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

[SleepingHero]

Sometimes I wonder if you guys are just trying to wind me up. 

Like when somebody wanted three first round picks, Smart, Brown, Theis and the Celtics to eat all our shit contracts for Porzingis.

You got to be a little realistic please.

I´m not even sure the Hornets would accept my deal, but at least it´s not beyond the realms of possibility.

To be fair the #3 proposal was a bit tongue in cheek. I don't realistically expect CHA to throw away a top 3 pick to get rid of a dead weight contract. 

But my point still stands. It makes zero sense for the Mavs to give up key rotation pieces for a top 5 worst player in the league. Batum 5 years ago would be a great fit. Batum now is a shell of himself and cannot stay on the court. Parsons 2.0. 

Which is why I threw out that CHA would be the ones to have to sweeten any deal if they really were clamoring for THJ+Powell and to get rid of Batum's expiring. Maybe Bridges, or Graham and then I'd be more interested.

What if Powell has lost his explosiveness?

He gonna bust out his post-up game, his mid-range game, his long-range game?

The Hornets would take him on trust until 2022.

Elton Brand lost 7 PPG, 3 RPG, 1 APG and 1 BPG for the three seasons after his achilles injury and then his career was basically over at age 33.

All good points. I'm not going to fault Powell for getting a terrible non-contact injury, but the Mavs did shoot themselves in the foot giving him an extension for no reason. I really do doubt Powell will ever return to anything he once was. Before the injury he was elite at rim rolling, average to below average at everything else. If he's lost his bounce he's at best a 4th string center/bench cheerleader. 11mm for that is terrible, especially if we have other 5's that can perform his role (WCS, Boban, KP, Kleber). 

I would cut the line on Powell as soon as I could. But is Batum the best avenue for that? The way I see it is that both are damaged goods. And even if both couldn't play, Powell's lockeroom presence is still more valuable to this team than Batum. And Batum would in theory cost more money in 1 year to Cuban than just keeping Powell the 3 years left on his deal.

I do think Donnie will try to trade Powell. He's shown no hesitation of letting go of Mav favorites if they aren't good anymore to try and get better, even if they are a great lockeroom presence, with Devin Harris being the latest example of that (heck maybe even Barea too). 

I think a more interesting trade route would to try and use Powell as a filler and go after someone like Hayward. Equally injury prone as Batum, but a much higher ceiling.