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

[KillerLeft]

1. Hayward was relegated to fourth on the team (among rotation players) in usage.Despite taking a step (or a few) back in terms of his role over the course of his current contract, Hayward had a quietly solid season in time for a potential free agency.He was top 40 in box plus/minus ("...a basketball box score-based metric that estimates a basketball player’s contribution to the team when that player is on the court," according to Basketball Reference) and averaged 18.9 points, 7.2 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.8 threes per 75 possessions, with a true shooting percentage three points above the league average.Luka Doncic, LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard and Karl-Anthony Towns were the only players in the league who matched those averages. KAT was the only one who did it with a higher true shooting percentage.

Yeah, so from what I can glean from the situation, seems like what happened is:

He was signed ceremoniously as a big time building block and a core player with a vital role. He got hurt like 5 minutes into his first game, after having never really being injury prone prior to that. Then, all the youngsters were forced to develop while he dealt with a serious rehab. Several years (including the Kyrie era) and lots of nagging setbacks later, when he was finally healthy, it turns out the team had grown on the court without him, and the guys in the locker room didn't really get excited about letting him resume he place in the offensive approach on the court. After some tug of war about that, he and their young, core players literally don't like each other anymore. He wants out and they (the players, not the team management) want him out of their way. 

Now, we hear rumors that they might bring Drummond in??? I'm getting less and less focused on Boston as a perennial threat to Dallas. I think they're going to be underachievers when we look back at this decade. 

All the ping pong balls in the world don't matter if you can't get the recipe just right.