Dallas Mavericks 2025 Trade thread -- Roster and Cap and the 1st page

[Maverick41]

Imo, Nico's plan is probably to have a bunch of 9-20 million contracts so that to package eventually for a disgruntled star. Currently, this team is a little too deep which might be an issue, team chemistry wise.

If PHX has a bad start, Devin Booker is the guy I'm paying attention to the most. Fits this team and is signed to Nike.

[Bob8]

This team will be incredibly hard to manage... Because after next season, extension to Lively is also coming up. This roster is seriously constructed TO WIN NOW. Aka, Kyrie needs to be fully healthy and AD does need to watch out for his groin to not get hurt again.

Not necessarily, Lively is not needed anymore, if they can get good return for him. PJ/Gafford/Lively, 2 are expendable. Lively value has plumbed with Luka's departure. He was great fit with Luka, not great fit with Kyrie//Flagg/AD.

You’re crazy my man if you think Lively is finished growing as a player. I have a feeling we will see Lively taking more 3’s and becoming an actual threat from there. This league is starting to move away from the super teams and from the Warriors style play. The big man is coming back and right now the Mavs have the best collection of bigs in the league. They still need a young elite PG though. Maybe that’s what PJ will be moved for? This team isn’t a finished product. I feel there is another big move coming.

I'm not crazy, Mavs roster construction is crazy. AD/Lively/Gafford/PJ/Flagg can maybe work in video game but not in real life. Where are minutes, if AD as a star is playing 30+ minutes and Flagg as a protege 30?

The right move is trading AD, but if he's not traded, which he won't be, there's simply not enough minutes for PJ/Gafford/Lively. Ok, Gafford can be traded but that's still a problem who's suffering Luka's absence the most. It's Lively. That's what Luka's haters don't understand about Luka, it's not only about his points and assists, it's about his gravitation. Lively was fantastic dealing with Luka's double teams and traps, it's over with that now. All those bigs are sexy in D, but spacing will be awful. Lively with Luka and Lively with Exum are 2 different players.

Lively threat from 3? He's taken 2 3s in his first 2 years in RS and didn't hit a single 3 in RS yet.

[Mr B]

Not necessarily, Lively is not needed anymore, if they can get good return for him. PJ/Gafford/Lively, 2 are expendable. Lively value has plumbed with Luka's departure. He was great fit with Luka, not great fit with Kyrie//Flagg/AD.

You’re crazy my man if you think Lively is finished growing as a player. I have a feeling we will see Lively taking more 3’s and becoming an actual threat from there. This league is starting to move away from the super teams and from the Warriors style play. The big man is coming back and right now the Mavs have the best collection of bigs in the league. They still need a young elite PG though. Maybe that’s what PJ will be moved for? This team isn’t a finished product. I feel there is another big move coming.

I'm not crazy, Mavs roster construction is crazy. AD/Lively/Gafford/PJ/Flagg can maybe work in video game but not in real life. Where are minutes, if AD as a star is playing 30+ minutes and Flagg as a protege 30?

The right move is trading AD, but if he's not traded, which he won't be, there's simply not enough minutes for PJ/Gafford/Lively. Ok, Gafford can be traded but that's still a problem who's suffering Luka's absence the most. It's Lively. That's what Luka's haters don't understand about Luka, it's not only about his points and assists, it's about his gravitation. Lively was fantastic dealing with Luka's double teams and traps, it's over with that now. All those bigs are sexy in D, but spacing will be awful. Lively with Luka and Lively with Exum are 2 different players.

Lively threat from 3? He's taken 2 3s in his first 2 years in RS and didn't hit a single 3 in RS yet.

We’ve all seen the videos of Lively taking (and making) 3’s in practice. He can do it, the Mavs just haven’t needed him to do it because they had Luka. Lively has more to his game. Giving up on him now just because Luka got traded would be a huge mistake.

[Bob8]

You’re crazy my man if you think Lively is finished growing as a player. I have a feeling we will see Lively taking more 3’s and becoming an actual threat from there. This league is starting to move away from the super teams and from the Warriors style play. The big man is coming back and right now the Mavs have the best collection of bigs in the league. They still need a young elite PG though. Maybe that’s what PJ will be moved for? This team isn’t a finished product. I feel there is another big move coming.

I'm not crazy, Mavs roster construction is crazy. AD/Lively/Gafford/PJ/Flagg can maybe work in video game but not in real life. Where are minutes, if AD as a star is playing 30+ minutes and Flagg as a protege 30?

The right move is trading AD, but if he's not traded, which he won't be, there's simply not enough minutes for PJ/Gafford/Lively. Ok, Gafford can be traded but that's still a problem who's suffering Luka's absence the most. It's Lively. That's what Luka's haters don't understand about Luka, it's not only about his points and assists, it's about his gravitation. Lively was fantastic dealing with Luka's double teams and traps, it's over with that now. All those bigs are sexy in D, but spacing will be awful. Lively with Luka and Lively with Exum are 2 different players.

Lively threat from 3? He's taken 2 3s in his first 2 years in RS and didn't hit a single 3 in RS yet.

We’ve all seen the videos of Lively taking (and making) 3’s in practice. He can do it, the Mavs just haven’t needed him to do it because they had Luka. Lively has more to his game. Giving up on him now just because Luka got traded would be a huge mistake.

From 0 makes in 2 years to 3-point threat is a very long way to go.

Luka is not only got traded, which is for sure bad for Lively, he has got traded for superstar big.

[Maverick41]

Contrary to the stats, I actually liked what I saw from Lively last season. His hookshot improved quite a bit and his passing was highlighted a lot more. I want to see Kidd put him at the top of the key and make reads through handoffs or cuts especially with Kyrie out for a while. If you've watched enough of this year's OKC or previous NY years, basically the Isaiah Hartenstein role.

Problem with Lively though is he seems very injury prone and he still has problems with foul trouble. He's not untouchable to me for the right trade but I'd much rather keep him since his archetype thrives a lot more in the playoffs then a guy like Gafford does. That was clearly evident in our last finals run.

[41Dirk41]

Every summer i see Ben Simmons video taking (and making) 3s but he is still Ben Simmons... Street clothes fits very bad with both Lively/Gafford. That's the elephant in the room.

Prime Duncan&Robinson or prime Steph/Klay/Green would have dominated in any era ... It's all about players, not how to build a team. That's just narrative for ESPN or some Perkins tik tok.

Unfortunately for us 33yo AD/PJ/Lively/Gafford are not at the same level for sure.
Our front court is dysfunctional but good, not elite. Not enough to dominate and win a title... Mostly with a sub par back court.

After Harrison's fall, the domino effect will continue, and perhaps then we can talk about building another contender team...

[Maverick41]

Something that worries me about our frontline is that all of our centers cannot shoot. AD has the most ability but the guy has shot less then 25% from 3 in the last 5 seasons combined. He shot 23% from 3 with us in the small amount of games he played.

Unfortunately this kind of frontline will likely stifle Flagg's development. It's going to force Flagg to be shooting a lot of jumpers when its clear that he's more of a slasher.

[Bob8]

Something that worries me about our frontline is that all of our centers cannot shoot. AD has the most ability but the guy has shot less then 25% from 3 in the last 5 seasons combined. He shot 23% from 3 with us in the small amount of games he played.

Unfortunately this kind of frontline will likely stifle Flagg's development. It's going to force Flagg to be shooting a lot of jumpers when its clear that he's more of a slasher.

Exactly, people are talking how Nba has returned to big lineups, but they're forgetting to tell that shooting 3s is more and more important. AD playing 5 is ok, but AD playing 4 with non shooting big it's not.

AD playing 4 creates other problems, what to do with PJ? Far the most logical solution would be trading AD. Second most logical is convincing him playing 5. In that case I believe Lively should be traded, one of Gafford/Lively is redundant anyway, I can't see developing Lively and paying him, if AD will eventually play only 5.

Not only that front court can't shoot, they can't create anything too and for things being worse, vast majority of Mavs roster can create much. That roster was built with Luka's system in mind. Now we have D wins championships but no offensive system.

[ACMFFL]

Lively's value has plummeted due to his injuries, not Luka absence.
And imho it makes little sense to move Dereck unless they are looking for a star player: he's one of the few players on the roster that fits Cooper timeline, and he makes just 5.25M, so Mavs would have to package him with another rotational player at least.
Plus, in this cba era, cost-controlled players are crucial for contender teams.

I love Gafford but he's definitely the odd man out, that's what his contract extension suggests too.
I don't expect both PJ and Daniel to be on the roster at opening night.

[Bob8]

Lively's value has plummeted due to his injuries, not Luka absence.
And imho it makes little sense to move Dereck unless they are looking for a star player: he's one of the few players on the roster that fits Cooper timeline, and he makes just 5.25M, so Mavs would have to package him with another rotational player at least.
Plus, in this cba era, cost-controlled players are crucial for contender teams.

I love Gafford but he's definitely the odd man out, that's what his contract extension suggests too.
I don't expect both PJ and Daniel to be on the roster at opening night.

Lively value plummeted in the moment Luka was traded for star big, his potential new contract plummeted too. That might be ok for Mavs, I doubt it's ok for Lively and his agent.

[ACMFFL]

Lively's value has plummeted due to his injuries, not Luka absence.
And imho it makes little sense to move Dereck unless they are looking for a star player: he's one of the few players on the roster that fits Cooper timeline, and he makes just 5.25M, so Mavs would have to package him with another rotational player at least.
Plus, in this cba era, cost-controlled players are crucial for contender teams.

I love Gafford but he's definitely the odd man out, that's what his contract extension suggests too.
I don't expect both PJ and Daniel to be on the roster at opening night.

Lively value plummeted in the moment Luka was traded for star big, his potential new contract plummeted too. That might be ok for Mavs, I doubt it's ok for Lively and his agent.

I honestly don't get your reasoning, his value plummeted cause he struggled to stay healthy, that's the reason.
Also Lively agent is pretty tied with the GM.

[Bob8]

Lively's value has plummeted due to his injuries, not Luka absence.
And imho it makes little sense to move Dereck unless they are looking for a star player: he's one of the few players on the roster that fits Cooper timeline, and he makes just 5.25M, so Mavs would have to package him with another rotational player at least.
Plus, in this cba era, cost-controlled players are crucial for contender teams.

I love Gafford but he's definitely the odd man out, that's what his contract extension suggests too.
I don't expect both PJ and Daniel to be on the roster at opening night.

Lively value plummeted in the moment Luka was traded for star big, his potential new contract plummeted too. That might be ok for Mavs, I doubt it's ok for Lively and his agent.

I honestly don't get your reasoning, his value has plummeted cause he struggled to stay healthy, that's the reason.
Also Lively agent is pretty tied with the GM.

How you don't get my reasoning? A young C projected to be long term starting C with the best Pg in the league, who excels at playing with rim running/rim protecting big. I would say near max. was realistic outcome for the next contract. But then overnight the best player of the team is another big, and he loses the Pg, who makes him better. It's completely different situation for him and not in a good way. And will become even worse, when AD will move to 5, where he belongs.

[Mavrelous]

The way I see it, for the roster to work offensively, both DLo and Klay need play, and defensively, Christie should be the POA, with rim protecting center and a forward able to defend big wing, act a s a low man and provide help defense when the center is switched on the perimeter.
Mavs have all the parts to make this work, they actually have 2 such forwards when most team would kill for one, but it means AD has to play the 5 most of the time, like Maverick41 said, the team has no spacing when AD is at the 4 and Flagg/PJ is at the 3.
I don't want to draw definite conclusions from last year, but the 2 big lineups feasted on bad teams, but got embarrassed by good teams, they were blown out of the gym against Harden and Luka, and in the play in, even non-spacing rim pressuring PG in Ja playing with rookie non-stretch big dominated them.
Also, from the little we saw, Gafford fit better with AD than Lively, Gafford ability to get the ball down low and create points helped the team, the exact opposite from when Luka was here when Lively vertical spacing and quick feet on defense were much more valuable.

[ACMFFL]

How you don't get my reasoning? A young C projected to be long term starting C with the best Pg in the league, who excels at playing with rim running/rim protecting big. I would say near max. was realistic outcome for the next contract. But then overnight the best player of the team is another big, and he loses the Pg, who makes him better. It's completely different situation for him and not in a good way.

Still don't get it tbh.
Reality is Lively has never been max money material.
PG or not PG no team in this league would throw near max money at someone who can't stay healthy.
I expect AD to close out games at the 5, I don't see any problem for Lively, first thing first he has to show to be able to stay healthy.

[Bob8]

How you don't get my reasoning? A young C projected to be long term starting C with the best Pg in the league, who excels at playing with rim running/rim protecting big. I would say near max. was realistic outcome for the next contract. But then overnight the best player of the team is another big, and he loses the Pg, who makes him better. It's completely different situation for him and not in a good way.

Still don't get it tbh.
Reality is Lively has never been max money material.
PG or not PG no team in this league would throw near max money at someone who can't stay healthy.

Forget about his health for a second, I'm talking about how important player he would have been with Luka as the best player and how as AD as the best player.
He would be crucial player for Mavs in the time for his next contract, if Luka stayed. Now he will be backup big, without no one to create for him and super star player playing on his position.

[ACMFFL]

Forget about his health for a second, I'm talking about how important player he would have been with Luka as the best player and how as AD as the best player.
He would be crucial player for Mavs in the time for his next contract, if Luka stayed. Now he will be backup big, without no one to create for him.

Well, health is the main factor here, it's not just a detail.
AD is better suited at the 5 but Mavs still plan to play a center next to Davis so Lively will have a lot of chances to start. Also who knows what will happen in 2 years, that's when his new contract will kick in.

[Bob8]

Still don't get it tbh.
Reality is Lively has never been max money material.
PG or not PG no team in this league would throw near max money at someone who can't stay healthy.

Forget about his health for a second, I'm talking about how important player he would have been with Luka as the best player and how as AD as the best player.
He would be crucial player for Mavs in the time for his next contract, if Luka stayed. Now he will be backup big, without no one to create for him.

Well, health is the main factor here, it's not just a detail.
AD is better suited at the 5 but Mavs still plan to play a center next to Davis so Lively will have a lot of chances to start. Also who knows what will happen in 2 years, that's when his new contract will kick in.

Don't you think that Mavs roster construction has changed dramatically with changing super star Pg for superstar big? Lively and PJ main losers.

[ACMFFL]

Forget about his health for a second, I'm talking about how important player he would have been with Luka as the best player and how as AD as the best player.
He would be crucial player for Mavs in the time for his next contract, if Luka stayed. Now he will be backup big, without no one to create for him.

Well, health is the main factor here, it's not just a detail.
AD is better suited at the 5 but Mavs still plan to play a center next to Davis so Lively will have a lot of chances to start. Also who knows what will happen in 2 years, that's when his new contract will kick in.

Don't you think that Mavs roster construction has changed dramatically with changing super star Pg for superstar big? Lively and PJ main losers.

Still not a good reason to trade them away for peanuts.
Makes zero sense to move Lively when his value is at his lowest. Different story with PJ, in fact I think they will extend and subsequently trade him immediately in late August.

[Bob8]

The way I see it, for the roster to work offensively, both DLo and Klay need play, and defensively, Christie should be the POA, with rim protecting center and a forward able to defend big wing, act a s a low man and provide help defense when the center is switched on the perimeter.
Mavs have all the parts to make this work, they actually have 2 such forwards when most team would kill for one, but it means AD has to play the 5 most of the time, like Maverick41 said, the team has no spacing when AD is at the 4 and Flagg/PJ is at the 3.
I don't want to draw definite conclusions from last year, but the 2 big lineups feasted on bad teams, but got embarrassed by good teams, they were blown out of the gym against Harden and Luka, and in the play in, even non-spacing rim pressuring PG in Ja playing with rookie non-stretch big dominated them.
Also, from the little we saw, Gafford fit better with AD than Lively, Gafford ability to get the ball down low and create points helped the team, the exact opposite from when Luka was here when Lively vertical spacing and quick feet on defense were much more valuable.

Mavs biggest problem will be playoffs and half court offense. In Luka's era Mavs were better playoffs team that RS team, because Luka was probably the best half court player in the league. Now I can't even imagine how they will play half court offense in playoffs. It's not only that 2 bigs lineup won't work against elite teams, it's about, who will be creating in half court. There's no one capable of.

[Bob8]

Well, health is the main factor here, it's not just a detail.
AD is better suited at the 5 but Mavs still plan to play a center next to Davis so Lively will have a lot of chances to start. Also who knows what will happen in 2 years, that's when his new contract will kick in.

Don't you think that Mavs roster construction has changed dramatically with changing super star Pg for superstar big? Lively and PJ main losers.

Still not a good reason to trade them away for peanuts.
Makes zero sense to move Lively when his value is at his lowest. Different story with PJ, in fact I think they will extend and subsequently trade him immediately in late August.

I didn't say they should trade him for peanuts, I said his value plummeted the second Luka was traded for AD. That's not necessarily bad for Mavs, they might sign him for substantially less, but it's for sure bad for Lively.