The Mavericks trade with Portland

The Dallas Mavericks traded their 22nd pick in tomorrow's NBA draft to the Portland Trailblazers today in return for Portland's 22nd and 56th picks, plus its worst second round pick in 2010. To read the comments on the Dallas Morming News's Mavericks blog, Mavs GM Donnie Nelson should, at best, be run out of town on a rail.

Geez. What's the big deal? The way I look at it -- even if the Mavs don't put these picks in a package for another trade -- this is purely an economical move. From my viewpoint, the Mavs have already decided on the player they plan to draft in the first round. After a quick survey of who the other teams plan to draft, the Mavs realized the guy they want was still going to be on the board when the 24th pick came around. If you figure that the players sign contracts on sliding scales based on their draft position, the Mavs can pay the guy they wanted all along a little less by drafting him 24 instead of 22. Makes sense to me.