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From espn.com
I've loved stack, but it's time to let him go. 29% from the field, old legs. Give him to some bad team, he has a 6 million expiring, maybe we can get a pick out of him. It'll probably be just a second but who cares. It would just mean more time for Gerald and AntoineJerry Stackhouse believes he still has a lot of minutes in him -- he's just not getting the chance to use them in Dallas, so he is broaching the idea that maybe it's time for him and the Mavericks to part ways.
Stackhouse has made no demands or ultimatums, and he made clear after practice Monday that there were no personal conflicts between him and new coach Rick Carlisle.
What Stackhouse wants is more playing time, a larger role on the team, but he also sees the direction the Mavericks are taking. So his agent, Jeff Schwartz, has started to take inventory of potential interest from around the league.
"The team is always going to protect itself, so I can't force their hand to do anything," Stackhouse said to the Dallas-area media. "I don't really know all the options right now. It's to the point now where it's time to start researching some things and see if there are some other possibilities that make more sense for me right now."
Stackhouse, 34, who has been with the Mavericks since 2004, has seen his minutes diminish with each season (down to an average of 17.6 minutes this year). He was inactive for Sunday's game against the Knicks, and he knows that waiting in the wings are young shooting guards Antoine Wright and Gerald Green.
"Sometimes, that cycle comes," Stackhouse said in The Dallas Morning News. "When I came to Philadelphia [as a rookie], Jeff Malone was still a very capable player. But they said: 'Jeff, Jerry Stackhouse is the starting shooting guard here, and we're starting over.' He still went and played somewhere for a couple more seasons.
"And you got to start that process sometimes. I'm not mad, and not the first one that the process has started with. It's going to start with some more here before too long."
Stackhouse is being paid $7 million this season, and has a partial guarantee of $2 million next season. The Mavericks could buy him out or waive him, but the best option might be to work out a trade, though Stackhouse is currently in a shooting slump (29 percent) and is dealing with a sore right heel.
Owner Mark Cuban said in an e-mail to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram the Mavericks were working with Stackhouse, and believe he "can be a valuable contributor to the organization on the court and off."
Team president Donnie Nelson told the Star-Telegram: "With our relationship and openly and honestly communicating, we'll be able to come up with a game plan and hopefully that game plan will be one that includes Jerry in a Maverick uniform. If it's just not a comfortable situation, if it's a situation where the minutes are just not there, then we'll work together with his agent and see if there's some win-win together for both of us."