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

[cow]

I'd give up 18+31 and not think twice about it.  That's coming from me, the co-founder of the Powell fan club and OPJ hater club.  Chicago still says no.  Even if they want off of OPJ's 28M this year, they'd inherit 22M of Powell in '22/'23, 8.5M of Wright in '22.

I like Powell, too. I don't love OPJ, either. 

I'm just saying, Powell and Wright have contracts that we see as obstacles when it comes to roster building, but it's not like they're Chandler Parsons, Ian Mahinmi, Jon Wall, etc. It's conceivable that there are multiple teams out there who WANT those players, and are at points of their timeline where having cap flexibility is no longer an option (like where the Mavs will be from about 2022 until Luka retires). 

I don't know that Chicago wants them, and I'm inclined to agree with your analysis of the trade. But, I'm FAR from the thinking that the Mavs are painted into a corner, and that's specifically BECAUSE they haven't done anything stupid and desperate for a couple of years. My point is that it would make me happy for them to continue not doing stupid, desperate things. If that means missing out on some deals, I'm FIIIIIIINNNNNNNE with that.

If a true, blue "can't pass this up" deal presents itself, you take it. If not, you draft some guys you like, win 50 games and hope internal development gets you to the 2nd round. If it does, great. If not, that's ok, because you're now at the 2021 off season! If that off season comes and goes without giving you what you need, THEN it's time to start taking some risks.

I think we should all assume that the MBT don't want off of Powell.  I think that's a fan driven narrative.  You can argue that he didn't deserve the contract he received, but I'll take the counter in that he's worked his ass off, was a valuable contributor on the court, is a great leader and teammate, and is an ambassador for the team, players associate and the league as a whole. 

Even if the Mavs wanted to dump him, his value right now is upside down.  No one knows what he comes back as since his PNR effectiveness was based on his explosiveness as a lob threat.  

We also know the Mavs want to dump Delon and Delon wants out.  I'm going to go with negative value here too.  

Justin Jackson regressed this past year, he's just salary filler.  Maybe someone still sees upside in him as a reclamation project since this is the last year of his deal.

 We know late round picks can go for a few million so let's put the value of #31 at 2M.  No idea the value of 18 but maybe there is someone at that spot that Chicago loves.  Probably not enough to overcome the rest of the negative value in the trade.

Now if you really want off of Powell, you could swap out Wright for Curry and maybe have a more interesting conversation.

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You are seriously downplaying Oladipo. While he is not the best first banana, he can be an excellent third banana and certainly much better third banana than THJ. While THJ had a good season offensively, he is not what we need defensively. Dipo can be. The only question with Dipo is if he can stay healthy. Getting him now certainly improves possibility to keep him in 2021.

Why?

Maybe he comes here, realizes Luka dominates the ball all the time and he doesn´t like it. Maybe he has a bust-up with Carlisle like virtually every point guard ever, even those that eventually work it out. Then he has an easy out.

Of course it can help, too. We don´t know.


There is also a possibility our draft pick shows serious potential like a Tyler Herro and then we (could) move him on with Kleber+Wright to Indiana at the trade deadline in March and still sign a max FA next summer.

Always blowing assets on maximizing 12 months windows has been our operating style for the last 15 years. Just once take a long-term approach, which IN REALITY is only a window from Nov 20th. to (roughly) Sep 1st. Nine months!

I can´t believe so many can´t wait nine months for a shot to build a dynasty, because they need immediate 2nd round gratification. LeBron didn´t leave the Cavs, because they made no decisions. He left, because they had no good plan and made stupid decisions.

Ideally you'd acquire assets (even in the short term) that would improve the team and would be able to be moved should Giannis want to come here (spoiler:  that's not happening).  Teams have proven time and time again that if a superstar wants to come to your team, you can maneuver to make that happen.

You can give valid reasons for why LeBron left Cleveland but I'd counter that Dirk should have left Dallas with all the Plan Powder punting the MBT did from 2012 onwards.  Forcing trades isn't a good idea for player retention but neither is spinning your tires in the mud.  Plan Powder is why Giannis isn't on this team in the first place.  What's Shane Larkin up to anyway?

Reminder that this last offseason we helped botch a trade with Heat (speaking of teams that found a way to fit a Superstar on their team), couldn't get a conversation with PatBev (much less Kemba), got strung along by Danny Green (!!!) and had Delon Wright as one of their big free agent signings.  I think people are putting too much stock in "they'll want to come play with Luka" narrative.  The MBT at the very least needs some new blood (not suggesting replacements) when it comes to recruiting free agents.  They've fallen on their faces way too many time for me to ever think we'll land a big fish, much less Giannis.

Exactly. Giannis not being drafted is the exact result of the "win as many games as you can next season"-approach. No time to wait on a project for three years, which I have already explained is also a bunch of BS. If a rookie has it, it usually takes him 12-18 months to be a solid contributor. Giannis averaged 13/7/3 at the end of his second season. That summer we signed Aminu to play his position. 

Going to slightly disagree because what the Mavs did was worse than "win as many games as you can next season" which is what I'd classify as the mentality of the Cavs during Lebron's first run.  The Mavs strategy was to stay as competitive as possible (for Dirk) while only committing to 1 year deals in order to be able to chase the next crop of free agents.  It always felt like they went from plan A (superstars) to plan D (Chris Kaman) with little consideration in-between.  When they did finally learn their lesson that they couldn't attract marquee free agents and that good players want security, the moved on to the plan of overpaying for the 4th or 5th best player on the team and thinking they could flourish as the face of the franchise (Parsons, Wes, Harry).  

Our front office terrifies me.