2019-20 Around the NBA: Archived

[Mavs2019]

Smart was born and raised in Flower Mound (Dallas-Forth Worth). In 2018 his mother was battling cancer. She received treatment in a hospital in Dallas.
On top of it Smart was one of the last RFA to sign a contract. Initially Ainge wasn´t willing to pay him more than the MLE.
If the Mavs ever had the chance to sign a RFA it was Smart in 2018. Sadly they wasted the entire capspace on day one of free agency.

That's interesting, but doesn't change my point. Great role players don't help bad teams. You have to have Luka/KP or Tatum/Kemba/Brown (whatever) first. Draymond Green is amazing, too, but look how sad that team just looked without access to the players he is there to complement. In Dallas, at that time, the team was being built around 937 year old Dirk and dumber than a box of rocks Dennis Smith JR, no? Isn't that just another way of saying "we're not a playoff team?" 

I doubt it would've been viewed as a fit by either side.

Would that have been a problem though? If the Mavs hadn´t been such trash in free agency or the draft before he arrived, Luka could have had some good players on the roster already, instead of doing a(n admirable) job from scratch. 

2018 FAs was such a short-sighted decision. They signed DAJ before FA even started. They could have made a play for all these players we fantasy trade about every day:

Zach LaVine
Aaron Gordon
Marcus Smart
Derrick Favors (did the Mavs really think the LA cornflake was better for win now purposes, yikes)
Jusuf Nurkic ($12M dollars, his agent should be working some NBA outpost in Greenland)

Put this in your head. I´m not shitting you. THAT summer. For the DAJ money, we could have signed Brook Lopez, Julius Randle, Montrezl Harrell AND DeMarcus Cousins.  UN-f***ing real. That´s a better win now team in 2018, 2019, 2020....