Trade & FA 2024-25:

[KillerLeft]

That's fair, although I disagree. The clock is ticking faster now more than ever. And I just look at our current roster and see two different schools of thought plaguing it. Nico constructed one of the best Luka teams the Mavs ever built, then promptly traded away the Luka part of that. It makes guys to me like Naji, Klay, and PJ (although much less on PJ) more expendable. We have maybe 2-3 years left with Kyrie+AD. 

We still need more offensive creation and shooting, and a reliable go-to iso player. Kyrie has been that in spades since the trade, but he is literally the only elite player on this team that can do that. And despite his immense talent, Kyrie is still easier to shut down given his size and game. 

KD alleviates that issue. He also brings size and switchability. KD is one of the few players in the league that can keep pace with Luka's offense and does so on very high efficiency. Now KD cannot create looks like Luka, but Kidd's new system is hell bent on anti-heliocentric ball as possible. So while KD cannot create the looks traditionally, his gravity should open up way more looks for everyone else in this ball movement system. 

And really, are we married to any of the guys that we're shipping out for KD? Gafford and potentially PJ are the only ones that sting, but we wouldn't be building around them regardless if the team heads towards a rebuild. Further as FGump pointed out, they provide pretty great value to a 3rd team that can help mitigate the cost of a potential KD trade. 


Finally we've seen KD+Kyrie play together before and they were a terrifying duo. They took the Bucks to 7 and were 1 KD toe nail  away from potentially going to the  finals. Now add Davis to that instead of Harden and you have a very balanced trio whose strengths play off each other. Health will always be the caveat going forward, but I'd rather we go for it now that the front office has made their choices.

Some good points here - I'm just out on the three max guys model. It's that simple for me. I like having two and a good team around them. Plus, KD is just soooo old. I'm not a guy who thinks any age that starts with 3 is a problem, but a 36 year old max guy who you have to give up most of the rest of your youth to get seems like the worst possible move to me.