Building Around Cooper: A Backward-Looking Thought Experiment

[vfromlmf]

Great analysis and agree with your conclusions with a few tweaks. Mt team building formula has evolved quite a bit from the days where traditional positions filled traditional roles. I just put players in one of three buckets and stack rank them. Upgrade whenever possible to push guys down a notch. Cut from the bottom if needed.

Small | Lead Guard. You usually need one of these guys on the floor to run the offense.
1. Kyrie - superstar
2. Jones - backup
3. Williams - change of pace / energy guy
4. Nembhard - could supplant Jones?

Medium | Wing. 6' 5" or taller, two-way players. You probably start three of them. Find best player available. Size matters.
1. Flagg - superstar
2. PJW - plus defender, can't shoot, turnover prone
3. Naji - scorer, tough, better than PJW?
4. Christie - shooter, not disruptive defensively, doesn't rebound
5. Martin - 10th man
6. Klay - below replacement level
7. Middleton - TBD
8. AJJ - project
9. Kelly - project

Big | Center. Does center things.
1. Lively - pedigreed, injury risk
2. Gafford - mid-tier starter
3. Bagley - backup
4. Powell - change of pace / energy vet
5. Cisse - project

The Mavs can obviously upgrade the wing rotation. You really need at least 6 playable guys like this for a solid 10-man regular season rotation. Ideally they find a guy in the draft who can eventually run the offense and defend but he just has to be better than PJW, Naji and Christie.

Pointedly, if you trade PJW you need to replace him with someone who is ... better than PJW.