Posted on Wed, Jan. 07, 2009 

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If Howard can’t show up, Mavs need to ship him out

DALLAS — Admit it, you showed up at the AAC Tuesday night thinking that maybe the injury-decimated Los Angeles Clippers would be forced to pick five guys out of the crowd in order to field a team, and you just might get a chance to play in your first NBA game.

And, of course, you’d be right there on the floor, looking for a 3, when the game came down to the final minute of play, as seemingly every Mavs game does, no matter who they’re playing.

One thing for sure: You’d at least show up for the fourth quarter, and that’s more than we can say about the Mavericks’ Josh Howard.

Jeez, I hate picking on Josh like that, but there it is.

It wasn’t so long ago that Josh was my favorite Mav to talk to when I showed up at the AAC. I loved his talent and his potential. Now, he sees a guy coming with a notebook or a tape recorder, he scuttles out of the room like a bashful cockroach.

Then again, guess I shouldn’t use any form of the word "roach" when talking about Josh.

In any case, that’s not why I think the Mavs have to start thinking about looking to trade Howard in the best deal they can find.

He doesn’t have to make nice to the media. If Josh wants to blame us for his troubles, no biggie. That’s been done by much bigger stars than him.

What he does need to do is be what coach Rick Carlisle has been insisting he is since before the season began.

He has to be the Mavs’ most important player.

Maybe Howard can be that player in a trade, because he’s almost never been that guy on the court this season.

I’m beginning to believe he never will be.

Yes, I know he may not yet have completely recovered from that ankle sprain earlier in the season.

There are mixed messages on that front, depending on who’s asked.

"I hope not," Carlisle said when asked if the ankle was still hampering Howard.

"It appears to be doing well."

Owner Mark Cuban isn’t so sure.

"He looks like he’s favoring it," Cuban said, dripping sweat onto my notebook during his pregame stair-stepper ritual.

OK, that’s about as clear as mud.

What is crystal clear is that Howard hasn’t been the same player since the injury.

I wish I could believe that was the reason, and that he’s not just in another of his disinterested funks.

In the 11 starts he’s made since coming back from the ankle sprain, Howard has scored 12 or fewer points three times, including his 12-point effort Sunday in the loss to Memphis.

More telling for a player of Howard’s talent is the fact that he had two or fewer rebounds seven times in those 11 games.

Carlisle says Howard’s shrinking numbers are more a product of inconsistent minutes rather than inconsistent play.

"His minutes haven’t been the same because he’s worked back into it somewhat gradually," Carlisle said before the Mavs had to stage a desperate, late fourth-quarter rally to edge the hapless Clippers 107-102 (guess they didn’t need you after all). "I wouldn’t put a lot of weight on that."

That’s consistent with the organization’s steady support for Howard throughout a disastrous 2008, when he admitted smoking dope during a local radio interview and then showed up on YouTube disrespecting the national anthem.

His heartfelt apology aside when this season began, Howard, by distancing himself at every opportunity, now seems to blame the media for those public relations disasters, rather than the man he sees in the mirror every day.

"He just doesn’t trust you guys," Cuban said.

Understandable.

We were the brutes who pointed out that in both instances Howard had critically impaled himself on his own tongue.

Shame on us.

Cuban said Howard is simply doing what he was told to do by the team, to wit, "You’re better off, when you don’t know what to say, [to] say nothing."

Like I said earlier, it’s not Howard’s relationship with the media that’s the most critical issue here. It’s whether Josh can be what Carlisle says he is and believes he needs to be for the Mavericks to have a chance to again be an elite team and get past the first round of the playoffs.

Carlisle still believes it, or says he does.

"Same things I said back then," he said when asked why he thinks Howard is still the Mavs’ most important — but not necessarily best — player.

Those reasons: Maybe the team’s best perimeter defender, good rebounder, the ability to score inside and outside.

If only Howard would do those things consistently.

Instead, he’s as liable to disappear when the Mavs need him most — like in the fourth quarter — as he is to show up with 29 points and nine rebounds, as he did on Dec. 28 in LA, when Dirk Nowitzki was sitting out a one-game suspension.

That’s the Josh Howard that the Mavs need every night. That guy is critical to the Mavs’ success this season. In conjunction with what Nowitzki and Jason Terry bring offensively, that Josh might well be the team’s most important player.

But if he continues to be an enigma, if the Mavs never know from one night to the next which Josh is going to walk out on the floor, maybe they’re better off hoping he can juice his numbers a bit, and then look to deal him for a player who may be a little less talented, but a lot more consistent.

Tuesday night was fairly typical, for both the inconsistent Mavs and for Howard.

They let the Clippers, who were missing three starters and dressed just eight players, hang around until the Mavs had to finish the game with an 11-1 run to pull it out.

Howard finished with 22 points and six rebounds. He had two of those points and one of those rebounds in the fourth quarter.

If that’s what the Mavs really expect from the most important player on the team, they’re in more trouble than most of us thought.