Where do the Mavs go from here

The Mavericks made a game of it last night, more than I thought they would after they were blown out in the first two games at Denver. I didn't turn last night's game off until there was a little more than two minutes to go.

Still the Mavericks lost in five, although there is some consolation that they made it to the second round and they succumbed to a far better team than they lost to in the first round the last two years, Golden State and New Orleans. However, I'm still not convinced Dallas makes it to the second round this year if Manu Ginobli had been healthy for the Spurs.

So now begins the off season, the time when Mark Cuban and company can begin assembling the parts for 2009-2010. What they should not do, however, is trade spare parts. which is essentially what this team has been doing for way too long.

Let's face reality: the Dallas Mavericks are nothing more than "Dirk Nowitzki and the 11 Dwarfs." Yesterday's voting for the All-NBA team was a wakeup call. Dirk made the first team but not one other Maverick received even a single point -- not Hall-of-Fame bound Jason Kidd, not sixth-man-of-the-year Jason Terry, not the mercurial Josh Howard --none, zero, no Mavericks. That puts all the other Mavericks behind the likes of Paul Millsap and Mehmet Okur of Utah, Hedo Turkoglu of Orlando, Caron Butler of Washington and Andre Iguodala of Philadelphia, among others, who received at least one vote.

Now Tim McMahon is writing today in the Mavericks Blog at the Dallas Morning News that Mark Cuban is willing to spend the big bucks to get another quality player in Dallas. "Mark Cuban wants to strike now instead of letting another year of Dirk's prime go by without the supporting cast he needs to make the Mavs legit contenders," McMahon writes. Music to my ears -- that's exactly what needs to happen.

I heard rumors a month or so ago that New Orleans was willing to let Chris Paul go in a fire sale. If that is true and the Mavs can grab him, that makes Dallas the third best team in the Western Conference going into next year, behind the Lakers and only slightly behind Denver. According to McMahon's story, Dallas native Chris Bosh might be available. Another instant upgrade, although I'm not so sure it's as much of a boost as you might get from Paul.

But I also don't want the Mavs to settle for being the third best team in the Western Conference but let's be patient here and wait for that 2010 free agent class. Let's face it, LeBron James, although he becomes a free agent that year, isn't going anywhere. But that still leaves the aforementioned Bosh, if Toronto doesn't sign him to an extension which it is really trying to do (and will probably trade him if it can't) and the name that really intrigues me, Dwyane Wade. Imagine adding Wade to a team that already has Nowitzki and Paul. You might has well suspend the 2010-2011 season and just declare the Mavs the NBA champs.

That's my dream scenario; unfortunately, the overwhelming number of my dreams never come true. So if the aforementioned doesn't take place, here's the painful move the Mavericks must make: Trade Dirk.

That's right, let the Big German go, but go to a team likely to win an NBA title with him. This franchise owes Dirk that. Dirk and Dirk alone has been keeping this team on the cusp of respectability for as long as he's been here and unless Cuban is willing to add one or two all-stars to this roster, they need to repay what Dirk has given to them by letting him earn his ring. Can you imagine the pairing of Dirk and Kobe on the Lakers? That would be fun to see. Besides the Lakers have some nice young talent they might be willing to part with. See if they would be willing to package Trevor Ariza, Andrew Bynum, Jordan Farmar and a first-round draft pick for Dirk.

But I would hate to see Dirk finish his career like, say, John Stockton, and be considered one of the greatest who ever played the game without ever winning an NBA championship. Dirk deserves more than that.