Then only a week after Jordan verbally commits to Dallas without warning anyone in the Mavericks organization Jordan decided to stay put in LA.
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According to Marc Stein from ESPN.com, the Mavericks are closing in on acquiring center Zaza Pachulia from the Milwaukee Bucks.
But the Mavericks certainly do. Pachulia will be the starting center in Dallas, but that doesn’t make him a must-own guy in standard leagues. The Mavericks still have approximately $11.7 million to spend on free agents, but there aren’t any centers left on the market better than Pachulia. Although he is a limited offensive player, Pachulia provides hard-nose defense and tenacity. After one-year stints with Orlando and Milwaukee, he spent eight seasons in Atlanta before returning to the Bucks.
Pachulia was the third Milwaukee veteran to be traded this summer, along with Jared Dudley and Ersan Ilyasova.
Last season, he averaged 8.3 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 1.1 steals in 23.7 minutes per game.
He returned to the Bucks in 2013-’14 and over the past two seasons averaged 8.0 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 24.2 minutes per game over 126 regular-season contests.
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Dallas is largely making this move to fill up cap space, but Pachulia is going to be someone the Mavericks use to offset the loss of Jordan this summer.
