If you are new to Asian cuisine, but find Chinese food too oily, and Thai food too spicy, consider trying a Vietnamese restaurant. I was out having noodles with my family when I overheard a young woman at another table giving her order. She ordered “Pho” or soup noodles and listed the item number, but instead of regular beef, she wanted beef tendons, and she wanted to add tripe and fish balls as well. All this is fine and good, but the kicker was when she asked the waiter, “Same price, right?” Uh, no.

With this next player, there is no need to modify your order, because you will get exactly what you paid for. And a third-round pick might still just be the right price.

Round 3, Pick 1: Jason Kidd, PG, Dallas Mavericks.

Here are the numbers and league ranks for Kidd from last season.

Field Goal Percentage: 0.416 (did not rank)
Free Throw Percentage: 0.819 (52nd)
Three-pointers made: 131 (1.6 per game) (26th)
Points: 9.0 (did not rank)
Rebounds: 6.2 (68th)
Assists: 8.7 (6th)
Steals: 1.98 (3rd)
Blocks: 0.5 (did not significantly rank)
Turnovers: 2.28 (42nd)

I tended to avoid Kidd on draft day even when he was at the peak of his prowess, simply because I could not pull the trigger on making a 10 ppg scorer my first or second round pick. Kidd will shoot blanks on many nights. Yet if you stick those numbers in three-pointers made, boards, assists, and steals onto even a 15 ppg scorer, you have a legitimate first-round pick. Father Time has slowly marched towards Kidd, but he has modified his game very effectively. What he can still do, he does at a high level. Dallas is loaded on a fantasy level, and Kidd will have Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Terry, and Shawn Marion receiving his passes all year and the Mavericks should be fine even if Josh Howard misses the start of the season.

Like Caron Butler, I like how Kidd fits into a fantasy team headed by LeBron James superbly well. Like Butler, he hits the boards from a non-traditional position. His trifecta in treys, dimes, and steals fit in with LeBron and his production in those categories like a glove. LeBron will coast to a top three ranking (at least) in scoring, so he can offset the disadvantage in Kidd and his low scoring output. Having no centers at this point could be a bit of a concern, but good value awaits in rounds four or five (Nene, Andris Biedrins, Andrea Bargnani). If you really feel the need to draft a center here, Brook Lopez looks like the pick when current average draft position is reviewed.

Overall, Kidd looks like a rock-solid third-round pick this year, especially if you have inherited some injury risk after the first two rounds of your draft.

The Master List can be used to find players previously picked in this mock draft. I will try to make sure this gets updated regularly.