Naji Marshall Signs Extension W/DAL

[Knutsen]

I think they can go hand in hand. By that I mean, holding out for a better return in trades can both mean wanting to load up on assets to make a big trade, AND be about wanting a lot more draft capital to get more bites at the cherry in the draft. Wanting to keep your hands in both baskets. But obviously the draft scenario is far, far more likely to simply not go that way than a trade. Like the Raptors got Scottie Barnes, who was a bit of a reach but turned into a fantastic selection, and is a fantastic NBA player, elite even. Not a number 1 option though. A super high draft pick that is a complete success story that still doesn't fit the role required.

I think the most relevant point is that Masai doesn't have to do that in Dallas. I think he knows intimately, perhaps even painfully, from his time with the Raptors how difficult, almost impossible it is to acquire that player, and he's here because he finally gets to build a team without having to factor acquiring a Batman into his team building strategies. He just has to find Robins and the right side characters. That's also not necessarily easy to find, but it's definitely much, much easier than finding a teams Batman.

It's arguable that Mavs fans are a bit spoiled in the sense that we've essentially had a Batman in place for a significant chunk of the last 30 years, and should continue to for hopefully another 15. That's nowhere close to the norm amongst NBA franchises. Yet our previous FO's still frequently fumbled the ball. So we potentially don't fully comprehend the amount of luck we've had, where I think Masai very much does.

I would like to add to this, we are not just a little bit spoiled, we‘re super spoiled. 

Statistically it would have been perfectly normal to having to wait for Luka for 5 or 10 years after Dirk. And after squandering Luka for 10 to 15 years for Cooper (if he becomes a top 10 player).

So our „task“ is to not take that for granted, because how many teams outside the absolute top destinations like the Lakers, Celtics or Heat had a transcendent player for three decades straight?

I mean there are enough teams that didn’t have one at all in three decades, aren’t there?