02-06-2020, 05:10 PM
(02-06-2020, 04:46 PM)fifteenth Wrote: Scott, you judge them solely on what you think they should have done without making any attempt at understanding what they did in relationship to their own plans. But what you think they should have done, or what I think they should have done, is not what they think they should do.
What is their plan? Judging on today, it's "Plan Sandbag" - they are short a wing (by their own admission) and possibly a center (if WCS doesn't work out the rest of the way) from having a full competitive 10-man lineup for the rest of the season and the playoffs. What value is there to Luka and the boys playing their first playoffs with a hand tied behind their back? I don't get it.
Longterm, the roster currently consists of a budding superstar (Luka), a very good #2 star who can hopefully be made to mesh well with that superstar, and six players (THJ, DFS, Maxi, Curry, Wright, and Brunson) who play at the level of the 5th-best player on the championship-contending team or so, with only one having significant upside at one day being more highly rated than that (Brunson), and that's still doubtful in that case. The Mavs will, at some point, need to finish their roster by adding guy number 3 and guy number 4, ideally while keeping a fair number of that supporting crew. Not using the TPE nor Lee gives them some de facto non-existent cap space - it's less than the full MLE. There's no advantage to it, no benefit. Whereas using those tools would have 1) allowed them to go into the playoffs this year with a finished team, for a far more realistic and less-discouraging learning experience, and 2) far more importantly, would have given them additional trade assets for the acquisition of that #3 or #4 guy.
I really don't see how what we've seen here can conceivably be seen as a plan rather than cluelessness. Perhaps I'm wrong and we'll trade for Aaron Gordon or someone better on draft day. Feel free to rub it my face if that happens. If we go into 2020-2021 without that third or fourth guy, well, Giannis is far more likely not coming here than coming here in 2021, and I for one would take it for granted that the doomsday clock on Luka's trade me ultimatum will have started to tick.