2019-20 Around the NBA: Archived

[MrGoat]

The Dwight Powell thing is the biggest head-scratcher of the last several years. The Mavs have been overall disciplined and able to sign their guys to reasonable contracts. Powell was finally going to roll off his last contract where he was overpaid and the Mavs extended him for no discernible reason. It feels like this whole time it's been Cubes' desire to still justify the Rondo trade which turned out so poorly.

Powell had great stats in terms of FG% and whatnot but what we have seen and will continue to see is that a large share of that success belongs to Luka who makes a lot of roll men look amazing. Powell is a good player but there just wasn't ever a reason to overpay for his role which has become marginalized in recent years.

The only explanation I could come up with is that Cubes, Donnie and Rick all thought Powell was THE 5 to play next to KP. They valued his elite above the rim skills and his elite finishing ability. They felt that KP as a help defender could hide Powell's obvious defensive deficiencies and he's agile enough to guard wings. Put that package together with the fact that Powell is an incredibly smart and by in large a fantastic locker room presence, the Mavs FO felt that they needed to extend him at his current salary. And they probably thought they'd be getting a deal too looking at it from that perspective. 

Once Powell went down and KP moved to the 5, I think they saw their mistake finally. It really opened up this team's offense once KP moved and KP exploded in production (26/11/2 blocks on 50/39/86 in Feb.)

If the Mavs are self-aware, they'd admit Powell was a big mistake. Especially given that he suffered the most lethal injury career-wise for a basketball player. Who's to say Powell has any sort of bounce he once had? I don't think they'd trade him for anyone. But if I was Donnie I'd be trying to find something this summer. 

THJ+Powell+18+31 for Hield+35+43 is one deal I've been ruminating over.

We'd have to adjust that trade but I like the way you're thinking, Hield wouldn't help our defense but that would get us out of the Powell contract and bring in a real starter. We can't offer 18 by the Stepien rule because we traded our 2021 first round pick to New York in the Porzingis trade.