(06-18-2022, 03:35 PM)SleepingHero Wrote: My hot take from this trade is that Wood won't be a center for us moving forward, but rather a high powered offensive wing and will take more of Maxi’s minutes.

(06-18-2022, 02:19 PM)Kammrath Wrote: Well yeah, after you see the numbers it isn't a concern. He is longer or about as long as even the best centers in the league. 

I personally think his weight and thin build is a huge advantage both for 1) injuries and 2) for mobility/athleticism. I honestly don't worry about him getting "pushed around." Don't think it will be a big issue in the vast majority of situations.

(06-18-2022, 03:35 PM)SleepingHero Wrote: My hot take from this trade is that Wood won't be a center for us moving forward, but rather a high powered offensive wing

(06-18-2022, 06:13 PM)MrGoat Wrote:   I'd like it a lot more if we used one of those open roster spots to get JaVale McGee's 270 lb ass in here who kept opponents at under 50% at the rim. Not to mention being decent on offense and probably pretty cheap to attain too.

(06-18-2022, 07:06 PM)F Gump Wrote: Assuming the rumors are true that Ayton will be gone, McGee is likely to be kept by PHX (who can pay more than Mavs can, and where he already has a home) as a priority. Even if they keep Ayton, I suspect McGee will be tough to pry away, unfortunately.

(06-18-2022, 08:13 PM)MarkAguirreWrathofGod Wrote: Btw, no way in hell I’m giving Josh Green for Favors. Presti would say yes to that Green  trade in an instant. Green is so undervalued in the Mavs fan community. He’s still younger than Keegan Murray who is about to go top 10. Imagine Green had stayed at Arizona and was coming out this year as a 21 year old Junior. He might be a top 10 pick! I digress… Favors would fit well here but he’s always injured. If the cost was just a second and tax for Cuban then sure! But no way Cuban pays that tax for our 3rd or 4th big, as Favors makes like 10m I think.

(06-18-2022, 08:54 PM)F Gump Wrote: THJ for Favors/JaGreen is close to cash neutral for 2022-23, and leaves Powell on the roster as an emergency fill should Favors be injured. It also gives two expiring contracts, in case something tasty pops up at the TDL that needs significant filler.

Or, Powell for Favors might alternately work, one expiring for another. Re the issue of Favors health, the best answer might be to play the bulky center off the floor with 48 mins of small ball (ie, Wood-Kleber) wearing them out from the arc, rather than having another traditional C.

(06-18-2022, 09:48 PM)Mavs2021 Wrote: Why would the Thunder do this? The best case Presti would accept is that he trades these players (Favors/Green) into air, since that creates dumpster capspace and roster spots again. But as we have seen with the 30th pick, he always finds a way to generate some extra value. He´s not taking on long-term money in THJ that is much harder to move.

(06-18-2022, 03:35 PM)SleepingHero Wrote: Ok so in classic fashion as soon as I am unable to reliably be on the computer the Mavs make a move and I have to bide my time before I can post.
I am surprisingly lukewarm on the move. There are some obvious positives that Wood brings, but also some glaring negatives that I figured would have disqualified any Wood trade under the old regime. I suppose the new MBT is willing to make these moves and I don’t mind that at all. Before making my post I decided to watch 5 Rocket games to try and get a feel of Wood. I deliberately sought 2 good games (as said by Rocket fans) and 2 bad games (again as said by Rocket fans) and then 1 random game with no prior research.

Onto the positives:
• The dude is an offensive force. He is as dynamic of a scorer as we’ve ever had next to Luka. He makes moves that make you go “Wow, a 6’10 guy can do THAT??” He reminds me of Durant at times with his fluidity and ability to make quick moves with 1 dribble.

• He’s an absolute bully at the rim. When locked in he’s explosive and I can see him as a great lob threat. He's a willing passer, although I don't think he's very good at that. He can get tunnel vision as well. 

• In the Rockets offense, Silas appeared to use Wood as a floor spacer but never really involved him in the primary action (sound familiar? *Cough* Tingus). Despite that, I found that Wood really excelled in that role and appeared to suit his game. If anything, he reminded of how Maxi sat out at the top of the key in the playoffs, except he sometimes would put the ball on the floor, made 1 dribble, and dunked from near the FT line. His screens ranged from good to non-existent (ala the KP special). 

• Defensively the guy can move his feet. I watched one game where he played vs. Memphis and was routinely attacked by Ja in a PnR setting. Wood not only stayed with Ja, but looked able to guard the perimeter in droves. He appeared like a guard at times with this ability, meaning he doesn’t have to ONLY play drop coverage like most bigs in the NBA. This alone makes me think he can survive on D here with Kidd’s switch and attack space defense.

Some negatives:
• He’s not a big guy. Weird saying that as he’s 6’10 with a 7’3 wingspan, but despite his measurables, he never felt like he played like his size. Sometimes that worked in his favor, but sometimes he was overmatched.

• He gets routinely bullied on the boards. In the games I watched I saw him barely try to box out and instead he tried to out jump people. Is that because he didn’t care because he was on a terrible team? Or does he have bad habits?

• His defensive effort was so lackadaisical. When he made a big play or got showed up it seemed like he made a point to turn it on, and he actually had good possessions, but it’s concerning that it took a negative play to spurn him to actually try. Something to watch.
• His attitude scares the shit out of me. He screams to me a “Me-First” player. We’ve seen that song and dance before with our former Latvian behemoth, and I was willfully ignorant of it at the time. But after hearing almost every one of our guys (most recently JB) saying something along the lines of “we stopped looking for our own thing and decided to want to win after January” I.E after we traded the locker room cancer we were better, it makes me incredibly wary about adding ANY sort of personality that is even remotely cut from the same cloth.


Overall again I’m kind of indifferent about the trade. I don’t see Wood really fixing our rim protection nor our rebounding but it’s obvious his offensive talent is immense. The Mavs basically added in my eyes a nightly 20 point a game scorer that can attack the rim and hit threes at a great rate. That kind of consistent scoring was something we always needed. In the playoffs we always were saying “who’s going to step up with Luka tonight? Some nights it was JB who answered the call, sometimes Dinwiddie rose to the occasion, and even Maxi/DFS/Bullock showed up. But no matter we always needed at LEAST 1.5 guys to step up along with Luka to win a game and we never knew who it would be. Wood in my eyes can almost be written in sharpie as a guy that WILL step up on offense every night and be a reliable 20 point scorer. Add in JB and Dinwiddie and we have a potent offense.  Defensively, Wood has the tools to be good. He has one of the rarest skills for a big and that’s being able to guard the perimeter effectively and that’s what I find the most intriguing.

My hot take from this trade is that Wood won't be a center for us moving forward, but rather a high powered offensive wing and will take more of Maxi’s minutes. I’ve also seen Wood be compared to Porzingis, and I believe they couldn’t play more different. Aside from being a tall stretch big, they aren’t the same player at all nor do they play alike.

I give the trade overall an A-. Woods offensive talent alone makes him worth the 26th pick and then some. Mavs got him for a lot cheaper than I could have imagined. I do hope they find a way to make sure his attitude doesn't throw a wrench in the team.

(06-18-2022, 10:36 PM)F Gump Wrote: Not necessarily so.

Presti is running a Buy-A-Player service, more or less. He took players like Horford and Kemba and D Green and CP3 and others, with a view that he would have them on his shelf where GMs could shop for a player they need, at a later date. It's not so much about the years with Presti, and more about who might bring a higher value for him at a later date.

Now he might not think that THJ can net him more than Favors-JaGreen. But he might. Some team may need a scorer/shooter at the TDL or next summer, to bolster playoff hopes, and THJ (whose contract is not onerous) might be the very guy.

The Mavs can't go that same route like Presti, because they would have to get a good fit back in return. But all Presti cares about is the sellability of what he gets in return - fit doesn't matter at all.

(06-19-2022, 01:40 AM)Mavs2021 Wrote: I´d argue given that Favors/Green are expiring, Presti actually loses the trade.

(06-18-2022, 06:22 PM)Winter Wrote: I'm sure he is going to play center for the Mavericks. Reports are that he has not played well as a wing when put with another center, and I'm guessing Kidd and Nico mapped this out initially and penciled him in as a starting center - where he is clearly more comfortable. The center position is where his offensive tools can best be utilized with Doncic .

Now it's possible Maxi gets fewer minutes on the wing, but I see Maxi as a backup center and a wing that can move between the two positions in a way Wood can't (as of yet). And fewer minutes for Maxi is not a bad thing. 

With a little more depth, this is a very good team.

(06-19-2022, 02:32 AM)SleepingHero Wrote: I suppose what I really meant was, yes Wood will be a "center" for this team, but he really is going to play as a wing in my eyes. At least, his offensive game resembles that to me. Wood's value really lies in his ability to create for himself. Heck Wood even has the ability to bring the ball up and initiate the offense. When, if ever, have we had a center be able to get a rebound on one end and then start the offense on the other? Zaza maybe...?  I see him playing a more "PF" role as in he's not going to be guarding the Deandre Ayton's/Rudy Goberts when push comes to shove, but he does have the ability to effectively neutralize those types of players because of his offensive game being able to pull them away from the paint. 

That's my biggest concern about this trade (not even broaching the attitude concerns here). Because while the Mavs basically doubled down on their approach of small ball everything, they didn't really get more versatile and fix the "big man" problem we all saw in the Warriors series. We're still going to get bullied by the Embiid's/Gobert's/Ayton"s/ and perhaps even the Looney's still. 

BUT one can argue that doubling down is exactly what the Mavs needed. As getting bullied by Gobert/Ayton in the previous two series didn't work, and Wood's offense probably would have changed the entire dynamic vs. the Warriors. He alone could've punished them inside and help take pressure off of our shooters and stop their zone.

(06-19-2022, 02:32 AM)SleepingHero Wrote: That's my biggest concern about this trade (not even broaching the attitude concerns here). Because while the Mavs basically doubled down on their approach of small ball everything, they didn't really get more versatile and fix the "big man" problem we all saw in the Warriors series. We're still going to get bullied by the Embiid's/Gobert's/Ayton"s/ and perhaps even the Looney's still. 

(06-19-2022, 02:49 AM)F Gump Wrote: I agree with your conclusion ("doubling down is exactly what the Mavs needed"). 

You note that Wood isn't an answer to Gobert and Ayton, but (a) those teams lost to the Mavs even without Wood, and (b) those centers the Mavs supposedly couldn't handle got played off the court, not vice versa. Kleber was the reason, and Wood adds more of the same ilk.

As for Looney/GS, it can be argued that the Mavs simply lacked ENOUGH small-ball types when they got to GS, as they were running on fumes by long minutes for such players in getting there. Adding a Wood, means DFS or Luka aren't playing center when Kleber sits, and someone gets badly needed rest minutes. Add yet another playable guy (THJ, or better), and that probably goes even farther in changing that GS outcome. And in light of the big lead in G2 that was lost when the Mavs simply ran out of gas, they were probably closer than we realize.

(06-18-2022, 11:27 PM)burekemde Wrote: I think Powell also fits perfectly our scheme. He just doesnt have the talent to excel in WCF, but he is a key depth player.

A player that doesnt fit our scheme but is an asset is THJ. He plays outside of the scheme of the team and teamplay IMO, despite being a good shooter and well liked teammate with good basketball skills. Both offensively and defensively he is not a fit with what we like to do scheme wise. I definitely think they are looking to move him. We had a ton of success without him and improved in terms of team cohesion as well, which to me is not a coincidence.