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

[DanSchwartzgan]

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???

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Here are the uses I see if Ibaka is the way we use the MLE:

1.  Great interior D 100% of the time whether it is KP at C or Ibaka at C.

2.  An accomplished starting center for the games KP sits or is injured.

3.  Improved bench rebounding.

4.  Lineup versatility against Zubac and Jokic.

I think #2 is the greatest value.  Losing KP for stretches of the season (or playoffs) is season-altering.  Too much risk to leave unaddressed.  

In #4, I'm not saying you would start Ibaka against LAC or DEN, but you might rotate differently to take some of the big body pressure off of KP.  If we had a really good guard who was a candidate to start (better than Curry or Brunson), then you could start Maxi with KP, Luka, DFS and THJ against teams with bigger lineups (like we did in the playoffs) and that guard in Maxi's place against teams that skew smaller.