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

[SleepingHero]

The question is should a mid 30s backup center who can't stay on the court in the playoffs be our primary target with the tax MLE?  If we are going the center route, I would rather have gone after a young project who might turn into an asset (Jalen Smith).  Personally I think the higher priority would have been to replace Brunson.  Somebody like Ricky Rubio (who got the tax MLE) would have made a ton of sense.  I don't know why we didn't sign Dragic, but if offering more than the vet min would have done it, I think that would have been higher priority than McGee.  There were also wing options that would have made more sense that got the tax MLE or less (OPJ, Ingles, Divincenzo).

I'm trying to stay patient and wait for the offseason to play out, and honestly I'm more pissed about Dragic than McGee, but right now we only have two guys on this roster that can pass and I feel like that is more important than adding another center after we got Wood.

I think that's a good question. And it really boils down to what did the Mavs need the most heading into the offseason? Of course most of us were under the assumption that Brunson was going to return and we needn't focus on adding another ball handler....

However, ignoring that misstep, the most obvious need was adequate center play. Mavs essentially had only Maxi in the playoffs. Taking the POV that the Mavs needed a big man the most, then the best player within our price range was McGee, and the Mavs got him. He specifically specializes in the two areas the Mavs lacked with rim protection and rebounding. And the fact he was in our price range is the key. I like Hartenstein a lot. I don't think Hartenstein is worth an extra 2 million + whatever assets we needed to shed to be able to offer him that contract over McGee. And it fits with the theory that Nico wanted better big man play as he targeted Wood before anyone. 

Taking a flier on a young guy like Jalen Smith would've been interesting, but usually going after young inexperienced guys doesn't equate to winning. 
All the other guys you mentioned I don't think are that much better than McGee at their position, and I'd rather be cheap at center than somewhere else.

I agree with you that losing out on Dragic was the real stinger. I'm still taking a wait and see approach on how they address vacancy left by Brunson, as that basically makes or breaks the offseason. But to me the McGee signing independently was a good signing and a proper use of the TP-MLE, regardless of what else has happened.