jayjaysee wrote:Texas Chuck wrote:Eh, I think the off-season has been okay. Klay, even this version is a meaningful upgrade over THJ, but I'm not at all sold Marshall/Grimes are upgrades over Jones/Green and part of what helped Dallas this year was playing fast and those two guys were a huge part of that and its a downgrade athletically and it was nice last year to see Dallas not be at an athleticism deficit every game like they had been for years.
Now its probably fine and they can figure out what else they really need by the deadline, but I think its like a C+. Okay because they've spent no real assets and if Grimes finds his game lost no youth, but I don't think they've raised their ceiling much.
Yeah, I’d say B. Work around the margins and maintain flexibility/assets while slightly improving the roster overall..with hope of Klay/Grimes being more than they were last season.
Unless/until we see a meaningful player traded for something better than what Dallas got? The 2025 first should have been shopped, heavily IMO. But maybe it was.
Also.. Dallas still technically has 2.5-2.7 mil wiggle room from the apron if they keep the roster at 14 players from what I come up with... I know they will just fill the roster and move on.
But one can think up a Powell for 6-6.5 million dollar player, maybe take a chance on a guard to compete with Exum/Hardy for minutes? Or Maxi for 13 million dollar player. Or Powell and Maxi for 15 million dollar player and a vet min..
or even Lawson for 4 million dollar player works..
The offseason doesn’t have to be done..
I give it a B+ for a few reasons.
1. Dallas made a massive upgrade in their biggest weakness of outside shooting. And I think we are more diverse offensively, I’m really hoping Kidd is coming in to say “we’re going to move off ball more” just like he said they wanted to play with pace last year.
2. In the aggregate Dallas got significantly better in the dribble, pass, and shoot category. I think Dallas has fallen into hoping for 3&D guys to much. We need our players to be slightly less of specialists.
3. If we rewind the clock back to last TDL, even with even money, I think every one would’ve had Grimes as a significantly better player than green. Since then Grimes sucked on a small sample size on the worst team in a long time and then missed the last 3rd of the season. Meanwhile Green had a pretty mid 2nd half to the end of his season and got minutes on a final run but didn’t really wow for most of the run. I still think Grimes is significantly better, Dallas would’ve never dreamed of guarding Mitchell or Butler in the clutch in the playoffs with Green, the Knicks did that with Grimes and he performed solid.
4. With DJJ and Marshall, Dallas is looking for POA defense, but we also need shooting. I know Marshall only shot 39% last season and wasn’t a great shooter before that, but DJJ had his best shooting season last season too and only got to 34%. If both of them regress bad 3% Marshall is league average and DJJ might not be playable. if you average 3 and D skills for the two I think Marshall is better. Plus Marshall is better and creating, driving, passing, and rebounding.
5. Dallas did all this without using their 1st. I think if we’re grading Dallas an A would be “there better than or as good as Boston now”. A B is “they have a fighting chance”. A C is “they are treadmilling”. And a failing grade is they’re worse. I think Dallas could fight back now and could still improve with their 2 1sts.
