TRADE: Dallas receives Zaccharie Risacher in 3-team deal

[vfromlmf]

The confusion is:  it's debatable if he's an NBA rotation player right now.  Should he be getting developmental guy minutes or regular rotation player minutes?

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/LxHKEZBEQuQ

Angstadt just doesn't get it yet. He mentions Naji, PJW, Aldama, Klay ... he's confused. 

At Michigan, May played a lead guard, a 3&D, a point forward, Morez, and a center. The 2, 3 and 4 need to be big and versatile enough to slide up or down a slot. It's pretty straightforward.

Kyrie, Sasser and De Larrea are lead guards.

Max and Risacher are 3&Ds responsible for guarding POA and shooting 3s. Martin is 3rd string or gone. Klay will be gone for sure.

Flagg, Naji and maybe Biberovich are forwards who can initiate offense.

Morez is a bruiser 4/5. Aldama is a stretch 4. PJW is a smallish 4/5 and he's on the block. 

Lively and Cisse are centers. Gafford is on the block.

[mvossman]

Angstadt just doesn't get it yet. He mentions Naji, PJW, Aldama, Klay ... he's confused. 

At Michigan, May played a lead guard, a 3&D, a point forward, Morez, and a center. The 2, 3 and 4 need to be big and versatile enough to slide up or down a slot. It's pretty straightforward.

Kyrie, Sasser and De Larrea are lead guards.

Max and Risacher are 3&Ds responsible for guarding POA and shooting 3s. Martin is 3rd string or gone. Klay will be gone for sure.

Flagg, Naji and maybe Biberovich are forwards who can initiate offense.

Morez is a bruiser 4/5. Aldama is a stretch 4. PJW is a smallish 4/5 and he's on the block. 

Lively and Cisse are centers. Gafford is on the block.

I don't think you should read that much into May's two seasons at Michigan.  At his prior stop he played a single big and three guards.  With the FO focus on versatility, there could be all kinds of different lineups.  Because of that, just about every player's minutes can have a ripple effect on just about every other player.  In that sense, Angstadt's point is valid.  

[vfromlmf]

Agree ... but it's pretty easy to slot the guys into five main archetypes that make sense. Obviously May will mix and match and we'll see two guard lineups or maybe even 3 guard lineups. We may see five forwards. This roster is shaping up to be super flexible and I'm not worried about a minutes crunch unless everyone is healthy, including Lively, and Klay is still on the roster.

1. Lead guards
2. 3&Ds
3. Point forwards
4. Big forwards
5. Centers

[vfromlmf]

Agree ... but it's pretty easy to slot the guys into five main archetypes that make sense. Obviously May will mix and match and we'll see two guard lineups or maybe even 3 guard lineups. We may see five forwards. This roster is shaping up to be super flexible and I'm not worried about a minutes crunch unless everyone is healthy, including Lively, and Klay is still on the roster.

1. Lead guards
2. 3&Ds
3. Point forwards who initiate
4. Big forwards who finish
5. Centers

[RoyTarpleysGhost]

Maybe I am getting unnecessarily uneasy about

1. We have all these veteran role players whose values we need to rehab.

2. We have all these developmental players that need minutes.

How do those two things coexist harmoniously?

Maybe you run the veterans out there for the 1st half of the season until it looks like the playoffs are unlikely. Veterans gone by trade deadline. Then the young guys start getting big minutes.

[KillerLeft]

Maybe you run the veterans out there for the 1st half of the season until it looks like the playoffs are unlikely.  Veterans gone by trade deadline.  Then the young guys start getting big minutes.

That's one way it could work, yeah.

[DanSchwartzgan]

Agree ... but it's pretty easy to slot the guys into five main archetypes that make sense. Obviously May will mix and match and we'll see two guard lineups or maybe even 3 guard lineups. We may see five forwards. This roster is shaping up to be super flexible and I'm not worried about a minutes crunch unless everyone is healthy, including Lively, and Klay is still on the roster.

1. Lead guards
2. 3&Ds
3. Point forwards who initiate
4. Big forwards who finish
5. Centers

This was somewhat the motivation behind my question yesterday regarding Max and Risacher.  To me, Risacher is more like Max than he is anyone else on the roster, which puts him in your second category.  The way I see things currently:

1. Lead guards:  Kyrie starts and Larry and Sasser fight for the backup spot.  Sasser is basically "Larry insurance" in case he isn't ready (or Kyrie insurance in case he gets hurt).  

2.  3 & Ds:  Christie starts and Risacher and Biberovic fight for the backup minutes (I assume Klay won't be here)

3.  Point forwards:  This is Flagg and Naji.  At this point, not much else on the roster capable of initiation.

4.  Big forwards:  PJ and Aldama.  The latter is kind of tricky to classify.  His Asst% is surprisingly close to Naji with fewer turnovers.  He takes 42% of his shots from 3, so the volume isn't enough to be 3 & D.  He doesn't finish like a center.  In fact, his percentage of shots 0-3 feet is 23% over his career versus 24% for PJ.  I think he fits here. but he and PJ both do more than one thing.

5.  Centers:  I will be surprised if Lively is ready to start the season.  He is a HUGE help to the long term plan if he can get healthy, so, I'd be patient.  I'm fine with Morez and Gafford (if still here) splitting minutes until Lively is ready.

If you look at it like this, your 10 man rotation comes together fairly nicely with Cisse/Lively, Martin, Biberovic and either Larry or Sasser fighting for what's left.  Would I love to see another creator?  Yes.  But, it feels like we may be done.  They waited until after SL to do this and after seeing Larry decided to move on from a creator in favor of a wing.  Maybe it should tell us something about Larry.

[F Gump]

No one knows until it happens, but with the return of Kyrie, and the addition of genuine NBA point guards into the mix, I'm not convinced that the returning guys are necessarily going to be outplayed and headed out of town asap, like everyone else seems to be saying. I think players who people assumed were not good anymore may just be ones who needed a PG on the floor at the same time.

I expect they will play the best players the most minutes, and let the newcomers and kids basically earn their way into the lineup (based on what they do with a few minutes) where you have to play them more.

IOW I think what will matter the most will be results more than age. I think their goal is better players, rather than a bunch of not-ready guys who happen to be young.

[mvossman]

Agree ... but it's pretty easy to slot the guys into five main archetypes that make sense. Obviously May will mix and match and we'll see two guard lineups or maybe even 3 guard lineups. We may see five forwards. This roster is shaping up to be super flexible and I'm not worried about a minutes crunch unless everyone is healthy, including Lively, and Klay is still on the roster.

1. Lead guards
2. 3&Ds
3. Point forwards who initiate
4. Big forwards who finish
5. Centers

So your lead guards are Kyrie, Sergio and Sasser?  That seems like a crunch to me if everyone is healthy.  Especially because I think Sasser may be the best POA defender on the roster, and the only 3&D that makes sense in that role is Max (I'm not sure that is the role Risacher will play, especially if he has grown to 6' 10").

The 3&Ds are Max, Risacher, Klay and Tarik.  That definitely seems like a crunch, even without Klay.  

Point forwards are Flagg and Naji?  Bit of a crunch for Naji.

Finishing Forwards are Morez, PJ, Aldama.  Seems like a huge crunch right there.

Centers are Lively, Gafford and Cisse.  That is not a crunch, but it will be when your finishing forwards bleed heavily into this group.

To me it looks like there is a crunch at almost every role.  I agree with RTG that they seem to have too many vets and developmental pieces.  His solution to start vet heavy and then sell some off at the TDL and lean more into development might be the only reasonable way to go.

[RoyTarpleysGhost]

No one knows until it happens, but with the return of Kyrie, and the addition of genuine NBA point guards into the mix, I'm not convinced that the returning guys are necessarily going to be outplayed and headed out of town asap, like everyone else seems to be saying. 

This is kinda what I'm getting at.

There seems to be a feeling here that Morez, DeLarrea, Risacher are all gonna get bigtime minutes and it's going to be a developmental season. Are we sure? Or are we looking at these dudes stuck on the bench a lot while the Mavs try to win games?

[mvossman]

So your lead guards are Kyrie, Sergio and Sasser?  That seems like a crunch to me if everyone is healthy.  Especially because I think Sasser may be the best POA defender on the roster, and the only 3&D that makes sense in that role is Max (I'm not sure that is the role Risacher will play, especially if he has grown to 6' 10").

The 3&Ds are Max, Risacher, Klay and Tarik.  That definitely seems like a crunch, even without Klay.  

Point forwards are Flagg and Naji?  Bit of a crunch for Naji.

Finishing Forwards are Morez, PJ, Aldama.  Seems like a huge crunch right there.

Centers are Lively, Gafford and Cisse.  That is not a crunch, but it will be when your finishing forwards bleed heavily into this group.

To me it looks like there is a crunch at almost every role.  I agree with RTG that they seem to have too many vets and developmental pieces.  His solution to start vet heavy and then sell some off at the TDL and lean more into development might be the only reasonable way to go.

Actually one of the best ways to relieve some of the crunch is to play a finishing forward at center and add a second lead guard or 3&D player at times.  That will probably happen some, and a lot if the trade away Gafford.

[KillerLeft]

Here's the latest Game Theory Podcast, cued up to Vecenie's views on it from a Dallas POV, for your convenience. I think he nails it, personally. 

https://youtu.be/h-amxwWIR_Q?si=0Ub6e9aWjEl2MwVa&t=1440

[cow]

This is kinda what I'm getting at.

There seems to be a feeling here that Morez, DeLarrea, Risacher are all gonna get bigtime minutes and it's going to be a developmental season.  Are we sure?  Or are we looking at these dudes stuck on the bench a lot while the Mavs try to win games?

Mostly with you and Gump but Morez is going to soak up minutes.

[Moviemavguy]

Risacher is the tale of the good at everything but master of nothing type of player that you can't waste a lottery pick on.

He'll be fine as a 3 and D role player though.

[KillerLeft]

Risacher is the tale of the good at everything but master of nothing type of player that you can't waste a lottery pick on.  

I think that's exactly right. And in the ever fast paced, competitive culture of the NBA teams don't wait around forever to "develop" guys anymore, particularly in light of how quickly these teams are being forced to turn over nowadays.

[KillerLeft]

https://youtube.com/shorts/HQnqOAh2tn4?s...8KUBBV81oh

[Chicagojk]

interesting

https://x.com/NationMffl/status/2079639104766018047

[Chicagojk]

interesting

https://x.com/NationMffl/status/2079639104766018047

If true, it certainly feels like Zach is going to get a lot of chances in Dallas and will be playing quite a bit.   He could certainly lose time, but it was something Dallas was the one to initiate the trade and not just a team who had room and decided to take a low risk gamble.

[OBX Maverick]

The beauty of this trade is that we all just assumed Dallas was being opportunistic and got value because they were a “facilitator.” With past regimes, if we were after a player we almost always over paid.  It’s good to have some competent people finally running this show.

[Scott41theMavs]

The beauty of this trade is that we all just assumed Dallas was being opportunistic and got value because they were a “facilitator.” With past regimes, if we were after a player we almost always over paid.  It’s good to have some competent people finally running this show.

The problem with it is that it suggests that the Mavs might have trouble making future trades. The Hawks didn't want the five or six players we might have been able to offer them, but we had the TPE. And now we don't. Hopefully the other 28 teams don't see things the same way.