06-24-2022, 02:42 PM
(06-24-2022, 02:25 PM)Dundalis Wrote: Meh, I have zero interest in Brunson as a long term starter alongside Luka. We would have to get serious defensive upgrades at the other positions for that to be anywhere close to an ideal long term fit (and even then I'd just want a straight up different skillset than what Brunson has partnering Luka). If he were to be ok coming in off the bench, that would be fine, but I don't think that works that well with the contract we would be giving him. Especially if Wood proves a good fit as a starter too, to where we would want to keep him. Luka, Brunson and Wood is straight up not good enough defensively, especially in the playoffs, unless you literally have all world defensive superstars at the other two positions. If his contract is tradeable he should be one of our primary trading chips, since we have very little of that, with an old roster compared to other teams as good or better than us right now, since the Mavs have had very little interest in keeping draft picks or drafting well and developing young prospects whatsoever.
Whoa spicy.
For starters, I believe Brunson is a much better defender than given credit for.
But more importantly, today's NBA is much more about being able to play a lot of different ways as opposed to just one. We still have everyone on this roster that proved to be good enough defensively to get us to the conference finals. Not saying we shouldn't be working to add more defense if the opportunity is there but I don't think having Luka/Brunson/Wood on the same roster is going to hold us back considering the pieces we have across the board.
Are you suggesting we simply let Brunson walk to the Knicks? We don't have money to replace him with anything, it would be a HUGE drop in talent level if that were to happen. If you have concerns about Luka/Brunson pairing I would hope that you're concerns about Luka/Hardaway or Luka/Dinwiddie are even higher...