Trade & FA 2023-24: Vezenkov+Kings Are Done

[KillerLeft]

Gafford is far better than he's being depicted here. There's an incredible amount of recency bias and "plus minus tells us everthing" nonsense going on.

In addition, the presence of Gafford makes Lively better, and vice versa, because of things like injuries, fouls, fatigue, bad games at times, and so on. Gafford plays the other teams starter, when he is fresh. If you erase Gafford, you are going to get frustrated with the limits and flaws of Lively, which right now get minimized by having another very playable good center to use.

Most important to consider is that while centers look to be inexpensive, the fact is that the Mavs have shown no ability whatsoever to identify and sign that cheap center. Now that it isn't broke, I don't want to fix it with the next Cauley-Stein, McGee, Powell, etc. I don't care what anyone says, Gafford is WORLDS better than any of those.

I agree with the vast majority of the logic here, but take a little offense to the plus minus comment, because it is not being used to tell me everything, but rather to confirm what I believe I saw watching the games. If you believe you saw something different, great, but no need to minimize my point to make yours. 

I hated the way Gafford played in the majority of the first two rounds, and the totality of the second round. Now, maybe he improves the next time around, because Lord knows others like Brunson sure have. The playoffs are very difficult. But, I have a feeling OKC is going to be a perennial opponent, and he did not look like a good fit against them, at least to me, at least this time. I have maintained since about two weeks after the trade was made that Gafford was good, but was being overrated here. I still feel that way, strongly.

And again, all I care about is that Jones is retained. I am simply trying to envision as many ways as possible that could happen.