Hornets - Bulls - Mavericks - Clippers - Trailblzers (Shoring up things: Not as big as it seems)

[realEAST]

DAL in: D. Banton, J. Smith, T. Craig, 2025 CHA 2nd round pick
DAL out: M. Kleber, D. Powell, 2025 DAL 1st round pick (lotto protected), 2025 PHI 2nd round pick, 2025 DAL 2nd round pick

CHA in: 2025 DAL 1st round pick
CHA out: 2025 CHA 2nd round pick, 2025 NOL 2nd round pick

CHI in: PJ Tucker, D. Powell, 2025 NOP 2nd round pick, 2025 DAL 2nd round pick
CHI out: J. Smith, T. Craig

LAC in: M. Kleber
LAC out: PJ Tucker

POR in: 2025 PHI 2nd round pick
POR out: D. Banton

Dallas moves down some 10 - 15 spots in draft, to shore up the deficiencies – Smith is two way big who can stretch the floor and is signed for the next year, while Banton is jack of all trades wing / forward who can have long term role with a team. Craig adds some hustle and decent shooting.

Hornets move up and get a 1st round pick for two seconds, as they have lot of young players already.

Bulls add early 2nd rounder for a decent player, but one they likely have no long term use. They add some salary this year, but save up some money next.

Clippers add somewhat productive player on a longer deal and at the position of need, for one they don't play at all. Can be useful as expiring contract for trades this summer.

Blazers add decent mid-2nd round pick for an interesting player, but on an expiring deal and their season going nowhere.

[JRoy]

Pass for POR.

Think we can do better.

[Texas Chuck]

So Dallas dumps their remaining tradable picks for 3 players who aren't in a playoff rotation while removing a player who definitely is?
I don't get this one at all.

If Dallas is adding picks to Kleber they need to get back a player better than Maxi. Who is also locked up for next year btw. Just adding more meh depth is not what Dallas needs. They already have meh veterans on the fringes/outside of the rotation.

[realEAST]

Really? Approximately #40 pick in a good draft for a role player on an expiring deal who is almost certainly leaving in FA, when starter level players get you 3 future firsts? Ok...

[Godaddycurse]

Pass for POR.

Think we can do better.

you think banton can pull a 1st? better 2nd? more 2nds? what do you mean by better for a pending UFA like Banton

[Godaddycurse]

So Dallas dumps their remaining tradable picks for 3 players who aren't in a playoff rotation while removing a player who definitely is?
I don't get this one at all.

If Dallas is adding picks to Kleber they need to get back a player better than Maxi. Who is also locked up for next year btw. Just adding more meh depth is not what Dallas needs. They already have meh veterans on the fringes/outside of the rotation.

why wouldnt jalen smith be in your rotation? he's an upgrade over kleber if kleber will be in the rotation

[tester551]

Decent deal for Blazers... Sign me up.

[BlazersBroncos]

Easy yes for Portland.

No idea why Dallas would do this.

[realEAST]

So Dallas dumps their remaining tradable picks for 3 players who aren't in a playoff rotation while removing a player who definitely is?
I don't get this one at all.

If Dallas is adding picks to Kleber they need to get back a player better than Maxi. Who is also locked up for next year btw. Just adding more meh depth is not what Dallas needs. They already have meh veterans on the fringes/outside of the rotation.

I mean, I get your thing, but all three are better than Maxi this year - he is not the player he was four years ago, and it is ok to admit it (you had a similar fixation on Bullock and Powell last year too).

Dallas still gets one really good 2nd rounder back, and can use it to draft someone or make a move on draft night.

Smith most definitely would be in PO rotation and is miles ahead of Kleber on both end of the floor. Also, He could afford you to move Gafford this summer for improvement at forward spot.
Banton could definitely have a role going forward - his advanced metrics are pretty decent however you slice them, he has size, speed and all round skill, and his shooting is coming together. I think in certain matchups he would be ahead of Dinwiddie as he is much better defender. And he is young, so still room to improve going forward too, him and Grimes could be long term solution at backup guard / wing spots for years to come.

Question is, can Dallas find better players than they have in top 6, given lack of assets (I am really not looking to include a 2031 pick, unless a home run, but I don't see one at the moment) and problems with salary matching for players that make above 15 milion a year (Kleber + Powell), which still leaves without 3rd string PF/C, and Lively so far has had tendency to miss games somewhat frequently.

Or, in other case, it likely includes moveing Gafford, which I am not the least fond of given the potential level of replacements and level he has played for most of the time in Dallas (he is having a bit of a rough stretch recently, but imo that is mostly due to context).

Also, being at least a month without Luka, and having these nagging injuries here and there, yeah, Dallas needs depth, or they could fall off the standing pretty fast.

[daoneandonly]

Dont see Dallas touching this one. No reaosn to give up all those picks for ordinary JAG role players. Maxi's value isnt this bad

[Texas Chuck]

I mean, I get your thing, but all three are better than Maxi this year - he is not the player he was four years ago, and it is ok to admit it (you had a similar fixation on Bullock and Powell last year too).

Bullock Jr hasn't been a Maverick for 2 years now. And I could certainly see how washed he looked last year. What I did say before Dallas salary dumped him was that just a year previously he was playing 40 mpg of high level playoff basketball(making his 3's and he covered more ground in the playoffs than any other player in the entire Association.) So yeah I wasn't ready to give up on him, but I was dead wrong. Dallas did the right thing and knew better than me.

Powell is a guy I've pointed out repeatedly managed to be a plus year after year in every role the team gave him, in a wide variety of lineups, but was a guy I wanted upgraded for years. I was also actively shopping for a center here before they got Gafford....

I don't know that Smith is better than Maxi. He might be slightly better on offense, but he's not making shots this year either and he's definitely not the versatile defender Maxi is.

So, call me a homer all you want, I stand by my belief that if were both on the Mavs, Kidd would be playing Kleber over Smith. But even if he's a marginal upgrade, he's not one remotely worth all their picks like this.

And I definitely don't think Craig is better, but more importantly he's not better than Klay/PJ/Marshall/Grimes which is where his minutes would come from. And Banton needs to beat those guys out but also Luka/Ky/Dinwiddie and he's just not likely going to.

But if he does the difference is marginal at best. And Dallas isn't OKC who can pay for marginal upgrades because they have a bunch of assets. Dallas needs to save those for moves that make the team better.

[JMAC3]

Think Chicago portion of OP has typos

[ChettheJet]

What kind of saboteur broke into the Bulls offices? This is another oddball deal where they get older and still have Lavine and Vucevic. They end up staying 5-10 games under .500 don't get to 10th to keep their pick and maybe get to lose the play in game. Nothing smart about that

OK you put the Bulls as Out for the two picks they don't own so they actually get them. Big deal they have Phillips and Buzelis as young guys needing minutes, Sanogo and Lidell playing in the G League. And a whole bunch of veterans that are either under contract or younger guys nearing extension time. Why would they give up on Jalen Smith to get an ancient PJ Tucker who wouldn't play ahead of anybody and bring in Dwight Powell as the backup center?

[Pattycakes]

Um Banton is worth more than a second. Sorry

[JRoy]

Pass for POR.

Think we can do better.

you think banton can pull a 1st? better 2nd? more 2nds? what do you mean by better for a pending UFA like Banton

No way Banton is worth a 1st. Either 2 SRP and a disappointing matching contract or an SRP and a guy POR might want to keep.

He’s nothing special but folks have a tendency to overrate him.

[DeBlazerRiddem]

Portland just has much bigger fish to fry first. Maybe Banton helps grease the wheels on one of those trades, maybe not. But Portland has second rounders if needed so rather keep the player until we see how the cards play out or someone makes a good enough offer, but a single second feels like Portland can get that at any time.

And again, we had two solid seconds last season and dumped them for more future seconds because we didn't have roster spots, so there's a good chance we wouldnt even use the pick we get here. I also don't get why people are so down on Banton, the kid has his warts but he is a natural bucket getter and pushes the pace and has size to be very versatile so that looks like a really useful bench/6th man type. If he doesn't help move Ant/Grant/Ayton in a package deal then I almost rather try and resign him to a good deal this summer.

[HornetJail]

This trade has us moving from 31 + 34 to 23, which is fair on paper. Any chance we could sneak Nick Richards in here? surely one of these three teams could use the ~ 50th best center in the league?

Also the in/out of the 2nd round picks are duplicated on Dallas and Chicago. Are those two outgoing 2nds supposed to be incoming to CHI?

I don't see any reason for Dallas to go for this, they can do much better with a 1st.

[realEAST]

I mean, I get your thing, but all three are better than Maxi this year - he is not the player he was four years ago, and it is ok to admit it (you had a similar fixation on Bullock and Powell last year too).

Bullock Jr hasn't been a Maverick for 2 years now. And I could certainly see how washed he looked last year. What I did say before Dallas salary dumped him was that just a year previously he was playing 40 mpg of high level playoff basketball(making his 3's and he covered more ground in the playoffs than any other player in the entire Association.) So yeah I wasn't ready to give up on him, but I was dead wrong. Dallas did the right thing and knew better than me.

Powell is a guy I've pointed out repeatedly managed to be a plus year after year in every role the team gave him, in a wide variety of lineups, but was a guy I wanted upgraded for years. I was also actively shopping for a center here before they got Gafford....

I don't know that Smith is better than Maxi. He might be slightly better on offense, but he's not making shots this year either and he's definitely not the versatile defender Maxi is.

So, call me a homer all you want, I stand by my belief that if were both on the Mavs, Kidd would be playing Kleber over Smith. But even if he's a marginal upgrade, he's not one remotely worth all their picks like this.

And I definitely don't think Craig is better, but more importantly he's not better than Klay/PJ/Marshall/Grimes which is where his minutes would come from. And Banton needs to beat those guys out but also Luka/Ky/Dinwiddie and he's just not likely going to.

But if he does the difference is marginal at best. And Dallas isn't OKC who can pay for marginal upgrades because they have a bunch of assets. Dallas needs to save those for moves that make the team better.

Reggie definitely gave me PTSD that last year it seems, and time certainly fly...

I think Smith might be better than you give him credit for, he actually reminds me of younger Maxi and is versatile switching on the perimeter defensively. You won't have him guarding 3s as primary defender, but I don't think Maxi is good at that anymore too; and he is a better rebounder, area Dallas struggles when one of Gafford or Lively doens't play (sometimes even when they do). I think he is better on offense too (nor just as a shooter, but more active without ball too), and even if all those differences are marginal, they add up to a more significant level.

Banton is really interesting as 6'9 wing / forward with ball skills, as he played PG in college. He's got better stats than Dinwiddie this year (not a whole story, but wouldn't be surprised if he even upped his play on tha better team) and Spence is going to be almost 33 to start the next season. I think Banton could be ahead of him by then.

Also, both of them are quite young (24 and 25 years old), so even if you send out some draft capital, you still get young players back who can improve and stay with the team long term, somewhat mitigating the loss of the picks (along getting back a really good 2nd rounder too, not lower than 35 as it seems, which also retains them some value there).

And I've been trying to put together some sensible trade to get Dallas an upgrade at wing / forward basically since the season started, but I am more and more convinced that such deal is a really long stretch, without opening up holes elswhere and disrupting the chemistry of a team which still hasen't properly gel due to nagging injuries during the season so far.

Herb Jones, as a latest rumor, would be great, but I am afraid he is hardly realistic; Pat Williams makes too much to add him without trading basically half of the team at which point it kind of beates the purpose and is not really justified imo; Dosunmu could cost quite a bit but is he that kind of an upgrade too; Avdija is likely too expensive from asset standpoint; Kuzma, Cam Johnson all have too big salary to match; ditto for Ingram, and there are questions about the fit for the price he would cost; going further down, C. Martin (Hornets) is a good defender, but suspect offensively, and you'd have to move Kleber for him, which opens up a hole at stretch / backup big; Kispert, not good defensively; Kuminga would be pretty interesting, but price might be the problem; Bruce Brown earns too much; T. Lyles might be an option, but Kings seem to want to compete and probably wouldn't give him up without it being a deal where they get an upgrade; and by now I am running out of the options.

Of course, other possibility is standing pat potentially waiting for the eventual buyouts, and than going for the deal in summer when those are easier to make, but Mavs could miss out completely.

This type of deal for me is kind of the middle of the road - get (smaller) upgrades as top 7,8 players are pretty good when healthy, but add depth for RS not to get exhausted by the time playoffs come around, get younger player that can grow and stay with the team for a while, and retain some part of assets (early 2nd for late 1st and mid 2nd).

I think it still gives you options for moves in the summer (let's say Smith and Banton are good, you can offer some type of Gafford, Prosper, Hardy, #35 combo maybe).

I mean, of course it can backfire too, with Smith and /or Banton flopping, and I am not 100% sold on this myself, but I think I would at this point be willing to try it out - or potentially wait a bit and get some more data points before making a decision, but it also means not getting this upgrades for that time too.

[BlazersBroncos]

Um Banton is worth more than a second. Sorry

Why?

He is 25.
He is expiring.
He has never played meaningful minutes on a good team.
He is wildly inconsistent as a shooter.

I get a decent team needing some bench firepower spending a SRP on him, so I dont see him as valueless. But for PDX he isnt playing a role long term. That PHI SRP likely is in the 40-50 range. Thats what the value of someone like Banton should be at.

I could see an argument for 2, even 3, SRP if he was signed for cheap a bit longer and had at least for a time played decent ball on a decent team. But thats not the case.

Then again I would move just about anyone on the Blazers outside Deni, Sharpe, Clingan, Camara and Scoot for a few SRP and expiring salary.

[realEAST]

Think Chicago portion of OP has typos

Tnx, corrected it, picks incoming to Bulls.