Richaun Holmes - all he contributes is a contract for trading

[KillerLeft]

I think Dwight is a better defensive player than Richaun Holmes although Holmes is a better rebounder.

I don't have anything against Richaun Holmes and I hope he overcomes his eye injury and the personal turmoil of his last few years.  It would be a great if he could become our starter and upgrade our roster.  My real problem is just Mark Cuban polishing another terd and trying to sell it as progress.  For whatever his personal faults, Christian Wood was a much better on-court player last season than Richaun Holmes.  Pointing to Richaun Holmes as the solution to our center problem is disappointing.

I agree with all of this. I'm not quite as disappointed as you, because I feel the evidence points to them having kicked the tires pretty hard on every option out there and that the price was too high on all of them. Others will roll their eyes at the very idea of any price that's within the Mavs power to pay being too much while Luka is on the roster, but the plain truth is that a team must arrange their draft capital, young talent, cap space, etc, basically every currency at their disposal, to acquire TOP talent, and this requires planning. It also requires not spending like real housewives of Beverly Hills on every shiny thing that comes along. Those resources aren't infinite. 

I think Holmes, combined with Powell and Kleber, does represent improvement in the center situation over last year, for sure. The problem is getting the fan base excited about Holmes when it's most likely that he'll be underwhelming, particularly in light of the growing expectations the positive spin brings. I think Powell is fairly likely to be the best "get us to Kleber" option, although it's nice to have another, similar player in that mix for depth. Getting everyone excited about "Richaun Holmes: season saver" is just going to make the public outcry over Powell and the team worse once reality sets in. Even if Holmes does win the job, people who hate Powell are going to hate him, too, eventually. There are some things Holmes does better than Powell and vice versa, but at the end of the day they are at or near the same level, even in the rosiest of Holmes projections.