(01-08-2026, 08:11 PM)F Gump Wrote: "to create a team around AD and Flagg" -- I'm not sure what makes you think I was suggesting everyone gets traded, other than AD, where they start over. I'm close to the polar opposite of that, in fact. 

Here's my pov. REALLY GOOD TALENT is hard to acquire, and getting a roster that has a lot of it is a long hard exercise. The Mavs imo have already done the hard part. They have a LOT of really good talent. They just don't have the right mix in that talent.  

So swap talent for talent, not for air. Yes, pick up extra picks when you can. (Presti, please.)

Yes, do what you can to get rid of bad contracts that Nico saddled them with (Hardy, Martin, DAR) - while keeping in mind to not pay a high price to fix that, because even bad deals will expire eventually if you can't find a quicker solution. But the goal is to always end with more talent, not less. 
.... In that vein, I don't sell my best talent (AD) to fix the problem of too much payroll from having bad contracts on the roster. If they didn't have Hardy, Martin, DAR clogging their cap, they wouldn't even be a taxpayer! Keep the good talent itself (or swap it for similar talent), and look for ways to get rid of the bad clogs (perhaps as you do so). Nico was really EXTREMELY bad at cap planning and management, as well as lots of other skills, but it doesn't have to be that way.

Let me add that I am not a "timelines" guy. It's about who is talented and fits to make the team better. Work to win, and keep winning, and adjust your roster as you go, a piece or two at a time, talent-for-talent when needed, rather than try to be all youngsters or all veterans. You won't have the same roster in 4-5 years anyhow, no matter what you do.

That's what I would do. An expert GM is the guy to do it.

(01-08-2026, 09:19 PM)soog Wrote: I agree with this and I’d add one more. 

Trade talent for talent. Don’t trade for air. Don’t trade for hopes and dreams.

I’d be interested to see a hit rate on draft picks. How many guys drafted at #20 meaningfully contribute to a team during their career and for how long do they do add value?

If Atl offers anything other than the NOP pick I walk. I’ll take my chances with AD, rather than the hope I hit on a couple of later first rounders, which is fairly unlikely.

(01-08-2026, 09:39 PM)mvossman Wrote: Nobody is going to trade younger, cheaper, healthier AD talent for AD.  If you are waiting for that then he will be on this roster until his contract is up, at which point he will become "air".

(01-08-2026, 09:57 PM)soog Wrote: Then let’s wait and see what the team looks like with Kyrie and AD back. I continue to say that you don’t solve one bad decision by making another bad decision. Or as mamma said “Two wrongs don’t make a right.”

(01-09-2026, 12:58 AM)Tyler Wrote: So how much longer can we go without the Trae deal becoming official before people start asking questions?

(01-09-2026, 12:58 AM)Tyler Wrote: So how much longer can we go without the Trae deal becoming official before people start asking questions?

(01-08-2026, 09:39 PM)mvossman Wrote: Nobody is going to trade younger, cheaper, healthier AD talent for AD.  If you are waiting for that then he will be on this roster until his contract is up, at which point he will become "air".

(01-09-2026, 06:17 AM)F Gump Wrote: In fact, that trade happens over and over - it's just not as well-defined or certain (nor did I say it would be) as you have chosen to describe it. 

*One team wants the finished product, whose ability and production is already known, and there's no waiting for him to be developed. He's already been doing it.
*The other team is willing to roll the dice on a player who might turn out to be as good, or even better, but he certainly is no sure thing and will have to develop further. No idea how long it will take, either. As a future draft pick, you don't even know who that player will be, further clouding what might lay ahead.

Both teams are taking a chance that the road ahead with the guy they are getting will go according to plan. But in theory, it's Today's Star (who you think and hope has plenty of years ahead at a high level, but...) for Tomorrow's (with tomorrow's arrival date probably being 3-5 years down the road ...and maybe more ...or maybe never).

In any event, of course I'm not getting a surefire AD-to-be, but I want a player (or a shot at one) who has some high-level upside if all goes well. 

And if you don't give me a reasonable chance to end up somewhere down the road with a player of AD's caliber (once he's been developed and grows), if all goes well, I am really not interested enough to pull the trigger. Maybe explore what's out there from some other team. Maybe I keep him. That doesn't scare me.

(01-09-2026, 06:35 AM)omahen Wrote: Risacher in all aspects fits your description. You personally might not like him, but others might have different opinion. It certainly looks like Mavs have interest in him.

(01-09-2026, 07:58 AM)Dirknows Wrote: Can AD even stay healthy long enough to be traded is honestly the question.

(01-09-2026, 08:47 AM)Smitty Wrote: I've been pretty focused on Atlanta, like most, with all the reporting the last few days. BUT there's been enough people in the media that keep throwing Toronto out there. I tried to do a deeper dive and see what the BEST package is that they could offer. One that could make the Hawks give in and offer the more premium assets like the NOP FRP. This is what I came up with:

DAL: Immanuel Quickley ($32.5M), RJ Barrett ($27.7M), Collin Murray-Boyles ($6.3M), '27 FRP, '28 FRP Swap, '29 FRP, '30 FRP Swap
TOR: Anthony Davis ($54.1M), Caleb Martin ($9.5M), D'Angelo Russell ($5.6M), Dante Exum ($2.2M)

As for the 'pick package', you can do whatever your heart desires there, as they have all their picks. I chose to do it this way because the Mavs don't have a FRP in '27 and they have bad swaps already owed to OKC and SAS in '28 & '30. This move pretty much solves a lot of the headache there.

The 'player package' is not ideal to me. 2 very overpaid 'good' players and CMB, the 9th pick in this past draft.

Quickley is the tough pill to swallow. He'll make $32.5M the next 3.5 years and isn't a great fit with Kyrie, making him the highest paid 6th man in the league, if he were a Mav.

RJ has one more year left on his deal ($29.6M). He's extension eligible after seasons end. The Raptors and him couldn't agree this past cycle. Obviously, he's going to want an even bigger contract, and he's already overpaid IMO. I don't mind his potential fit with Flagg on the basketball court, but the contract stuff is a big no for me, so I just see him as an expiring contract to trade again next year.

CMB is playing 20 MPG now for the Raptors and has flashed some good things as a rookie. He's another PF though, where the Mavs are pretty deep at the moment. The Raptors probably don't want to include him in a deal I'd imagine. I'm simply coming up with what I believe to be the Raptors best AD trade package.

Don't just skip by the fact that the Mavs also get rid of two bad contracts/players in this deal with Martin and DLO off the books. Exum had to be included to make the trade legal. It frees up a roster spot for Dallas also, while keeping TOR $371K below the Apron.

The Mavs say they want future financial flexibility [expirings], young player(s), and pick(s) in an AD trade. This checks 2 of those boxes...

(01-09-2026, 01:37 AM)F Gump Wrote: Is the Trae deal still not official?

(01-09-2026, 09:10 AM)Dirknows Wrote: This is the “picks” centered package, and honestly that might be too many picks to give up for AD.

(01-09-2026, 09:10 AM)Dirknows Wrote: I thought of a similar idea from Toronto, but I think CMB is probably close to untouchable to them, they just inserted him in the starting lineup. However, we know Toronto will go all in if it gives them a shot to win it all. This is the “picks” centered package, and honestly that might be too many picks to give up for AD.

(01-09-2026, 07:08 AM)F Gump Wrote: Perhaps, but it's just as likely the focus on R was just another way of saying they didn't want Trae. Once Trae is out of the equation, R - in a pkg w KP/Kennard - is a necessity, to satisfy the trade match (since they make their higher salaries all off limits). 

I don't know of anyone who sees R as having star potential. Do you? 

Make it JJ and now you're talking.