2021-2022 ROSTER TALK: [ARCHIVED]

[Mavs2021]

The one Lavine angle I can imagine is this -- I could see the teams both signing their own, and then in 6 months the PG-heavy Mavs and the SG-heavy Bulls swap Brunson for Lavine (in a deal where all the restrictions no longer exist), but I can't see a path in the summer.

Yeah generally speaking our whole future depends on re-signing Brunson. Whatever we do going forward, he has to be the trade asset in a future All-Star player trade. He´s literally the only option we have right now.

Add PF/C Liddell and C Koloko via the draft.
Add Jalen Smith via the TP-MLE.

We develop Green, Ntilikina, Liddell, Koloko and Smith. We take 12 months to figure out whether one or more of them could be viable long-term options, maybe even starters. 

Next summer our whole outlook is completely different. Kleber, Powell, Burke, Brown, Boban, Ntilikina, Chriss and even Green (club) are expiring contracts. Dinwiddie and Bullock enter the final years of their contract with (heavy) partial guarantees already.

Our 2023 draft pick has been converted, so we are free there, too.

If Jalen Smith puts up 14/10/1.5 blocks next regular season at age 23 (which I find pretty likely playing next to Luka), he becomes a valuable trade asset. That means 12 months from now Gobert would cost a whole 1st round pick less, simply because you added a young player via the MLE this summer. Dinwiddie´s contract is also easier to swallow for salary matching purposes, cause it´s now an expiring with a partial guarantee.

This is not the big fix it  summer. This is the set-up summer. This is the summer to not screw up the opportunity for the big summer of 2023.