Trade & FA 2025-26: Free Agency Starts 5pm CST/6pm EST

[mvossman]

We had this discussion last summer when you said how wonderfully reliable he was, despite his continuing ability to get injured and miss games, and how Gaff needs to go, and sorry but "7 games played" is what we got and is NOT an outcome that makes me confident in Lively's availability.

I have no idea what you are talking about.  I seriously doubt I ever suggested Lively was "wonderfully reliable".  I would love to see that quote.  You asked a question (has he ever even played half the games) which I answered and stipulated his health is a major concern.  

I'm not sure you should be crowing about a pro Gafford argument from last summer.  We are paying him 17 mil to get outplayed by Dwight Powell.

[loki]

If you are trading Gafford in suitable trade window, the decision has to be made IN THE SUMMER. And there will be NO CLUE on what Lively will offer next season, when we are in the summer. He's an injured player, who has had a significant issue and surgery, and will not even try to play until October. 

On top of that, Lively has NEVER been reliable for a whole season. Has he ever even played half? I like the "idea" of Lively, but I don't see that as something to depend on.

In light of that, to me it would be a major mistake to assume Lively is the answer as the C you need, and move Gafford. This franchise has lots of experience in lacking a decent center, years on end at times, and now that they have a decent solution, imo the idea of frittering it away would be stupid.

I view Gafford as a bit more replaceable than that. It was nice to have Brendan Haywood as a backup, but the 2011 Mavs couldn't have won a title without Tyson Chandler. That's kind of how I view the Lively/Gafford duo. 

I do think it's smart to be prepared for another injury filled year for Lively, but they could explore cheaper options in free agency. Even if you just traded a 2nd for a guy like Goga (since Orlando's roster is getting expensive and Mo Wagner needs a new deal) I don't think the drop off in production would be that meaningful. Especially given that the Mavs are unlikely to be contenders next year. There should also be some good centers available with the OKC pick if they wanted to go that route.

It seems that the Finley/Riccardi front office was willing to move on from Gafford since they were reportedly seeking a 1st at the deadline. I guess we'll find out this offseason whether the mystery new GM feels the same.

[RoyTarpleysGhost]

The Mavs are one of the worst teams in the league. Gafford is the only functional center on the roster. All this talk of trading him because he is not the ideal starting Center on a championship team is about 4-5 years premature. Let him get healthy, play next to Kyrie and Flagg, and rehab some trade value next year. We already saw he doesn't have much trade value right now. I don't know why everyone is in a rush.

[loki]

The Mavs are one of the worst teams in the league.  Gafford is the only functional center on the roster.  All this talk of trading him because he is not the ideal starting Center on a championship team is about 4-5 years premature.  Let him get healthy, play next to Kyrie and Flagg, and rehab some trade value next year.  We already saw he doesn't have much trade value right now.  I don't know why everyone is in a rush.

I agree with your timeline, and that's part of the reason I think they can afford to deal Gafford now. I wouldn't say I'm in any rush to move him though. Keeping him to rehab some trade value is reasonable. Of course, there's a chance his value continues to decline the longer they hold on. Even at peak value he's probably never returning more than a late FRP.

[KillerLeft]

The Mavs are one of the worst teams in the league.  Gafford is the only functional center on the roster.  All this talk of trading him because he is not the ideal starting Center on a championship team is about 4-5 years premature.  Let him get healthy, play next to Kyrie and Flagg, and rehab some trade value next year.  We already saw he doesn't have much trade value right now.  I don't know why everyone is in a rush.

I see this point and agree, to an extent. And, if the pick and roll game gets going again (pretty huge if) he could look good again very quickly. 

However, I don't personally believe there is any chance of the Mavs being competitive next year. "Good," maybe, but not of any consequence. Maybe I am jumping the gun, but for me it's more about selling high on a player I don't believe will still be here when things next matter. The "fish out of water" aspect of his (current, to be fair) fit here is part of it for me, too, but that could change with the addition of a single player. 

I'll say this (right or wrong): IF the plan is to run the offense through Flagg then I don't think Gafford is the right guy no matter how quickly things move along. I also think it's telling that he arguably fits IND's needs better than Zubac and yet they opted to make a crazy deal involving a fair amount of risk of losing a premium pick in this draft to get Zubac instead. Obviously, Zubac is better, overall - we all knew that. But, I didn't think it was this big of a gap. Zubac has only really been at this level for a year or two. I think it tells us a lot about either the league's temperature on Gafford's extension numbers or that Mavs were asking for too much (maybe both). If it's the latter, maybe they just didn't really want to trade him, but there was a lot of reporting out there that they just wanted a first round pick, so...

Regardless, now that AD is gone, I'm no longer in the "too many centers on this roster" camp, and I could definitely see trying Gafford again with a healthier and hopefully more complete roster as a viable option...just not if the offense is going to result in so much throwing him the ball in the low post. That's a joke, and not who he is as a player.

[SleepingHero]

I wonder if a broken bone is like an ACL in that you aren't 100% when you first come back from the injury.

Often times, a healed broken bone is stronger than the bone was previously due to a variety of factors.

But since broken bones require immobilization, often for many months, things around the area atrophy. As a high level athlete, the muscles waste and the high twitch movement you've built as a habit has all of a sudden reset and you must rebuild it. That's just the physical part of it. The mental battle is a whole different game. 

That is possibly to what Ivey is referring to. His injury was very severe and took a long time to heal. Just to rebuild to where he was will take time in terms of habits. And it's like trying to walk backwards on one of those moving walkways because all the time that it is taking you to just get back to where you were, your peers are using that time to get even better and the goalposts have shifted. Must be heavy given he never really got the chance to show out for a big contract and then his role got replaced. 

I don't think Ivey is worth Gafford, but he may be worth a flier as a reclamation project. Although I don't think the Mavs want to invest the time given ideally they are trying to win next year.