DAL OFFSEASON: Trade & FA | Mavs "mostly done...but you never know."

[KillerLeft]

This was the best offense in league history, the needle doesn't move by trying to push that even further.

Correct, but any defenders they add need to be good enough on offense to ensure they can be viable rotation options. The league isn't (and hasn't been) trending towards "small ball"...they've been trending towards "everyone on the court can play" ball, lol. It's just that guys who are 6'9" and above who can handle, shoot and move skillfully are much more rare than guys who check all of those boxes, but in a 6'4" body. I know you already know this, btw, so I don't want you to feel like I'm trying to teach you anything. I just think it's germane to this discussion. 

Wright IS a good defender, but he struggled to competently play offense off the ball, so Carlisle literally couldn't play him in moments that mattered. 

Hence, it's not defenders that are needed, but two-way players. Even if their role on the team is defense-first (and there absolutely should be some studs who fall into that category on any good team) they must be a threat on the other end, whether that's as a vertical, rim-running threat, as a catch and shoot spacer, as a straight line driver who can competently pass, or, ideally, some combination of those traits. Otherwise, they literally will not be in the game, and this is true for any team, not just one coached by Carlisle. This is the way the league is going now. This is the new arms race. Carlisle is AMONG those who are on the early side of figuring this out, which is one of the reasons the Mavs are overachieving, but any team who isn't thinking this way moving forward is dumb, dumb, dumb. 

Now, none of this is meant to disagree with your assessment of the two players you mentioned, as I trust that you've studied them more than I. I'm just saying that if it were a simple matter of plugging in "defenders" then boom - just play Wright and MKG more. The truth is that it's not about that AT ALL. Again, this is a general post aimed as some systemic bad thinking that I read here often, and not aimed at you, Kamm. I'm reasonably confident that we agree on this, at least to a certain point.