Trade & FA 2023-24: Sexton On the Market? | ORL Likes Hartenstein?

[KillerLeft]

How many would have said it was an impossibility to dump Bertans last summer(with more than one year left)? Well, we did it with ease. THJ is no issue 

How true!

Finding trades that work is about catching the intersections of multiple teams' agendas and in such a way that doesn't conflict too much with multiple players' agendas. It's about circumstances as much or more than it's about value. 

The Mavs have been trying and unable to find a taker for THJ for a couple of years now, that's true. But, it's because they've been trying to PACKAGE him with dead weight (last summer it was the rotting corpse of JaVale McGee and his atrocious guaranteed money). That can't be taken as a reflection of THJ's pure value in a vacuum. 

The shame of where things are, currently, is that the first half of this season was VERY good for THJ, and I bet the trade deadline was one his highest water marks, value-wise, in quite some time. If you look at what Hield went for, that might've been the time to move him. I felt at the time that Hardaway would play an integral role down the stretch and in the playoffs for this team, and apparently, the Mavs did, too. But, getting knocked down a peg or two in the rotation (even further from his old starting spot) seemed to mess with his mindset, focus, confidence...whatever. It affected him negatively, somehow. I can find no other explanation for how he's fallen off of a cliff. So, this summer might be his lowest water mark, value-wise, though maybe not - he is an expiring contract of a useful size. 

I actually think he's doing his best right now, in the playoffs, to play the role and minutes he's being given to positive effect, but it's kind of too little too late. He just wasn't able to get his head right with the new, post trade deadline reality of the team, even when the new reality started to succeed. That's on him.

Now, on top of everything else, Hardy is getting the role in the WCF that Hardaway seems to have not thought precious enough to seize down the stretch. He might've even turned his nose up at it a bit, taken it for granted, but that's just speculation. Now, even that support role has been stolen from him. For the first time since we've been discussing the polarizing THJ all these years, I'm confident he won't be a Mav next season. I doubt anyone wants him in that locker room next year.