The Pacers have traded Shawn Williams to the Mavericks for Eddie Jones, two second round picks and some cash. Honestly, Cuban must have been reading my blog. I'm so happy that Eddie Jones is gone. I give him praise for the work he's done over the years as a player but he absolutely brought nothing to the table for the Mavericks except draining money that could be used elsewhere.

Shawn Williams is basically reunited with Carlisle. He's had a few run-ins with the law but I'm sure he'll play a backup role and contribute more than Jones has since he arrived in Dallas.

Williams averaged 5.6 ppg with 2.3 rpg.

His few run-ins with the law were minor. Passengers were arrested for marijuana possession on two occasions. He's been cited for driving without a license and tint and seat belt violations.

From the article on si.cnn.com, there's a quote from the Pacers President saying this, "I think the Carmel police were kind of like following him around constantly, almost harassing him," Walters said. "So I think it is an opportunity for him to get away from that type of thing as well, because I think he was being unduly singled out a little bit."

I lived in Fishers Indiana myself. It's the next town over from Carmel on the north side. I can say for one thing, Williams wasn't singled out, the Carmel police department is out to get everyone. I was once pulled over for having a headlight out. They searched me, my girlfriend and my car for drugs. I actually called the next day to the police department and asked for an official apology after speaking to an attorney that this type of action on behalf of police to search vehicles/people without probable cause is against the law. I guess they haven't learned their lesson yet and up to the same old tactics.

As we all know, Westphal was still under contract by the Mavs but was not part of Carlisle's coaching staff. I think the new role and title suits him, he deserves it. It's a shame that Avery couldn't learn more from Westphal while he was a coach.

Carlisle opened the Mavericks camp with running. He's emphasized that the team needs to learn to attack the basket, instead of relying on their set offense that has gone stale the past two seasons.

Also in other news, Eddie Jones can't run. He's already pulled his left hamstring while running on a treadmill before camp started. Tell me why we kept him around? He's just keeping the seats warm, wasting away money for other potential young players to get playing time to prove themselves.

Cuban, release Jones now, he's not much of an asset to the team. I even doubt he's a role model for other players except to slap them five during timeouts and the end of each quarter. He's an paid fan that gets a great seat each game.

So there's some rumors or truth behind it that Mark Cuban stated that the players were the force that drove to fire Avery Johnson. He's stated that most of the players asked that if Avery were coach next season, they would want to be traded. It was mentioned most either spoke of this through generalities or through their agents.

Could this be the truth coming from Cuban? Personally I believe it's probably and highly a partial truth. We all could realize that there was tension between the players and Avery, but I'm willing to bet there was tension between Cuban and Avery as well that lead to his firing.

Josh Howard has issued an apology. We all knew this was coming. You don't disrespect the National Anthem and not issue an apology when you are in the public eye.

So you're apology is accepted Josh. Now can you just shut up and play basketball. If you're going to say stupid things like most of us can or do, make sure there's not recording device around.

"I had a good time with Avery," Nowitzki said Thursday. "But sometimes I wish we had communicated a little more. We all know Avery ran a little dictatorship here. I think this league is still a league of players, not a coaches league."

Hopefully with the new coach and other changes in the coaching staff, Carlisle will allow Kidd to make a lot of the decisions on the court. What's really the point of a point guard not calling shots as he sees fit. Sure the coach can come up with a great offensive play but everyone who's played basketball should realize that it could change in a heartbeat on the court.

Players do need to adapt and have a little more control of what's going on. They're the ones playing. A coach can be a glorified fan that just actually gets to interact with the players up close and personal. At times fans can call the shots from the stands that make sense of what we see from a point of view but it just doesn't work out every single time calling shots from the stands and sidelines if you're a coach.

You can read more about Dirk on Avery here.

The Mavericks have re-signed veteran Devean George. The details were not available but he's back at least for another season.

What did George give us last season? A whopping 3.7 PPG and 2.6 RPG. I'm pretty sure we could have replaced him with someone else. Maybe Carlisle can make use of him since Avery didn't seem to. Quite frankly, I wish George never blocked the trade during the Kidd deal, the Mavericks really don't need him. The only thing he adds to the team is he's got 3 rings while he was a Lakers player. I don't really see any other value in him as a Mavericks player.