2019-20 Around the NBA: Archived

[Flipper]

My overall point:

DP and the extension was a GOOD get for the Mavs because of elite offense, solid defense, and great lockerroom/leadership/chemistry presence.

Then your overall point is an abominable one, because the Mavs were bidding against themselves. Zero of the other 29 teams in the league would have dumped that much money into Powell. That objectively means that he was a significant albatross the day that extension was signed. It was a binary error on the front offices part. In the NBA, you don't reward players based on past contributions (such as the offcourt stuff I believe you are overrating - that would be great if Powell were a worthy playoff rotation player. he is not, and you don't pay that kind of money for that stuff), but rather pay them market value or slightly more based on what you believe they can do moving forward. Powell is goshawful at the single greatest task of bigs - defending in the paint. He does okay on the perimeter, but can bother the shot of zero NBA players, even guards, at the rim. That's a problem that has to be worked around, and one that none of the other non-tanking teams in the NBA would put into the starting lineup. And before you throw KAT at me, he may not play any defense, but he can make shots at the rim more difficult by his size alone.

The MBT didn't need the Achilles tear for the extension to be one of the ten gravest errors in franchise history. And this is a franchise with a lot of errors.

The Nuggets night have been willing to pay Powell that much money considering Plumlee is getting 4 million more a year.