MAVS NEWS:

[Smitty]

Nah, several of the players played well last night. And that's a good and important thing.

Look, I'm not sure how aware the folks here (and Mav fans in general) of how bad the Mavs predicament is moving forward (and of course it would be exponentially worse if we didn't have Flagg - at least 7 years' climb back to hope, let alone relevance). We're counting on Flagg, whoever we draft, Kyrie, and whatever the other players we have or can obtain this offseason to bring this team back to relevance next year. We don't have our draft picks for the next. Four. Years. Teams like OKC, the Spurs, the Rockets, and some other playoff teams are not built on two high lottery players, but on four or five. In the 2031-32 season, i.e. the first season after we have our draft pick, Coop will be 24-25 years old, probably solidly into what should be a very long prime. And Kyrie will likely have retired. If our current non-Coop/non-Kyrie players are that bad, how are we going to build a team around Cooper in the intervening years? I think nearly all of the guys who played last night (plus Max and Nembhard, but not Martin or Johnson) have some value, and can at least be penciled in as rotation players for at least a play-in team. There might be some value in retaining Bagley and/or Middleton depending on price.

For the Mavs to be a team that at least threatens to make it to the conference semis every year by '29-'30 or so, it's going to take 
1) nailing the living $hit out of this year's draft pick,
2) getting a top five in the league GM (likely before the draft, due to the importance of #1), and
3) our current players outside of the "big three" (Coop, the draft pick, and Kyrie) having strong value, either on-court or in trade value, or #2 isn't likely to matter much.

We can't do a Nellie (stripping things down to brass tacks while somehow convincing Filthy to stick around in the midst of the poopshow) because we aren't missing one draft pick, but four. Building the team is going to be extremely hard work.

I agree with a LOT of this. Nearly everything actually. Just one small pushback. The Mavs do have first round picks the next 4 years. In fact, they currently have 4. One in ‘28, ‘29 and two in ‘30. I know you probably meant they don’t control their own pick with 2 of those having swap rights owed to OKC and SAS and the other two being other teams’ picks in LAL and GSW. But they do have picks. They even have a possibility for a pick in ‘27 if it lands in the Top-2.

It’s not as dire as you make it seem is all. It will take a good GM like you said. One that can draft well outside of the lottery (most likely) in some of those years.

BUT isn’t that okay after all? IF we hit on this pick… Do we expect those swaps to matter all that much? Do we expect to be bottom dwellers in Year 3 and Year 5 Flagg seasons when those swap rights matter? Also Year 2 and Year 4 of this next Top-10 pick..

Of course, a lot can happen between now and then. But you said it, we HAVE Flagg. And we NEED to hit on this pick. Then, we need a good GM to continue hitting on guys in the draft, even (likely) outside the lottery.