Where will Blake Griffin play and how does that effect the Mavericks

My son and I were watching the draft lottery the other night and when the telecast paused before the final three selections my son turned to me and said, "If Oklahoma City gets the top pick, you know the fix is in. If the Clippers get it, you can call the lottery legit."

Well, the Clippers won it and the right to select Oklahoma's Blake Griffin. But from what I hear, the Thunder are still going to make a big push to get Griffin to play in his hometown. They are preparing a deal that would give Los Angeles the Thunder's No. 3 pick along with either Jeff Green or Russell Westbrook in return for the No. 1.

Such a deal would not be a good one for the Mavericks. If the Clippers take Griffin with the first pick, they will have a bevy of front line big men, some of whom they will need to unload. One of them will be Marcus Camby and I have always loved the idea of Camby in a Mavericks uniform. The problem is the Clippers will also want to dump Baron Davis and his bad contract at the same time and the Mavs don't need that burden, so a third team might have to be involved in any deal the Mavs try to do with the Clippers. The addition of Camby immediately upgrades the Mavs defense, the area where Dallas needs the most improvement.

Another defense addition that I hear might be available is Trevor Ariza from that other L.A. team. If you saw the first game of the Nuggets-Lakers series Tuesday night, you saw Denver outplay the Lakers for 47 minutes. Then you saw Ariza steal a Denver inbounds pass that allowed the Lakers to steal Game 1. That's the kind of play I would like to see in Dallas. Plus Ariza provides additional perimeter offense, which could help free up Jason Terry, something that really could have aided Dallas in its series with Denver

If the Mavs could add Camby and Ariza without giving up too much (and I think this is possible), I think that would make this a good off-season. As far as the draft, I don't see Dallas adding anyone with the 22nd pick that will make an immediate contribution. I understand they are looking for a point guard for the future and the one mock draft I have seen has Dallas picking North Carolina's Ty Lawson at 22. But even he will need some seasoning before he is NBA ready.