Trade & Free Agency 2026/2027

[F Gump]

FWIW Cisse has not been signed.

[Winter]

Isiah Stewart was traded for three 2nd rd picks.    Santi Aldama traded for the "fake GS 1st" and two 2nd rd picks.  Is Santi Aldama more valuable than Isiah Stewart?

Aldama is a face-to-the basket big man who makes almost 4 points per game more than Stewart (increasing his ppg every year in the league). Rez does what Stewart does for the most part, so Stewart is nice but would provide nothing we don't already have.

Not every team wants an Isaiah Stewart because of the anger issues. In some cases though your team may need a Stewart. But it's probably not this team given our youth.

[SleepingHero]

FWIW, if you ask ChatGPT about past comments from Schmitz about Mathurin when the latter was going through the draft process in 2022 (Schmitz's last as an ESPN analyist), here is what you get:

BBefore transitioning to front-office roles, Mike Schmitz explicitly stated that Bennedict Mathurin possessed All-Star potential. In his deep-dive evaluations for ESPN, Schmitz broke down Mathurin's game into highly specific technical categories: [1, 2, 3]

Core Offensive Strengths

• Elite "Hang Time" Adjustments: Schmitz highlighted Mathurin’s elite core strength, noting his rare ability to realign his body in midair to convert difficult contested finishes and jumpers. [1]
  
• Movement Shooting: He praised how fluidly Mathurin could sprint off screens, square his shoulders instantly, and execute a pure release with highly disciplined shot preparation. [1]
  
• Open-Court Explosion: Schmitz repeatedly labeled his transition game a premium NBA asset, driven by a combination of light feet, power, and rapid acceleration. [1]
  

Areas for Growth

• In-Between Game: While Schmitz tracked steady growth in Mathurin's playmaking and passing versatility during his final 15 games at Arizona, he noted that Mathurin still needed to develop his shot-creation inside the arc when forced away from simple catch-and-shoot scenarios. [1]
  
• Self-Creation Dependency: He projected that Mathurin's early NBA production would rely heavily on assisted rim cuts and spot-up closeouts before he could become a primary on-ball creator. [1, 2]
  

NBA Projection
Schmitz firmly evaluated Mathurin as a blue-chip lottery pick. He noted that Mathurin's physical profile (6'6" with a 6'9" wingspan) paired with a modern "3-and-D with upside" skill set made him an immediate plug-and-play contributor for a rebuilding franchise. [1, 2]

All of the sources chatGPT used to pull from didn’t include Mike Schmitz once. So I don’t believe he said any of those things about Mathurin. 

Another reason why relying on AI isn’t always great!


But that doesn’t discount the Mathurin idea at all.

[Winter]

A nice, short video of Aldama highlights actually playing against the Mavericks last year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL24cMNzwiQ

[HoosierDaddyKid]

The Celtics trading Brown is a bet that Payton Pritchard is their in-house version of New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson, a diminutive player who didn't fully show his talents until Luka Dončić was out of the picture. The splits on Pritchard without Brown are intriguing to say the least.

Yahoo! Sports

[FireNicoHarrison]

The Celtics trading Brown is a bet that Payton Pritchard is their in-house version of New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson, a diminutive player who didn't fully show his talents until Luka Dončić was out of the picture. The splits on Pritchard without Brown are intriguing to say the least.

Yahoo! Sports

Good luck

[Winter]

From HoopsRumors

"After reporting earlier in the week that the Mavericks are a “leading suitor” to acquire guard Marcus Sasser from the Pistons, Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Twitter link) is talking as if that deal is expected to happen. As Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron points out (via Twitter) there’s a plausible scenario in which the Grizzlies, Pistons, and Mavericks combine their trade agreements involving Isaiah Stewart and Santi Aldama into a single transaction and include Sasser — Detroit’s acquisitions of Isaiah Joe (from the Thunder) and John Collins (via sign-and-trade from the Clippers) would also likely be folded in to make it a five-team trade."

[Smitty]

I'm still pushing for Simons as the MLE target.

[Smitty]

No way.....


Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine)
The Mavericks have emerged as a suitor for Anfernee Simons, league sources say.

As @JakeLFischer reported yesterday, Golden State and Miami have continued to pursue the free agent scoring guard who finished last season with Chicago.

[Smitty]

No way.....


Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine)
The Mavericks have emerged as a suitor for Anfernee Simons, league sources say.

As @JakeLFischer reported yesterday, Golden State and Miami have continued to pursue the free agent scoring guard who finished last season with Chicago.

That would complete the 15-man roster. Can still buy out/trade Klay or waive/trade Nemby, if needed. Naji, PJ, and Gafford still tradable, positive value guys also.

Kyrie | Simons | Sasser | Nemby
Max | Klay | Sergio
Flagg | Naji | Martin
PJW | Aldama
Gafford | Morez | Lively

[michaeltex]

From HoopsRumors

"After reporting earlier in the week that the Mavericks are a “leading suitor” to acquire guard Marcus Sasser from the Pistons, Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Twitter link) is talking as if that deal is expected to happen. As Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron points out (via Twitter) there’s a plausible scenario in which the Grizzlies, Pistons, and Mavericks combine their trade agreements involving Isaiah Stewart and Santi Aldama into a single transaction and include Sasser — Detroit’s acquisitions of Isaiah Joe (from the Thunder) and John Collins (via sign-and-trade from the Clippers) would also likely be folded in to make it a five-team trade."

Why add all this complexity? Obviously there is an advantage for somebody, but who does it help? As opposed to the individual deals.

[FireNicoHarrison]

No way.....


Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine)
The Mavericks have emerged as a suitor for Anfernee Simons, league sources say.

As @JakeLFischer reported yesterday, Golden State and Miami have continued to pursue the free agent scoring guard who finished last season with Chicago.

Simons is trash.

Empty stats, no defense, ballhog.

[Smitty]

Simons is trash.

Empty stats, no defense, ballhog.

Thanks for the breakdown.

[ACMFFL]

Isiah Stewart was traded for three 2nd rd picks.    Santi Aldama traded for the "fake GS 1st" and two 2nd rd picks.  Is Santi Aldama more valuable than Isiah Stewart?

I don't dislike the player but it's the combination of a roster with too many bigs/not enough guards and a team with very limited assets.  I'm not seeing the "value" in trading for another backup big.

Well, value is pretty much the same, in the end both players were traded for three 2nds and cap relief, I honestly don't get your point here.

Three 2nds for a good rotation player with a fine contract (year 2 is a TO) is definitely a win in value in my book.

[Mavs03]

This trade works. The question is would members of the forum be good with it.

Thompson back to Golden State for an injured Moses Moody and most importantly draft capital

Moody underwent surgery in March of this year. I'm assuming he would available in March 2027.

Thompson would rejoin Golden State for one last hurrah.

Curry
Thompson
Lebron
Green
KP

Payton
Podziemski
Santos
Lendenborg
Horford

That's actually a good team. They're old, but if healthy (that's a big if), they're a scary good team. Butler's injury occurred in January. He potentially could be back in January 2027.

I'm not sure if they're a 2nd Apron team or how it works salary cap wise. I was just looking from a Thompson vs Moody and draft capital perspective

[Jakeospikez]

Clippers have pretty much nothing at 4/5 right now so a Mathurin S&T for Gafford does make a lot of sense. Mathurin fits the positional size mantra if they're going that route and could easily take on a bigger role for times Kyrie is out. Not sure how he is playing within a system instead of being a heavy iso guy though.

[Scott41theMavs]

Simons is trash.

Empty stats, no defense, ballhog.

His trash is pretty much exactly what we need right now, presuming Wallace and Mathurin are not available.

[Scott41theMavs]

FWIW Cisse has not been signed.

Yeah, time for Masai to fix that.

[Scott41theMavs]

No way.....


Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine)
The Mavericks have emerged as a suitor for Anfernee Simons, league sources say.

As @JakeLFischer reported yesterday, Golden State and Miami have continued to pursue the free agent scoring guard who finished last season with Chicago.

Excellent work in speaking it into existence.

[DallasMaverick]

I am not a fan of sending multiple picks for someone who is not bad and plays hard but does not move the needle much.  I would rather we be the team who hoards picks. 

Treating picks like they don’t matter is what has continuously hurt this franchise even though they have somehow been blessed with 3 generational players and one super talented player in the last 20 years

Lumping all picks together in one bucket ignores the enormous difference in values between, say, a top-5 pick, a mid-first-round pick, and a second.

Statistically, second-round picks have very little chance of becoming good NBA players. Throwing a couple in to get a solid player is totally acceptable.