90's Mavs question

[SkenfromLMF]

If I remember Mashburn was dealing with some injury issues that year he got traded. And yes it was messy with Jackson. Really with all three of them. None of the Js really got along with each other, especially Mashburn and Jackson and the front office was in continuous flux. I think Perot bought the team during the triple J era as well, it got so messy they just blew it up

So the irony is that rumors were swirling about a Jackson trade to Phoenix around the start of the 96-97 season. But a couple of things happened that really derailed that thinking and among them was the development of Richard Dumas (not Tony) in Phoenix. So Phoenix has a LOADED backcourt and Jackson didn't look like a player that was going to be happy in the shadow that Kevin Johnson and Charles Barkley had with PHX... Dumas made that concern unnecessary, and Dallas was stuck with Jim Jackson who was just not very liked by the rest of the J's. Dick Motta joked that the 4th J was the most dominant - Jealousy!

So Dallas gets to December and Kidd has a DWI incident... That seemed to be the end for Kidd in Dallas - the crazy thing is that Rick Pitino was telling Mashburn to do whatever it took to get out of Dallas even if that meant to quit on the team. I pretty much loathe Ricky the P. Speaking of Samaki Walker (Louisville) it was Pitino that started hyping him when he knew that Antoine Walker (Kentucky) was getting a lot of attention by NBA types in that draft - Pitino bragged about getting a sucker to take him.

So Dallas (remember that Frank Zachanelli - the acting GM aka Zach the HACK - was NOT really an NBA guy, but a Perot guy) makes the trade that sent Kidd to PHX. Dallas did not get the rookie PG (Nash), nor the starting PG (Kevin Johnson), NOR any draft compensation for the player that in '94-95 was co ROY as the 2nd pick in the draft. Not only that, but Dallas had to eat the contract of A.C. Green to make the trade work. (memory says that it was Zachanelli that basically ran Keith Grant off the Mavs for a couple of years and it was mark that brought him back). THIS EPISODE is the biggest reason I have been a Don and Donnie Nelson fan in that I remember this F/O without stable leadership at the helm and it was  - well the worst run organization for the entire decade in professional sports, and the lottery screwed us every time!

IF Dallas had gotten either Nash or some draft compensation for the Kidd trade, Dallas could have possibly kept their pick in the '99 draft which PHX used to select Shawn Marion.
When the Dirk trade went down, Perot forced Nelson to make the deal with Milwaukee so that they could get "something more that just Dirk" with the 6th pick. So the Dirk trade ended up being #6 for #9 & #18 to Milwaukee...  The only thing I wish could have happened is that Dallas could have gotten another top 10 pick and kept Paul Pierce from being Boston's consolation prize.

Nelson then flipped #18 and the Mavs unprotected '99 pick for Nash - whom I will always say was the piece that should have been included in the J-Kidd trade, but wasn't - and part of the reasoning at the time was that Donnie had been on the Phoenix staff when Don brought him to Dallas.