11-06-2022, 04:28 PM
(This post was last modified: 11-06-2022, 04:33 PM by Scott41theMavs.)
Surprisingly after last summer, I think the conversation I see here is losing out on what is probably the most important aspect of the whole situation:
1) When we disastrously Nashed Jalen Brunson, the consolation prize was that we at least got Wood for relatively cheap. Wood kept our talent quotient at the same level that it was last year (and it would have been higher if we would have used the tax MLE in a non-droolingly-moronic way, but oh well).
2) This is a team with significant negative cap room, no draft pick this year, and virtually no trade assets.
3) The three possible outcomes of the Wood saga are a) trading him before the deadline, b) he walks in free agency, or c) we re-sign him. While we will have access to our future draft picks by the time b) took place and a slightly higher level of hope and flexibility, I would hope that even the biggest I'm-with-Kidd-we-have-to-make-Wood-a-success-the-right-way Stan would recognize that that scenario would be apocalyptic for the Mavs' talent quotient at a time that Luka needs to be winning the first of his six career rings. They simply cannot let it happen.
4) a) is going to bring back pennies on the dollar, and my understanding is that by the time of the TDL, we still won't be able to incorporate future firsts in a trade, which means that it's a Brunson-on-steroids TDL situation and the return is going to be even less than what we would have gotten for Brunson last year. In other words, I don't see any way that the Mavs do that, even if Wood goes Latrell Sprewell on Kidd. The damage to the talent quotient would be too catastrophic, not much better than b).
5) In short, the Mavs basically have no realistic alternative to c). They do need to balance the goals of incorporating Wood into the team concept and wining and dining him. He must be successful here to the point of it making sense to re-sign him at his market value. If he's pissed at Kidd and Kidd is still employed, his Mavs price will likely be quite a bit higher than his market value. If that's the case, it's still a bad situation for the Mavs (nuke the talent quotient, or tie up a malcontent who doesn't fit completely into the coach's vision to an untradeable contract?) - one that might indeed make Cuban say "Hell with it" and let him walk. As I have said before, I think that leads to a Luka trade demand.
6) Bottom line is, Cuban and Nico have to be aware that c) is their only realistic option, and it behooves them to make sure Kidd knows this and is very careful managing Wood. Kidd's likely to need the more mature players like SD to get into Wood's ear so that he realizes it's important to his own career to make this work. At the very least, the Mavs need to work out the on-court situation with Wood to the extent that he helps more than he hurts in the playoffs (he's already 100% there in terms of regular season play, imho, but I understand the concerns when we're playing playoff ball), get him locked up on a new market value (as opposed to larger) contract, and then do what they had been planning to do with Brunson - have him on roster as a future trade chip.
In short, I tend to be somewhere between FGump/Dan and Kammrath/KL - yes, Kidd does need to mold Wood into the team concept, but it's life-or-death crucial that he doesn't piss off this rather fragile-egoed young man by the end of the process. I didn't really outline the best-case scenario - I believe that if Kidd makes a resounding success out of playoff Wood with the Mavs, *and* if we're healthy, *and* if Kidd develops Green properly, then we're likely raising a championship banner next fall with Wood re-signed to a max contract we were happy to give him. I think the team has that much promise. We can only hope things turn out that way.
1) When we disastrously Nashed Jalen Brunson, the consolation prize was that we at least got Wood for relatively cheap. Wood kept our talent quotient at the same level that it was last year (and it would have been higher if we would have used the tax MLE in a non-droolingly-moronic way, but oh well).
2) This is a team with significant negative cap room, no draft pick this year, and virtually no trade assets.
3) The three possible outcomes of the Wood saga are a) trading him before the deadline, b) he walks in free agency, or c) we re-sign him. While we will have access to our future draft picks by the time b) took place and a slightly higher level of hope and flexibility, I would hope that even the biggest I'm-with-Kidd-we-have-to-make-Wood-a-success-the-right-way Stan would recognize that that scenario would be apocalyptic for the Mavs' talent quotient at a time that Luka needs to be winning the first of his six career rings. They simply cannot let it happen.
4) a) is going to bring back pennies on the dollar, and my understanding is that by the time of the TDL, we still won't be able to incorporate future firsts in a trade, which means that it's a Brunson-on-steroids TDL situation and the return is going to be even less than what we would have gotten for Brunson last year. In other words, I don't see any way that the Mavs do that, even if Wood goes Latrell Sprewell on Kidd. The damage to the talent quotient would be too catastrophic, not much better than b).
5) In short, the Mavs basically have no realistic alternative to c). They do need to balance the goals of incorporating Wood into the team concept and wining and dining him. He must be successful here to the point of it making sense to re-sign him at his market value. If he's pissed at Kidd and Kidd is still employed, his Mavs price will likely be quite a bit higher than his market value. If that's the case, it's still a bad situation for the Mavs (nuke the talent quotient, or tie up a malcontent who doesn't fit completely into the coach's vision to an untradeable contract?) - one that might indeed make Cuban say "Hell with it" and let him walk. As I have said before, I think that leads to a Luka trade demand.
6) Bottom line is, Cuban and Nico have to be aware that c) is their only realistic option, and it behooves them to make sure Kidd knows this and is very careful managing Wood. Kidd's likely to need the more mature players like SD to get into Wood's ear so that he realizes it's important to his own career to make this work. At the very least, the Mavs need to work out the on-court situation with Wood to the extent that he helps more than he hurts in the playoffs (he's already 100% there in terms of regular season play, imho, but I understand the concerns when we're playing playoff ball), get him locked up on a new market value (as opposed to larger) contract, and then do what they had been planning to do with Brunson - have him on roster as a future trade chip.
In short, I tend to be somewhere between FGump/Dan and Kammrath/KL - yes, Kidd does need to mold Wood into the team concept, but it's life-or-death crucial that he doesn't piss off this rather fragile-egoed young man by the end of the process. I didn't really outline the best-case scenario - I believe that if Kidd makes a resounding success out of playoff Wood with the Mavs, *and* if we're healthy, *and* if Kidd develops Green properly, then we're likely raising a championship banner next fall with Wood re-signed to a max contract we were happy to give him. I think the team has that much promise. We can only hope things turn out that way.
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