08-22-2025, 09:45 AM
(08-22-2025, 06:07 AM)Dahlsim Wrote: Injuries are the wild card for everyone and somewhat more so for teams relying on injury prone and older players but to some extent that's for everyone. We've seen plenty of teams lose contending or even winning seasons even with young stars going down. Even OKC had to patiently build while waiting for Chet to come back healthy. Indiana and Boston have to build around their young injured stars while likely losing a season or two of contention.
This is teams is more likely a playoff team that will still have tradable players while they work their 2 to 3 year window.
The Mavs had to assess the injury risk for vets AD, Kyrie, Klay in particular and factor that in compared to any realistic alternative routes they had.
I see at least a solid chance that the Mavericks have a relatively healthy season resulting in at least a season of playoff quality squads possibly on the fringe of contention. The talent level on paper is good enough to challenge any contending team IMO the rest depends on not only health but team chemistry.
I think you are missing my point here. If the stars are playing to the point where they have asset value, then the Mavs will very likely be in the first window and will have no interest in trading them. By the time the Mavs give up on the first window, it will likely be when those stars no longer have asset value.
I think you are being optimistic regarding health. Its not just that the Mavs have a lot of injury prone players, but Nico let go the most respected medical team in the NBA and just fired the replacement after last season shit show. Call me skeptical he is going to bring in a competent team.
I also think you are overestimating the talent on this team. If Kyrie, AD and Flagg were all in their prime then they might have enough talent, but that is never going to happen. I don't think they have the elite creation necessary to be a contender.