10-14-2020, 12:57 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-14-2020, 01:02 PM by KillerLeft.)
(10-14-2020, 12:30 PM)loki Wrote: I'm not certain they intended to move Powell. Before covid hit, the expected 2021 cap was $125M. Dallas handed out contracts to Curry, Wright, Powell, Kleber, and Finney-Smith, and managed to maintain almost exactly $37.5M (a max slot for Giannis) in projected 2021 cap space. I don't think that was a coincidence. They structured the contracts to hit that number by having some increase in value, some decline, and some stay flat from year to year.
I have to think they would have approached things differently if they had known that the cap would not reach anywhere near the original projection. But it's hard for me to guess who they would have prioritized signing. It's possible they felt strongly enough about Powell that he would have received the same extension and they would passed on Wright.
This is a fair observation. My overall point is that I believe they've been planning all of this for quite a while, and I don't believe they've been making any signings that they believe are too risky. I think they feel confident they can move Wright, too. For that matter, I think they view pretty much every contract on their roster as a value contract, with the exception of Porzingis (max) and THJ, who is expiring, and probably has significant value for that reason, alone.
This is probably why I didn't think last off season was bad, the way some people did. I saw it as trying to improve the team in the most risk-averse way possible. And, tbh, they were successful. They made the playoffs. The only thing they actually did that was unsuccessful was the Wright signing. They misevaluated that one, somehow, but it should have worked, so I don't blame them. And it's not that big of a deal, because other teams will want him on that contract! Curry and Boban are also both value players on value contracts. We call those assets.
I think Hield would be great here. I just have a feeling, the way some other people have feelings about Josh Richardson or Aaron Gordon, for example. But, because I understand the big picture of what they're trying to pull off, I'm not going to get butthurt about the team not getting excited about Hield, because I understand that if/when Giannis goes off the board, there are very possibly 3-4 fallback options at that point that would be way more attractive than trading for Hield now (and again, these opportunities are NOT limited to the list of names of 2021 free agents). And, the Mavericks will be better next year, even if they do nothing this off season. This is likely the one and only time we'll be able to say that, and it's happening the off season right before their big space plans kick in??? I feel like everything is falling into place really nicely for the Mavs, personally. I see some luck, but I also see some good planning.
This time, the Mavericks are not ruining a title team to do this. They are building a young team deliberately and cautiously. This approach could very well be the difference between Dirk's career as we knew it or an alternate timeline where he got 3-4 rings. They need to think BIGGER this time. This plan doesn't die if/when Giannis signs his super max in Milwaukee. They have between now and Luka's rookie max extension to build this team. They'll be able to improve the team after that, yes, but doing so will be much more difficult (see Milwaukee, right now). I hope they keep all options open until the RIGHT one presents itself.
(10-14-2020, 12:56 PM)Kammrath Wrote:(10-14-2020, 11:40 AM)KillerLeft Wrote: I thought they viewed Powell as expendable and on a value deal the day they signed the contract. I felt then and still feel like the summer of 2021 has been the plan this entire time.
If the cap was going up as planned then DP wouldn't have needed to be moved to have room in 2021.
My position:
They will move DP only if Giannis or another target is available and interested in 2021. I think they will not move DP until the summer and will only do so IF they need the space at the time. (Unless of course a deal comes along you cannot say no to.)
Dude, you might be totally right about this. Same page. I said the TDL, but your way is even a little better.
My point is that they didn't sign him to a deal that they didn't believe was movable. There were probably other ways to skin the cat at a higher cap projection, but I believe in the event that the plan was implemented for Giannis, specifically, Powell was always going to be a preferable sacrifice, due to their positional overlap. If the target ended up being a guard, then sure, I can buy that they planned on keeping Powell and getting the room a different way.