MAVS NEWS:

[KillerLeft]

Well duh, yes DP is already signed and fills C3 need (more or less), and it would take effort to have Kai instead.

However, we saw Kai here last season, and he was better than DP. Right? You aren't saying you saw otherwise, are you? He's also younger and perhaps has some future upside (and I doubt ANYONE would say that of DP). And his salary is less, so if you can swap Kai for DP you also gain some future payroll flexibility maybe. So why the pushback?

-- None of this has any relevance to Gaff decision (done), Exum (coming somehow), or Hardy (how would moving Hardy have ANY bearing on Kai-for-DP). Hardy feels like a completely diff (very unrelated) issue, however if you have a tie-in ...

[ADDED. Re Exum, my wish has never said Kai instead of Exum. Exum WILL BE added by some means and this is what else I wish to see also after Exum; to be very clear, if the only way for space for Exum was waiving DP, then by all means we add Exum. A commitment has already been made to Exum, so obviously there is no scenario in which Exum is not added.]

I will say that you perhaps have assumed this Kai-for-DP wish is only about a one-year fill-in, to save a few bucks for a year and be a smidge improved w C3 -- nope, those are not my general primary motives. Yes it saves a few, and yes, it does help justify the move, but if you will recall, I only brought that savings up when you said Kai-for-DP would add cost for owners.

However, I am seeing a road for planning ahead, seeing (maybe) an available cheaper younger backup, a player who can be developed, maybe improve and maybe help for a few years. Or more. For minimum while we figure it out. Replacing a player of no real use anymore.

SPECIFICS. I would want a 2-year min deal w Kai (yr 2 ng), or a 1+1 (to), or similar, but an ongoing deal (not a 1 yr deal -- if he said 1 yr only, I say no). Sadly Mavs have no way to offer more than 2 yrs. However, 2 years means if he does develop, Mavs have a path (Early Bird) to signing permission to keep him. IMO we had a successful tryout w Kai who showed much promise (!) so should follow up accordingly.

As for every other point above, and again, only my opinion:

Yeah, I think Powell might still be better than Jones in this situation. He's experienced, plays hard, is well respected around the league, and in that scenario that matters this season...let's say game 4 of round 1, someone is hurt, then someone else gets into foul trouble, but you want to stay pretty big, and have to play one of those two guys. I'd honestly rather have Powell in that situation. He's been there before. 

Again, if Gafford was gone, I'd absolutely be thinking more about locking in a good, cheap 3rd guy with some type of upside, hoping to get ahead of the curve for this season and future seasons. 

But, while I like Kai Jones, I don't think he's anything special, and I probably would've forgotten him by now if we weren't discussing him so much. He can run and jump. This might be naive of me, but I feel like there will be other guys - younger guys, who can run faster and jump higher - around when I need to find one.