It's never too early to say I told you so

So last night was game one of the Caron Butler error, whoops I mean era, for Dallas.

And the result? Thunder 99, Mavs 86. Mr Butler? 4 - 16 from the floor with 4 turnovers.

So of course I am going to draw my preferred regression line through this single datapoint and proclaim that the big trade did not really improve Dallas enough to take them to a higher level than they were going (that's what blogging is all about, right?).

Not that I fault Dallas for trying something new. They were not really going anywhere before. I don't think they will get home court for the first round of the playoffs. Right now they are tied in the loss column with the Thunder, who implausibly sit 1/2 game out of fourth place in the West.

I think Marcus Camby will help Portland more than Butler will help the Mavs.