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

[StepBackJay]

Ibaka is a center.  He's a much better interior defender than on the perimeter.  You can certainly play him next to KP on offense, but that combo will get pick and rolled to death on D.  Ibaka was a bench player this season unless Gasol was unavailable. 

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Gasol and Ibaka played together a total of 89 minutes all season in 19/20.  It was only 31 minutes together in 18/19.

This is the part that people don't get.  ^^^

When it comes to running the floor, switching, defending perimeter players, etc, Kleber is  way, way better than Ibaka. I'm not saying Ibaka doesn't help you, because he IS a player I believe the Mavs could use effectively. But, the minutes he'd get, when everyone is healthy, would be all of Boban's, and maybe a few from KP, Powell and Kleber. He'd very rarely (if ever) be on the court WITH KP.

Basically, he and Kleber would be your backup bigs, and you'd never see WCS or Boban again. Are you better? Yeah, probably, but is that worth the entire MLE???

Ibaka spent most of his career as a PF. Just because he plays more center for the Raptors doesn't mean he can't play PF. In Rick's offense he likes a stretch 4 (and these days I guess so does everybody?). Ibaka has position flex like Maxi, he can play PF or center. He also has more offensive tools than Maxi does. I think you saw some success in the playoffs with Maxi playing next to KP in the starting lineup. I have argued all year that the reason Rick doesn't usually play them together is that he likes Maxi playing the KP "role" off the bench.

If Ibaka came here it would be as the starter next to KP, filling the same role Maxi did in the playoffs but they are switchable depending on the matchup. As Dan mentioned, Maxi can guard better on the perimeter so you still have the option to start him in some matchups.

I also like Jae Crowder (yet another 30 yr old) in that role if you want to go with more of a pure PF. If the Mavs signed Crowder back to fill that PF spot I would also be good with that idea. Crowder is also a guy the Heat aren't going to sign for more than 1 year as they want to clear 2021 cap space.