Are you satisfied with the offseason (so far)

[Jakeospikez]

Yes I am very satisfied with the offseason because I include the decision to tank last season as a part of it. I agree with their moves and I also agree with not overpaying for very mediocre "starting" players. GW is a great pickup because he is pretty much on the MLE and can easily slide into a comfortable bench role if/when OMax is ready to start. I also do not think Kyrie's window is as small as everyone thinks it is. Lots of players are still playing at an allstar level in their mid 30s and he just turned 31. This season is probably a developmental season because the Mavs won't actually be legit top tier contenders without Lively and OMax being starter quality role players, but I see next season as the time to push hard for a title. Should be able to make the playoffs and get some young guys valuable playoff exp this season. Should have expirings to work with this TDL/Next offseason to do something also especially if Holmes' value is rebuilt some.

Also with regards to Luka being impatient, this is just my personal conspiracy theory but imo the Mavs were stealth tanking for a large portion of last season. I'm not exactly sure when I don't really care that much about it to dig into it, but probably pretty early once they saw the team lose Brunson and also the quality+depth of this draft class. Imagine having no picks if it went to the Knicks instead of Lively+OMax, would be in a horrible spot making bad trades for mediocre players instead of operating from a position of strength (10th pick in a stacked class). Coaches definitely were tanking earlier than the final stretch. I don't think players were tanking but I do think Luka was probably in on it some too. What instantly convinced me was the post-TDL game vs the Timberwolves which was critical for seeding. I was watching this game very closely like most fans cause we just got Kyrie and wanted to see how everything would go etc and it took Kyrie going nuclear in the 4th to even make it close. As I was watching the game, the only thing that ever made sense to me was they were tanking. Mavs never really bothered not trying gameplan against Gobert at all and had no issue playing the worst matchup into him (Powell & Bullock as C/PF). Maxi was out injured (how about on purpose?) but this team that historically dating back to Carisle teams went 5 out on Gobert and just came off beating them in a playoff series (2 games without Luka even) suddenly just decides to play Powell into him and get dumpstered? Most of the complaints about Kidd last season were rotations and bad rotations are a decent way to stealth tank. Kidd is known for manipulating the business side of things as well so we'll see how he does this season but I anticipate it'll be much closer to year 1 than last season, so he gets a mulligan from me.

                           Mins    FG    3pt    FT    Off  Def   Reb  Ast   TO   Stl   Blk  PF  +/-    Pts
27 Rudy GobertC 29:43    9-9    0-0   3-5    3    11     14    1      3     0     0    3   +17   21

7 Dwight PowellC 14:29   2-2     0-0   1-2    0     1       1    1      0     0     0    4    -15    5

Luka put up great individual stats keeping games close, but majority of the time the game was on the line he settled for a step back 30 footer over and over. Also constantly complained to refs and didn't get back on defense. Imo him saying he wasn't having fun was because he wasn't trying to win every game. They stealth tanked enough to seem like they were still in the race, getting up to the 4th seed, but they were never more than a few games out from falling into the 10th pick.

If the Mavs decided very early to stealth tank, I think that is great cause they learned their lesson. They NEVER did this during the Dirk era and suffered through poor rosters for the entire back end of his career digging through scraps. Dirk/Luka can easily carry any team to a bottom 4 seed and get bounced early but that is not the correct move. Treadmilling is the worst thing a team can do. Garnett Twolves suffered through this too. Will see what happens this coming season, but I'll be keeping an eye on a few things. Luka is already showing 1 sign of major change that is very different from last season and that is lots of workout videos and getting into bubble shape. If he also has an attitude change with refs and gets back on defense more frequently that will be all that I need to see really. Better end game plays than constant contested step backs also would be key. Also the nonchalant attitude from the FO on Kidd and Kidd's whole demeanor in press conferences all suggest stealth tank to me, which again, fine with me, good job if that was the plan from the getgo.