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

[DanSchwartzgan]

Dallas can’t give Gobert the Super-Max, so not even a concern.

There is no denying Gobert is a star.  He’s 10th best in the league in RPM and first in D-RPM.  What that is worth is obviously up for debate, but there is no denying he, Luka and KP would be 3 stars and that team would be improved regardless of what GA does a year from now.

I agree to an extent, but on the other hand I kind of feel like I CAN argue that they'd be improved. My argument would be based on the idea that the sport has become like 80% spread pick and roll, just like the European game. I think you can still get away with either KP or Gobert, but I'm not thrilled at the idea of trying to make a defense work with BOTH.  I mean, technically, yes. You'd have more talent on your roster. But, if they can't play the last five minutes of the game together, what's the point?

It would certainly be an interesting experiment.  I get the concern, but hear me out.

Gobert/WCS/KP are the 1st, 20th and 29th best PLAYERS in the league in D-RPM.  Yes, someone would have to cover the perimeter...especially on switches.  But, there would be a highly rated shot blocker behind them at all times.  I’m not sure we’ve seen that tried as there hasn’t ever been anything like KP and Gobert on the same team.  That means the big on the perimeter doesn’t have to chase back to the basket.  They can play fairly aggressive drop coverage and simply worry about 3 pointers as any player who goes around them will have a top shot blocker waiting for them.

We were killing it with Powell last year before KP came back into his own.  Gobert is a substantial improvement over Powell.  I think it would work, but we are probably only talking about 12 minutes a game.  The other 32 minutes we could conceivably have one or the other star big on the floor alone.