MAVS NEWS:

[F Gump]

Well a lot will depend on the guard situation. We all know Washington, Marshall, Thompson and Hardy do not have great handles under pressure. So now you rely on Dinwiddie to bring the ball up the floor, which he will interpret as a licence to shoot or on Williams, who has played about 1 1/2 meaningful NBA games in his life. Nobody knows how he´ll react, when teams with their starters actually scout for his weaknesses. 

Not likely the team will be bad, since I think you can still be good-ish with crap guards, if you have arguably the best frontcourt in the whole league with Flagg/Marshall/Thompson/AD/Washington/Gafford/Lively.

My guess is that they´ll just get one veteran like a Westbrook and then just take a wait and see approach. Does AD get hurt again? How good is Flagg right away? How is Irving progressing? Where are they at the trade deadline record-wise? Better strategy to tank and trade AD or better to acquire an additional guard and compete for the title. That´s probably how I´d play it. 

Nevertheless I´d still try to get a pick mid/late 1st and draft Denim or Traore, if they fall. The Traore one is so weird. He owned the 2024 Adidas EuroCamp, top scorer and 5th in assists. Played very well in the Nike Hoops Summit. Now he´s behind all the PGs from that tournament like Denim and Jakucionis, cause they went through the easier college route, instead of playing PG against adults at age 18. What are these scouts even doing? Presti is probably all giddey already sitting there with his 15th pick.

"So now you rely on Dinwiddie to bring the ball up the floor, which he will ..." -- You make the assumption that SD will be back. I do not.

In fact, on my theoretical Mavs "roster list" for next season, I have him in the 20s of who is likely to fill up those 15 slots, where a whole lot has to go wrong in their roster-building (of course, Nico's on the job, so there's THAT to consider) PLUS they will have to clear out lots of roster room, before they ever get to him. IMO of course.

Then if not SD, who will bring the ball up the floor? I think the primary one will be Exum or Williams or a 3rd PG we don't have well-defined yet (fwiw I have far more confidence in BW and his skills than you seem to, based on what we saw from him this past season). But I also think at times we will see PJW, Flagg, AD, and others bring the ball up the floor, because I'm not expecting the Mavs to have an offense that is limited to one player always dominating the ball, but the opposite. I also think they will emphasize grab the ball and go, trying to push tempo, which means the ball moves from one end to the other by passing rather than just by slow plodding dribbles.

As for who else, I still think there is a fairly decent chance we'll see an addition like Ball, Paul, Ty Jones, etc. I also see the potential for the signing of a two-way player who is a ball-handling PG who we don't know yet, but will come to know.