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[KillerLeft]

KL, btw I would assume Kai (if signed) is on a 2 year minimum or a 1+1 TO, or something giving Mavs 2 years of control for doing the deal. At the minimum, why not.get longer control, to better reward the effort?

I also think a 3rd-S C is a job the Mavs  will continue to fill, for multiple reasons including developing for future needs. I do not include players who position-flex in the roster allocation numbers, even though they obviously impact distribution of minutes. (If such a player gets injured, and you have him listed in 2 positions, it creates 2 holes to fill by the injury to only one player. That's an instant crisis. So imo better to fully stock each position.)

Ok, but the position is fully stocked, because Powell is here. You just like Jones better, and I get that. 

I think it's possible they like Powell better, and in fact, if both players were on the market, looking for minimums, I'd guess Powell would've been signed already. Obviously, I don't know that, and that's not the part I care about in this conversation, necessarily. 

End of day, the way you feel/felt about Exum AND Jones is the way I feel/felt about one or the other, depending on how this Gafford thing shook out. If they had traded Gafford for a starting level guard, hypothetically, I might've really pined for Jones to be added, and in some scenarios I might even be making a similar argument about how Exum wasn't needed enough to go to great lengths to sign him. But, with Gafford here, I thought Exum was absolutely crucial, and I could go either way with the Kai Jones/Powell thing. 

I don't mean to trivialize the "around the margins" type of moves, as I think over time, how a team handles those can make life better/easier when it comes to team building, and you can even find some real gems that way. But, it's tough for me to zero in on one such move at a time when I, personally, don't see a path to on-court contribution for either player in question, and option A is coming off the books at year's end, anyway. I think the biggest argument (maybe I'm wrong) in favor would be to lower this season's payroll enough to allow for more "wiggle room" to deal with the sort of trouble they got into late last season, but if I'm thinking that way I'm probably more focused on Hardy than Powell. 

On the other hand, I suppose I'd be happy that they made this move we're discussing. It's just not something that will make or break the summer for me (and not finding a way to bring back Exum would have).