(07-06-2025, 01:45 PM)Kidnova Wrote: Yeah, I think it's obvious this team will be missing a key piece until Kyrie returns, but even with him out I don't think this is a lottery team, barring injury, of course.

(07-06-2025, 09:08 PM)mvossman Wrote: Without Kyrie its probably a play-in team.  Any significant injury time from AD probably puts them in the lottery.  At that point they would we relying on an 18 year old rookie, a Dlo bounce back and vet mins for offensive creation.

(07-06-2025, 09:33 PM)KillerLeft Wrote: Man, I am way higher on this team than you are...it worries me.

(07-06-2025, 10:15 PM)mvossman Wrote: I don't think its that important really.  I see no path to contention this coming season, so the focus should be on seeing what works and what doesn't and developing Flagg as much as possible. 

(07-07-2025, 01:55 AM)F Gump Wrote: Mavs have signed Kyrie and DAR. Unless the Kyrie numbers are smaller than rumored (unlikely), their next move will have to be a player-(and salary)-clearing move. No room to sign Exum under A2.

(07-07-2025, 06:52 AM)Smitty Wrote: Any prediction? 

The easiest path is waiving Williams and trying to get him back on the last 2-way.

"The contract includes a base salary of $2,270,735 for the 2025-26 season. A portion of the contract, $200,000, became guaranteed on July 7th, and another portion, $850,000, will be guaranteed on opening night. The contract becomes fully guaranteed if he is still on the roster on January 10th."

So, Williams can make the $200,000 that he gets guaranteed today. Then, the Mavs can guarantee all of the $636,435 2-way deal. That gives him $836,435 completely guaranteed right now, vs the non-guaranteed $850,000 opening night and $1,220,735, 10 January.

It limits him to only 50 games again and he wouldn't be playoff eligible. I think Williams is an NBA player and deserves a real roster spot. Do you see this as being any realistic path? If Williams would even agree, is it something you'd do? Or do you prefer sending a player like Omax or Hardy for air, even if the cost is a second-round pick or two?

(07-07-2025, 07:47 AM)DanSchwartzgan Wrote: Hoops Prospects has a depth chart that does a pretty good job of keeping up with the news flow.  That's probably the easiest place to search for teams with openings at either PF or C.

(07-07-2025, 12:34 AM)F Gump Wrote: "The issue for me is they took a massive drop off in elite creation from Luka to AD..."

Luka as an individual is unquestionably an elite creator of offense in quantity. But how much of that was because his game is so heliocentric (ie, to what extent was it to the detriment or even prevention of anyone else doing so)?

It's hard to feather out Luka offense vs DAL as a whole last season since they played way more without him than with him (he only played 22). But in LA, Luka's personal offensive rating ppp was not any different than LA as a whole, which was middle tier (12th) in the league. I would expect the delta of Luka-in-LA vs LA to be significant and it's not.

I think it's possible the Mavs offense would have been okay after the trade, with it being spread among many (Kyrie doing more, plus AD added, plus others doing more than they had) who would each increase a bit, but we never had a chance to see, so who knows.

IMO the big drop-off is more from the loss of Kyrie as a big piece in a more diverse offense, and basically only DAR added to try to fill that hole. Having Flagg on the floor will help, perhaps a lot, but can Flagg + DAR = Kyrie in offense? If not, it could be ugly offense. (FWIW I would wager we will see not only a more diverse O but also a faster push-the-pace-every-time approach, which might make a huge diff and be very productive.)

However, even if O is ugly, all is not necessarily lost -- maybe they can make up the diff on the other end. Neither Luka nor Kyrie was exactly dominant defensively (heck, Luka often failed to even show on D, preferring to whine to refs instead, which really did piss me off a lot and felt lazy). So it should be interesting to see how it plays out as a whole. And I suspect Kyrie will return sooner than he wants to say (imo he's just satisfying and managing fan interest and expectations -- Nico should watch and learn).

(07-07-2025, 09:20 AM)Smitty Wrote: I just did a quick scan of Hoops Prospects. To me, the need for Center around the league is greater than PF or SG. 

The only team that stood out to me as a possible Hardy destination was BKN.

Two teams that could want to take a flyer on Omax were BKN and WAS.

The potential Powell teams include BOS, CHA, GSW, IND, LAL, TOR.

I didn't go over the financial situations for all these teams, and I know some are already rumored to be in on free agents that could fill their needs.


Going back to what Gump suggested, I could see Powell being the easiest to move, especially if it's just cash attached to him. BUT then I'd want Kia Jones here. Which means you'd have to make yet another move.... 

My perfect scenario would probably be something like Powell and cash to IND. Then Hardy or Omax to BKN. Hardy probably costing a SRP. Omax maybe netting one. Sign Kai Jones to replace Powell.

I guess the good thing is we're really only talking about the fringes of the roster. This team is deep.

(07-07-2025, 10:06 AM)mvossman Wrote: If we want to ditch Powell to sign Kai, why wouldn't other teams simply sign Kai for the min instead of taking on Powell?  Maybe Indiana to hook back up with Rick?

(07-07-2025, 10:06 AM)mvossman Wrote: If we want to ditch Powell to sign Kai, why wouldn't other teams simply sign Kai for the min instead of taking on Powell?  Maybe Indiana to hook back up with Rick?

(07-07-2025, 01:42 AM)KillerLeft Wrote: Wow, I do. I'm not predicting contention, really, but I think it's super possible.

(07-07-2025, 09:59 AM)mvossman Wrote: I don't think splitting up elite creation minutes across lessor creators is particularly effective.