be just flukes and not indicative of any long term issues.
Felton is a player who wore out his welcome in New York but should be better with a change of scenery. I would not expect him to start here, that will probaly be Devin Harris or another player, but Felton can be a perfectly acceptable backup.
As for the players the Mavs give up, obviously Calderon is the toughest one to stomach. However he still had 3 years left on his deal, and although he is tremendous asset on offense, he can be a liability on the other end of the court, especially when paired with Monta. Larkin may still yet be a player but hasn't proven anything yet and 2nd round picks are nice to have but rarely turn into much.
So does this mean the Mavs decision to let Chandler go to New York in the first place was a mistake? Not necessarily. Tim McMahon does a good job of explaining why in his article here.
All in all this a trade that improves the team in the short term and makes the team more attractive to prospective free-agents (are you listening Carmelo). It also doesn't not sacrifice the team's future in any major way, as they are only adding an additional 5 million dollars in salary. What's not to like?
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