With the NBA regular season heading into the home stretch, the race for the Most Valuable Player award is heating up. Unlike past years, this year’s MVP isn’t already settled.

Dirk Nowitzki was an obvious choice last year after leading the Dallas Mavericks to the best record in the NBA. This season, it’s not as easy. I see four true candidates and one unlikely dark horse.

That dark horse is none other than Manu Ginobili of the San Antonio Spurs. Ginobili is an extreme long shot to win the MVP but he certainly deserves consideration. He’s had an unbelievable season. Other than a period of time when he struggled with a finger injury, Ginobili has been lights out. Since the All-Star break he’s averaging 23.3 points while shooting over 50% from the floor. He has carried San Antonio as of late and now the Spurs have a chance to end up with the best record in the Western Conference.

Kevin Garnett entered the 2007-08 NBA season as the favorite to walk away with the MVP award. The revamped Boston Celtics were expected to be a great team and Garnett was expected to lead the way. It turns out that the Celtics are a great team but Garnett isn’t putting up the numbers to warrant MVP talk. He’s having a very good season but Paul Pierce and Ray Allen being on his team has taken its toll on his statistics.

Speaking of statistics, Chris Paul has some crazy stats this season. He’s currently averaging 21 points, 11 assists and nearly three steals a game. Not only that, Paul has the New Orleans Hornets playing better than anyone could have imagined. Truthfully, Paul is playing as good or better than anyone in the NBA at this point. However, Paul just doesn’t have the resume to win the MVP at this point in his career.
He’ll need to mix in some postseason success and prove that he’s more than just a one-season wonder.

Kobe Bryant is doing a fantastic job with the Los Angeles Lakers this season. He seems to have finally understood how he needs to play for the Lakers to be successful as a team. He’s had years with better stats but he hasn’t had seasons where he’s played such solid basketball since Shaquille O’Neal left town. If the Lakers finish with the best record in the Western Conference, he could become the favorite to win MVP.

At this second, I have to give LeBron James the nod as the NBA’s top choice for MVP. Statistically, no one can touch him. He’s averaging more than 30 points per game, to go with about eight rebounds and eight assists. His stats are just ridiculous at this point. And while the Cleveland Cavaliers aren’t having a great season, he led the Cavs to the Finals last season and that hasn’t been forgotten. This year in the playoffs, no team will want to play against LeBron. At 23-years-old, this man-child is the best player in the league and the leading MVP candidate.

The only thing NBA coaches know for certain is that one day he will get fired. It happens to every coach who has ever sat on the sidelines. Getting fired is just as much a part of the business as drawing up a play.

In Dallas, the Mavericks are having a good season. They are in the thick of things in an extremely tough Western Conference. That said, it’s time to fire head coach Avery Johnson.

I’m not even saying Johnson is a bad coach because he’s not. He’s actually one of the better coaches in the NBA. If I were starting an NBA team, Avery Johnson would be one of the first five coaches I looked at to hire.

However, Johnson just doesn’t fit the Mavs anymore. With new point guard Jason Kidd, the Mavs no longer need a dictator on the sidelines telling the team exactly what it needs to do. Kidd is a great player but he’s a freelancing player. You can’t put his creativity in a box. You have to let it be free and take the good with the bad.

That philosophy just doesn’t mix well with what Johnson brings to the table. For example, in a recent game with the Mavs lost to the San Antonio Spurs, Johnson took Kidd out of the game with seconds remaining and the Mavs down by two points. Johnson pointed to the need for additional shooters on the court. While that is decent enough logic, Kidd is a player who defies logic.

Johnson has taken the Mavs to great places. He almost brought Dallas a championship in 2006. If it wasn’t for the great play of Dwyane Wade in the finals, Johnson would have a coaching championship under his belt.

But right now, the Mavs need a coach that will allow Kidd to take the reins of the franchise. For good or bad, Kidd is the player who should lead this new-look Mavs squad – not Johnson.

In recent weeks, there have been a lot of rumors swirling around the league that the Dallas Mavericks are interested in Jason Kidd. Those rumors don’t make much sense because while Kidd is a good player, he doesn’t fill a need for the Mavs.

Devin Harris is the point guard for Dallas. He’s a very good defensive player and matchup up well against the star guards in the Western Conference such as Tony Parker and Chris Paul. The last thing the Mavs need is an older, slower point guard that could become a defensive liability.

That said, the Mavs need something. They’ve lost two games in a row – first against the New Jersey Nets and then against the Philadelphia 76ers. Neither game was even that close.

So if the Mavs need some sort of shakeup, who should they go after?  The answer calls Sacramento home.

Ron Artest, the volatile forward of the Sacramento Kings would be a perfect fit for Dallas. While it’d be a bit of a chemistry risk, Avery Johnson is a strong personality at coach and he should be able to keep Artest in line.

Most importantly, Artest would be versatility and toughness to the Mavs. If a team like the Golden State Warriors were to go small on the Mavs, Artest could play power forward while Dirk Nowitzki moved to center. If the Mavs need a player to defend a superstar shooting guard, few defenders in the league are as good out on the perimeter as Artest.

What would it take to get Artest to the Mavs? I think both teams would be happy with a trade that would send Artest and John Salmons to the Mavs, with Jason Terry and Devean George heading to the Kings. The Mavs would lose Terry but Salmons is a similar player who could backup both guard positions. The Kings would get a nice piece to their puzzle in Terry an expiring contract in George.

If the Mavs did this trade and Artest kept his marbles, Dallas would suddenly became a top flight championship contender again.