FA: JaVale McGee 3yrs/$17.2M to DAL | will indeed start at center

[Jommybone]

Not much to be gained from criticizing each other or from defending previous posts. I’m sure many of mine are plain old dumb. But while we’re on the topic, let me add this:

1. Jalen is a baller. I think he will prove himself worth his contract. He’s been better every year, and was one of this year’s best in the playoffs, where he outplayed All Star Donovan Mitchell and Hall of Famer Chris Paul. 

2. The Mavs were in a position where the marginal cost of paying Jalen all the way up to the max would affect nothing but Cuban’s bank account. Letting him get away hurts the team in a way that is irreparable. 

3. Only way this isn’t a total fail of embarrassing proportions is if they rescue a major sign-and-trade asset out of it like the Warriors did upon KD’s departure.

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Brunson literally does one thing well above average. That's shoot the ball in the mid range. Especially at his height, it's exceptional. But you could see how his one dimensional reliance on it in the playoffs had a detrimental effect on those percentages.

There's nothing else he really does at a high level. He's a low volume 3 pt shooter, with no real pull up game. Fairly average playmaker, and average to below average defender, who can be targeted due to size.

Again, the Mavs had NO INTENTION of keeping Brunson long term. When you understand that, you understand that any contract offering that would have made him immovable in a trade is completely off the table, because the Mavs don't want Brunson here long term, they want him as the centerpiece of a trade for a player they feel would be a better fit with Luka.

So we can talk all day about how the decision is purely based off Cuban wanting to save cash and there is almost definitely an element of that here, but if all Brunson is for the Mavs is a trade piece, then it's literally pointless to retain him on a contract that's no longer desirable in a trade package. End of story. If Brunson was clearly that guy, the second option for a championship caliber team, I do think Cuban would have paid him. But he isn't.

It is hard to read this and keep my temper. You are underrating Jalen horribly, in my opinion.