Trade & Free Agency 2026/2027

[Scott41theMavs]

Is there still a logjam if Lively can't play?

Reading this makes me weep pitifully that my stuff must be tldr.

[KillerLeft]

Let’s list the non- 3PT shooters on the team:

Nemby
Naji
Flagg
Martin
Gafford, Lively, Morez?

I don't want to start a holy war over percentages, but PJW belongs HIGH on that list (way over Flagg) in terms of willingness to shoot (the most important thing by FAR) and lack of variety of perimeter spots from which he can effectively shoot. Flagg's shots didn't go in enough during his rookie season, but he clearly knows he has to pull the trigger, from a variety of spots and in a variety of circumstances, in order for everything work. He's going to be good enough as a shooter, possibly this season. With PJW, we're talking about standstill catch-and-shoot only, and he STILL passed up good ones on a regular basis to dribble into two defenders for no reason. Don't even get me started on Marshall, who makes PJ look as trigger-happy as Cam Thomas. 

PJW and Naji Marshall are far and away the big progress stoppers in terms of modernizing this offense, imo. I wouldn't put PJW in that category if they were building around someone like Dylan Harper instead of Flagg. I just see them as overlapping in a significant way, and that leads to me noticing what Washington CAN'T do on the court more frequently than I notice what he CAN do.

[RoyTarpleysGhost]

PJW and Naji Marshall are far and away the big progress stoppers in terms of modernizing this offense, imo. I wouldn't put PJW in that category if they were building around someone like Dylan Harper instead of Flagg. I just see them as overlapping in a significant way, and that leads to me noticing more of what Washington CAN'T do on the court more frequently than I notice what he CAN do.

Some of the Mavs worst lineups last year were with Flagg and PJ together on the court or Flagg and Naji together on the court.

So when people say oh maybe Flagg will play some guard and now there are plenty of minutes for the other guys at forward, it's not really addressing the problem. It's just making it look neater on a piece of paper.

[Smitty]

Some of the Mavs worst lineups last year were with Flagg and PJ together on the court or Flagg and Naji together on the court.

So when people say oh maybe Flagg will play some guard and now there are plenty of minutes for the other guys at forward, it's not really addressing the problem.  It's just making it look neater on a piece of paper.

Kyrie Irving

[KillerLeft]

Some of the Mavs worst lineups last year were with Flagg and PJ together on the court or Flagg and Naji together on the court.

So when people say oh maybe Flagg will play some guard and now there are plenty of minutes for the other guys at forward, it's not really addressing the problem.  It's just making it look neater on a piece of paper.

Right!

It's easy to see why, I think, AND the Mavs seem to agree, based on their additions. But again, unless those additions are going to play INSTEAD of those two, who are you helping? 

I get the logic that Marshall kind of fits as Flagg's backup, but in my mind you can't extend him unless he fits WITH Flagg, and I'm not really looking forward to playing him on the court with Flagg until the trade deadline, even. 

There's holding onto players until you get what they're worth - I understand that thinking. But, there's also just moving forward with a team that makes sense. I'm ready to live in that world for a while, personally. 

Even Morez Johnson is already demonstrating an understanding of what he'll have to do to make himself a viable fit with Flagg (who's an INSIDE scorer). I still think he might be more 5 than 4, but I don't care right now, because he fits WITH FLAGG...somehwere.

[KillerLeft]

Kyrie Irving

He's going to help, but he ALSO needs space to operate. HE needs shooters out there, too.

[windjc]

He's going to help, but he ALSO needs space to operate. HE needs shooters out there, too.

Why do you worry that May will coach like Kidd? I think the chance of that is like .000001%.

[KillerLeft]

I know very few are aligned with this thinking and it sometimes makes me unpopular, but I just have to add this final thought:

Cooper Flagg was a borderline all star scorer last year, as a rookie, from 17 ft in. HE is Paschal Siakim, and potentially a much better version of that kind of offensive player. If he adds a certainl level of proficiency scoring off of screens at the top, GREAT! But he's ready RIGHT NOW to be dominant...from 17 feet in.

I feel like it's so obvious what kind of player the Mavs should put him with, and what their goal should be in support of Flagg. Give him cleaner paint!

[Scott41theMavs]

Why do you worry that May will coach like Kidd? I think the chance of that is like .000001%.

If they keep Naji, PJW, Martin, and Gafford on the roster, well, that's tens of millions of dollars of player personnel for May to let rot on the bench if he'd rather play all shooters, so it sounds like he'll "coach like Kidd" more than you think he will - or there are still major roster updates coming up this summer.

[KillerLeft]

Why do you worry that May will coach like Kidd? I think the chance of that is like .000001%.

To be honest, I think this is an excellent point, and I hope he does basically everything differently. I don't bring this up often because one of my other unpopular opinions was that Kidd was a truly awful head coach, particularly when it came to producing a functional offense that played to the strengths of the talent at his disposal after the Luka trade. It became clear after a while that everyone was sick of it (thank goodness he's gone).

I do have some hope about this. Enthusiasm, even, and I can't wait to see what this dude does over the course of the season.

[Scott41theMavs]

I know very few are aligned with this thinking and it sometimes makes me unpopular, but I just have to add this final thought:

Cooper Flagg was a borderline all star scorer last year, as a rookie, from 17 ft in. HE is Paschal Siakim, and potentially a much better version of that kind of offensive player. If he adds a certainly level of proficiency scoring off of screens at the top, GREAT! But he's ready RIGHT NOW to be dominant...from 17 feet in.

I feel like it's so obvious what kind of player the Mavs should put him with, and what their goal should be in support of Flagg. Give him cleaner paint!

"Cleaner" paint is a possibility, but you could argue that the ship has sailed on that approach given the drafting of Rez.

BTW, I don't think that, because I believe that the FO and May see Rez as capable of developing 3p shooting and creational skills to an extent that would surprise most folks.

[RoyTarpleysGhost]

Kyrie Irving

oh he'll help for sure but I assume he's going to miss a lot of games.  Here are his game started the last few seasons.

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[Scott41theMavs]

oh he'll help for sure but I assume he's going to miss a lot of games.  Here are his game started the last few seasons.

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Now I like Kyrie Irving, but goodness, is that hideous.

[Smitty]

oh he'll help for sure but I assume he's going to miss a lot of games.  Here are his game started the last few seasons.

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You don’t have to tell me. lol. I feel like I’m one of the few that know Kyrie+Lively aren’t going to carry this team next year. That’s why my 35 win total is what it is. BUT and you have to say it… if they’re healthy. Watch out! 

[Scott41theMavs]

You don’t have to tell me. lol. I feel like I’m one of the few that know Kyrie+Lively aren’t going to carry this team next year. That’s why my 35 win total is what it is. BUT and you have to say it… if they’re healthy. Watch out! 

I'd just like to take advantage of the opportunity you offer to point out yet again that Masai has yet to bring back Casey Smith and his staff at a ruinous consequence to the Adelsons' pocketbooks hire a top-flyte medical staff.

[Scott41theMavs]

Re: Kyrie: there was that tweet the other day mocking the length of the """investigation""" into Kawhi's wrongdoing; i.e. "Why has it taken 11 months to figure out if it was wrong that Kawhi got $30 million for doing nothing..." Isn't that what Kyrie did last season?

Re: NBA team medical staffs - I get that Masai is pretty busy team-building, but isn't that why he brought in Schmitz? I mean, sorry to beat the dead steed, but the existential urgency-to-evident-priority ratio here is *bad.* To presume the best of Masai and co., I have to assume that 1) the precise same tampering rules and necessary permissions that apply to coaches also apply to medical staffs, 2) New York and Toronto said, "Lulz, no" when Masai asked, 3) none of the pundits have tweeted about it because medical staff transactions were seen as insignificant, at least until Mr. Nico Harrison made the most cataclysmic change in a pro sports medical staff in athletic history (to go into the mementos case next to his Worst Trade in Professional Sports History trophy), and 4) they haven't hired a staff yet because Masai therefore has to do it cold with tremendous pressure to hire a top three staff.

[MFFLER est 01]

The Mavs can carry up to 21 on the roster through training camp. Right now though, they have 15. Plus 3 Two-Ways, which is the max.

Kyrie | Sasser | Nemby
Christie | Klay | Sergio 
Flagg | Naji | Tarik
PJW | Aldama | Martin
Morez | Gafford | Lively

Smith, Poulakidas, Lawal are the current two-ways

Ishchenko and Cisse are unsigned. BWill and Powell are also UFA’s.

Drop Smith and sign Cisse and Ishchenko

[MFFLER est 01]

To believe this you have to believe the following:

1. Kyrie is done
2. Lively is done
3. Res is a bust
4. Larry is a bust
5. Russian kid is a bust
6. Turkish sharp shooter is a bust
7. May is unprepared 

That is an incredibly negative take.

Exactly

There's just no way it's 8 teams in the West that have a better roster than us. People underrate our team and overrate other teams. I mean like really,besides OKC,SA, Minnesota,and maybe Denver,what teams in our conference really scare or concern you? We are going to surprise a lot of people if we're healthy. Kyrie being back is HUGE! DLive being back and hopefully healthy is HUGE! 2nd year Cooper Flagg is a real big deal and he hasn't really played with either of those guys. We were in a shit ton of clutch games last season with a depleted roster with the worst shooting in the league. We addressed the shooting issues immensely. 

Also Coop's three point shooting improved a lot towards the end of the season. Are we not counting on a generation talent who has shown he's a capable shooter to not.....improve??

[Reunion Mav]

I simply want to say as a professional researcher in the social sciences that so much of the research I have been reading here is seriously flawed and may mean little for how this team does next year. We all know last year was an epic disaster of a year as was the season before. So many dynamics from these two years render almost all statistics to much much less predictively accurate than usual.

This team will almost certainly perform much differently. With all the changes their performance may not be a lot better as they work thru new team building dynamics, but it will be different.

I’m hopeful that the obvious positives of our new and returning guys will lead to as many as 42 wins. That could easily not happen. But, very little of the dynamics will have much similarity to last year. It should be incredibly interesting to watch and to root for no matter how many of our current vets are still here.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Exactly

There's just no way it's 8 teams in the West that have a better roster than us. People underrate our team and overrate other teams. I mean like really,besides OKC,SA, Minnesota,and maybe Denver,what teams in our conference really scare or concern you? We are going to surprise a lot of people if we're healthy. Kyrie being back is HUGE! DLive being back and hopefully healthy is HUGE! 2nd year Cooper Flagg is a real big deal and he hasn't really played with either of those guys. We were in a shit ton of clutch games last season with a depleted roster with the worst shooting in the league. We addressed the shooting issues immensely. 

Also Coop's three point shooting improved a lot towards the end of the season. Are we not counting on a generation talent who has shown he's a capable shooter to not.....improve??

What you said can go both ways. Some on here overrate our roster, and underrate other teams. I see it all the time. We're all fans and want the best for the team. But I'm from the school of letting things play out when the season starts. You are inevitably going to have teams who have seasons that turn out to be better than expected, and some that perform below expectations. It's called parity. After OKC, SA, and possibly NY, the rest of the league's teams are in the 2nd or 3rd tier.