MAVS NEWS:

[KillerLeft]

Anyone still questioning how Dallas sees Lively should re-read these parts a few times. He's clearly an important part of the plan.

Yeah, I was too busy to join into the conversation from yesterday or the day before, but reading through that back-and-forth on Lively by some our best contributors clarified the disconnect we all have on this quite a bit for me. We haven't been having the conversation correctly all this time. We always approach it like "some people assume he'll be healthy, and some people assume he'll never be healthy." In reality, I think we're all pretty close to each other on that spectrum by now - maybe some are more optimistic than others, but we all see that part of it in the same light, basically. 

What struck me the other day is that there's a fairly sizable contingent here who don't see Lively's value on the court (when healthy) the same way I do.  I was actually pretty shocked by that because I just assumed that everyone was a huge believer in the impact he makes on BOTH ends of the court. For me, it's kind of obvious, though learning that others don't see it that way made me take a step back and re-evaluate a bit. 

Honestly, if you assume he's healthy (again, THAT'S the conversation worth having), I literally don't think there are 5 centers in the league I'd want more than him. SO...for ME, he's ALREADY a top-5 center, no improvement needed. And, he WOULD continue to improve if he was able to play a couple of seasons without interruption, I'm sure. Maybe I (and others who think the way I do about him) are overrating him - that's very possible. However, doesn't that make our willingness to patiently wait as long as it's possible to wait, financially, to find out if he can get over this injury hump a little more understandable? It just struck me all of a sudden reading that conversation that those ready to move on because "he's always injured" ALSO don't seem to think he's a great on the court as some of the rest of us. I found the whole exchange quite illuminating.