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

[Jason Terry]

Dude, I'm not saying he's better than those players, I'm saying he's better at doing certain things than those players. They happen to be things that this team desperately needs. If they had a bunch of ball handlers and no space for them to work, I'd be looking for dudes just like Curry and THJ.

I AM saying that what he did in THIS SERIES was better than I've ever seen Brunson play, and Brunson/Barea were the only two players on the roster previously who had any chance of playing that role. They were so starved for the combination of dribble penetration and smart playmaking (again, other than Luka) that Carlisle gave Delon Wright like a million chances to take the job.

I do agree that recency bias plays a part in the discussion.

I guess my real point is: why is anything offensive related a top priority for us at all? I get that anyone we bring in needs to be able to shoot, but how do we need something “desperately” when we were the highest rated offensive team of all time?

Because Luka is the only high-level playmaker on roster now, which leads to the other team being able to smother him on defense in the playoffs. I am not and never will be a "take the ball out of Luka's hands" troll, but there needs to be another guy who can do that not too short of Luka's level when he sits as well as to alleviate pressure when he's on the court. Brunson can do the former well, but plays awkwardly with Luka. Curry is offensively exactly what we need, but is a defensive liability. Burke is a poor man's version of what we need, but far better than anything else on roster currently. I suppose if you get a far superior version of Burke, then it stands to reason that you don't need Burke.

“Playmaker” and what people are asking for is a secondary ball handler when Luka is off the floor? Brunson did it at the highest level when he was on the court. Burke, a guy we got off waivers from a playoff team, filked that role just fine. Carlisle has turned OJ Mayo into that. He’s turned Delonte West into that. He could even make Dennis Smith Jr into that. We can find that. What we always lacked was PRIMARY PLAYMAKER. We have that with luka. Kidd passed for that role. Haven’t truly had it since Nash