As the NBA All-Star Break and the trade deadline approach, there is more talk about what the Mavericks are doing in the front office rather than on the court.
Multiple sources are reporting that the Mavericks are interested in Milwaukee guard Brandon Jennings, a former No. 10 pick who achieved notoriety by playing in Italy rather than college to fulfill the NBA's rule of waiting a year after high school.
While nothing is definite and everything is just speculation at the moment, such a potential deal would be a swap of two point guards whose current teams have had difficulties with.
Rick Carlisle and the Mavericks seem to have just never been comfortable with Collison running the show this year. Averaging 12.8 points and 5.4 assists this season, the former UCLA star had some promising games to start the season but has disappeared too many times in games to the coach's liking and at one point was removed from the starting lineup.
On the flip side, the Jennings has reportedly claimed "irreconcilable differences" with the Bucks, His playing time in Milwaukee is, to some, limiting the team's ability to develop Monta Ellis, leading to frustrations from both players.
As a passer and ball handler, Jennings comes up almost the same as Collison, according to the research done by DallasBasketball.com. Per 36 minutes a game (standard minutes for a starter in most cases), Jennings has averaged 6.3 assists and 2.5 turnovers, while Collison has averaged 6.2 and 2.6. The numbers for both players in those categories are not quite what Carlisle would prefer, especially the high number of turnovers.
Jennings has shown to be a more prolific scorer than Collison, averaging 18.5 points this season after scoring 19 per last year. But he's a career 39 percent shooter while Collison has shot 44 percent or better every year for his career. A high scoring but low shooting point guard can often be detrimental to a team's offense.
However, it remains to be seen if a deal to acquire Jennings is even possible.
Milwaukee is possibly one of the few teams not interested in Shawn Marion, the Mavs' biggest trade piece at the moment, even though they could get Marion for Jennings and Drew Gooden, another player they are reportedly shopping. This would suggest that a third team would be needed to pull off such a deal.
It still isn't even sure if the Mavericks are going to be buyers and seller at the trade deadline anyway A 105-101 loss to Atlanta on Monday dropped Dallas back to seven games under .500 for the year.
It just adds further and further questions as the Mavericks get set to host the Kings at the American Airlines Center Wednesday night.
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