MAVS NEWS:

[audiosway]

I get it.  It is depressing.  We made a bet on AD's health and that we could win with Kyrie as our only starter level creator.  We crapped out on both.  To make matters worse, the path forward isn't very inspiring:

You can't trade Kyrie this summer.  He's damaged and will be free at the end of 25/26 assuming he takes his PO.  Even by the TDL, he won't be back to full speed if he's playing at all.  Oh, and you have to use some asset to replace his role at some level.  SD and Exum are both free and you aren't in a great position to add anyone except by trade, the NTMLE or through the draft.

You probably can't trade AD this summer.  I assume they will shut him down and maybe even do surgery.  You will get pennies on the dollar if you try to trade him before he shows the world he can stay healthy for more than a day.

Klay has very little value.  Without Luka or Kyrie he's going to look more and more pedestrian.  The same probably applies to Martin, Christie and Naji, but at least they don't cost as much.

Your most exciting young player has a broken bone in his foot (the history of bigs with feet problems isn't great).

This summer is extension time for PJ and Gafford.  Do you do the extensions?  Do you trade them?  Do you keep them without extending?  That just seems like a great way to get "Brunsoned" again.  What makes that even more difficult is you probably can't sort out a plan for Kyrie and AD until the TDL or maybe the summer of 2027.  Dark times.

That rabbit hole led me to my freak out. I started thinking about all of this stuff after hearing of Kyrie's injury. Just wow. The Luka trade set off a domino effect that just keeps leading to more and more bad things. Gaff is injured because of playing heavy minutes with Lively not being in the lineup. Kyrie is injured now from playing too many minutes as the only creator.

Can you resign these guys to extensions or get "Brunsoned" like you said. Do they get traded for KD. There is another old player that I don't like.

Kyrie opts in now and if Nico stays could very well get a max deal at age 34?!? Lively is becoming AD part II with the injuries.

AD will realistically get us 50+ games a year for the next 2-3 years. On the court this team would be amazing. Will they ever all see the court at the same time? Are we in for the Deron Williams days of the Nets? A team with a big 3/4 that no one could ever stay healthy. And you can't trade them because they are damaged.

I'm finally starting to feel a little better by just stepping away for a few minutes. It's just surreal coming off of a finals run thinking it was the beginning of great things. Now here we are.

Thanks to all of you guys for being on here and keeping this running.