(02-06-2023, 07:46 PM)mvossman Wrote: The argument that the Mavs can sign him for the most money in FA does not really matter if we are not maxing him (and we are not maxing him). See Brunson. A cap space team could decide to spend what would make us uncomfortable.
I'm aware of that. Here's the thing, if the market for Wood is not there in the trade market like people are saying, then why would the market for him be there in free agency? There are less teams that have the cap space to sign him than there are that could trade for him. No team is offering him close to a max, if a team valued him that highly there wouldn't be no market for him in trades. And if a team is willing to offer him a decent contract in FA, there's no reason for the Mavs not to exceed it. Also can't we offer him more years than anyone else? Or is that not a thing anymore?
Also IMO he's more valuable to us in our current situation than Brunson arguably was, because his particular skillset purely on the offensive side is literally as good a compliment as you could get for Kyrie and Luka outside another superstar. Brunson's production was clearly suppressed by Luka due to their similar playstyles and we had Dinwiddie. Brunson had already made his mind up he was 100% going to go to NYK well before FA so we never had a shot at him, which is why we didn't even make an offer. Our only shot was the previous season when we could have gotten him super cheap but he was not the same level of player at that time. Even I had reservations he would ever develop into the player he is now with the Knicks.
Wood is a guy who I could see really thriving when he has two guys with insane gravity drawing a lot of defensive attention away from him and his inside/outside game compliments both guys perfectly. It should be up to the Mavs to find a way to fill out the rest of the roster with the best defensive guys they can find to make up for the flaws the trio present on that end (which shouldn't be that hard to attract if Kyrie works out and they extend him)
IMO if they trade Wood and get a defensive guy back with no offensive game, we've handicapped the offensive ceiling of this team. Kyrie and Luka as your only real offensive shot creators, when before you had three. IMO you need a true third option to maximise what you are getting from Luka and Kyrie not to mention when Kyrie inevitably misses games. Or maybe they finally believe in Hardy and are willing to give him a lot more minutes.
(02-06-2023, 09:29 PM)HoosierDaddyKid Wrote: I don't think any of that matters. If he's not happy with the direction of the team, and they continue to fall short, I can guarantee he'll want out. I don't think he displays the loyalty that Dirk did. His generation is different.
I'm not talking about whether he wants out or not. I know he will want out if we don't put the right pieces around him. I'm talking about him using unprofessional tactics to force a trade out well before his contract ends. Doing shit like sitting out games. I'm saying I don't think he's that type and if he wants out but the Mavs won't trade him until they want to (which would probably TDL of the 25-26 season earliest, but more likely the end of the 25-26 season, which is a full two seasons after this one), he will play out his contract professionally even all the way to the end of it at the end of the 26-27 season. Meaning I don't think we have to worry about him forcing his way out lets say in the next year or two if things don't work out giving us more time than a lot of people think we have for the FO to get the team construction right.