The Dallas Mavericks could be the trade partners you’re looking for

I think as Pistons fans you’d be hard pressed to find any among us that doesn’t think that the team needs a shake up of some magnitude or other. Three options were floated in the latest DBB on 3 and the one that Steve Hinson proposed centered around the Dallas Mavericks as trade partners. Well since that article dropped quite a bit of speculation around Dennis Smith Jr. as being on the trading block has heated up the interwebs. Courtesy of ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Tim MacMahon:

The Dallas Mavericks are escalating talks to trade guard Dennis Smith Jr., pushing to end a partnership that has run its course for both the franchise and former first-round pick, league sources tell ESPN.

Add to that the fact that DSJ has sat out three straight games because of a sore back and you have smoke ladies and gentleman.

On top of that Mitch Lawrence tweeted this Monday night during the Utah Jazz game:

Now one of the caveats that come up on any trade with Dallas right now are reports that they are also looking to offload Wesley Matthews. From the same ESPN report as above:

Dallas has also searched for deals that would include veteran Wes Matthews, who is making $18.6 million in the final year of his contract, league sources said.

Apparently Phoenix and Orlando are in talks too so if we wanted to get this done including Matthews in this would make sense, plus him being a 38 percent 3 point shooter wouldn’t hurt.

Add another piece to this puzzle Steve’s proposal in that DBB on 3 of a Andre Drummond for DeAndre Jordan swap. This swap also just happened to be floated by Dallas beat writer Mike Fisher in a recent piece for 247 Sports (hat tip to jgk381 for the scoop and link):

Does Andre Drummond work in Detroit? What if instead of re-upping DeAndre Jordan, the Mavs pursue a 25-year-old version? This would require a trade, and it would require the Pistons deciding that their pairing of Blake Griffin and Jordan doesn’t quite work. I throw it in here because a) I’ve got one NBA source telling me he “doesn’t see a trade happening’’ (which, depending on how you interpret that, can mean we’re not the only ones who’ve thought about it) and b) Drummond is a client of Mavs pal Jeff Schwartz guy. Here’s a $27-mil center who is young, playing for a Pistons team that is 17-19, playing for a Detroit franchise tip-toeing near the lux-tax. I mean, isn’t this a “Nuclear Winter’’ fit?

And finally we have the news that JJ Barea is out for at least this season with an achilles tear and subsequent surgery and you have the makings of a pretty serious but mutually beneficial shake up (hat tip #2 to Sean Corp for the Robinson inclusion):

Not bad huh? Other than us being projected as “losers” in the trade according to Hollinger (-3 wins vs +3 wins for the Mavs post trade) it effectively changes the Pistons drastically. The Mavs get a younger DeAndre (more along the lines of the one they wanted a few years ago before that debacle), a replacement for Barea and cap relief. The Pistons get a potential young PGOTF, a serviceable big they can replace on the cheap-ish next season, and a 3 and D guy to shore up their wing rotation.

This of course makes far too much sense to ever actually go down but a guy can dream, right?