TDL Archived: The 2nd Rnd Pick Yankee Swap

[StrandedOnBeauboisHill]

I share your concern about item 1, but I think item 2 is typically overstated.

1 I would expect the Mavs are looking for The Trade, because isn't that Cuban's pattern? Try to find that magic trade that will solve everything. They can find a splashy "all-in" type of trade, eventually, but it more often than not turns out to be a disaster.

Rondo. KP. Both would have been better to decline. Who's next?

2 On the idea that other teams can outbid, that sort of idea always assumes the whole league (a) is going to want the same trade DAL does, and (b) will spend "whatever it takes" to outbid the Mavs. Sure, other teams might have pieces that would look good in a trade. But the reality is that those might prefer to KEEP what they have. It's not what you have, but what you would be willing to offer.
.... Also, we have a really skewed idea of trade values - sometimes ours are too low, but other times way too high. I promise that no one here would have expected the Mavs would be able to land Wood for a scrub 1st-rounder and a platter of pure junk that they desperately wanted to get someone to take off their hands.

Interesting that we ended up on opposite sides on these two points...

I think last year's run shows that while our roster is certainly full of role players, Luka and Brunson were able to take them all the way to round 3.  I feel like Luka and someone who is a Brunson upgrade could potentially take them further.  But I do understand the concern of giving up too much of what we already have to get to that Brunson upgrade, specifically Green and Hardy and to a lesser extend Maxi and DFS, but if you can do salary filler with what's left plus a ton of picks to get that Brunson upgrade...you have to consider it no matter what the timing is.  I also feel like we should also be assuming that if it doesn't work out this time that Luka will be forcing his way out in a couple seasons which does have collateral damage of reloading our draft assets via trading him.