Around the league -- Offseason edition

[Mavrelous]

Yes, he played through many injuries as Mavs, what good has he gotten from that?

Legacy? I mean he could've given up in the beginning on 23/24 season when Kyrie and Lively were down and not play through injuries, had he done that the team wouldn't have been able to make the late season push and go to the finals, imagine where he'd be if he didn't go to the finals and what the narrative around him would be.

Portland at home, and Wolves w/o Ant are winnable games, they already lost one, we'll see what happens against the Wolves.

I would say that Lakers showed quite a lot in those 3 games without half a team, playing without important players might even helped them on long run, because others got more opportunities and took advantage of it. Anyway, Kidd should look at what JJ is doing with theoretically far worse roster.

You'd be singing a different tune if Reaves shot didn't hit, the team collapsed again late and gave up 20 points lead against a Wolves team w/o a lead guard.
I don't see that they are learning much TBH, they are improvising around Reaves heliocentric play, which will be similar to Luka later on.
The Ayton/Luka 2 man game hasn't developed, it looked behind against the Warriors, and the defense is still bad.
One bright spot is that Reves/Ayton look like a good pairing, which means you'll have 2 good pairs for Luka On/Reaves Off/ Hayes On and Luka off/Reaves On/Ayton On.
Laravia looks like what you would have hoped Knecht should become, bad on ball defense, which is a huge ? fit wise next to Luka.

[Bob8]

Legacy? I mean he could've given up in the beginning on 23/24 season when Kyrie and Lively were down and not play through injuries, had he done that the team wouldn't have been able to make the late season push and go to the finals, imagine where he'd be if he didn't go to the finals and what the narrative around him would be.

Portland at home, and Wolves w/o Ant are winnable games, they already lost one, we'll see what happens against the Wolves.

I would say that Lakers showed quite a lot in those 3 games without half a team, playing without important players might even helped them on long run, because others got more opportunities and took advantage of it. Anyway, Kidd should look at what JJ is doing with theoretically far worse roster.

You'd be singing a different tune if Reaves shot didn't hit, the team collapsed again late and gave up 20 points lead against a Wolves team w/o a lead guard.
I don't see that they are learning much TBH, they are improvising around Reaves heliocentric play, which will be similar to Luka later on.
The Ayton/Luka 2 man game hasn't developed, it looked behind against the Warriors, and the defense is still bad.
One bright spot is that Reves/Ayton look like a good pairing, which means you'll have 2 good pairs for Luka On/Reaves Off/ Hayes On and Luka off/Reaves On/Ayton On.
Laravia looks like what you would have hoped Knecht should become, bad on ball defense, which is a huge ? fit wise next to Luka.

It's not about last shot. Lakers were much better team until last 5 minutes, yes Wolves played without Ant, but Lakers were missing Luka, Lebron, Smart and Vincent and Reaves having disastrous shooting night before last shot, but they still played very good basketball until last 5 minutes. Playing good basketball with so many important players missing is the hard part, and might be crucial in 82 games season.

All new additions look good. And they got them extremely cheap. I don't think Laravia is bad on ball D, he's for sure not POA defender but they brought Smart for that. He's much better offensive player than DFS for sure. They have 2 expiring contracts, Kleber and Vincent, so they can make some upgrades, if team looks ready to compete in February. Series against Wolves would have look a lot different, if they had Ayton and Smart last year.

[Mavrelous]

It's not about last shot. Lakers were much better team until last 5 minutes, yes Wolves played without Ant, but Lakers were missing Luka, Lebron, Smart and Vincent and Reaves having disastrous shooting night before last shot, but they still played very good basketball until last 5 minutes. Playing good basketball with so many important players missing is the hard part, and might be crucial in 82 games season.

All new additions look good. And they got them extremely cheap. I don't think Laravia is bad on ball D, he's for sure not POA defender but they brought Smart for that. He's much better offensive player than DFS for sure. They have 2 expiring contracts, Kleber and Vincent, so they can make some upgrades, if team looks ready to compete in February. Series against Wolves would have look a lot different, if they had Ayton and Smart last year.

We'll see...
I'm not as optimistic as you for this year, I think the all wings lineup last year was much better (Luka/Reaves/DFS/LeBron/Rui), but they fell short due to bad matchup combined with Luka being sick and Reaves being inexplicably off his game, and they lacked any depth, I don't think Ayton and Laravia fill DFS void, Smart is the wild card and he may save their season, he looked great against the Wolves few games ago, JJ has lots of blame also for last year series.
My hope is that they target POA defender, wing defender and backup C who is a similar to Lively (Jarret Allen for example), and build around Reaves and Luke, I'd be disappointed if they went all in for Giannis.

[Bob8]

It's not about last shot. Lakers were much better team until last 5 minutes, yes Wolves played without Ant, but Lakers were missing Luka, Lebron, Smart and Vincent and Reaves having disastrous shooting night before last shot, but they still played very good basketball until last 5 minutes. Playing good basketball with so many important players missing is the hard part, and might be crucial in 82 games season.

All new additions look good. And they got them extremely cheap. I don't think Laravia is bad on ball D, he's for sure not POA defender but they brought Smart for that. He's much better offensive player than DFS for sure. They have 2 expiring contracts, Kleber and Vincent, so they can make some upgrades, if team looks ready to compete in February. Series against Wolves would have look a lot different, if they had Ayton and Smart last year.

We'll see...
I'm not as optimistic as you for this year, I think the all wings lineup last year was much better (Luka/Reaves/DFS/LeBron/Rui), but they fell short due to bad matchup combined with Luka being sick and Reaves being inexplicably off his game, and they lacked any depth, I don't think Ayton and Laravia fill DFS void, Smart is the wild card and he may save their season, he looked great against the Wolves few games ago, JJ has lots of blame also for last year series.
My hope is that they target POA defender, wing defender and backup C who is a similar to Lively (Jarret Allen for example), and build around Reaves and Luke, I'd be disappointed if they went all in for Giannis.

You can't play playoffs with 0 rim protection and with bad rebounders. DFS is extremely overrated by Mavs fans and is getting old. He averaged 6/4 with 53 TS% in playoffs. Sure his D is good, but his scoring ability is too weak to be game changer for title contenders. Teams just leave him wide open.

Ayton gives you 16/10 easily and some D, while Laravia gives you much better offense. Smart looked good in games he played. I'm sure they can use expiring contracts for some wing D, if they like what they see in February. I agree that team with 41 years old, 52 mio contract player is difficult to go all the way, but we're talking about LeBron so who knows, maybe he has still 1 good season in him.

Btw. Knecht can't hit 3 at the moment, but he's much better in attacking rim this year. If he gets his 3-pointer back...

[Mavrelous]

It's not about last shot. Lakers were much better team until last 5 minutes, yes Wolves played without Ant, but Lakers were missing Luka, Lebron, Smart and Vincent and Reaves having disastrous shooting night before last shot, but they still played very good basketball until last 5 minutes. Playing good basketball with so many important players missing is the hard part, and might be crucial in 82 games season.

All new additions look good. And they got them extremely cheap. I don't think Laravia is bad on ball D, he's for sure not POA defender but they brought Smart for that. He's much better offensive player than DFS for sure. They have 2 expiring contracts, Kleber and Vincent, so they can make some upgrades, if team looks ready to compete in February. Series against Wolves would have look a lot different, if they had Ayton and Smart last year.

We'll see...
I'm not as optimistic as you for this year, I think the all wings lineup last year was much better (Luka/Reaves/DFS/LeBron/Rui), but they fell short due to bad matchup combined with Luka being sick and Reaves being inexplicably off his game, and they lacked any depth, I don't think Ayton and Laravia fill DFS void, Smart is the wild card and he may save their season, he looked great against the Wolves few games ago, JJ has lots of blame also for last year series.
My hope is that they target POA defender, wing defender and backup C who is a similar to Lively (Jarret Allen for example), and build around Reaves and Luke, I'd be disappointed if they went all in for Giannis.

You can't play playoffs with 0 rim protection and with bad rebounders. DFS is extremely overrated by Mavs fans and is getting old. He averaged 6/4 with 53 TS% in playoffs. Sure his D is good, but his scoring ability is too weak to be game changer for title contenders. Teams just leave him wide open.

Ayton gives you 16/10 easily and some D, while Laravia gives you much better offense. Smart looked good in games he played. I'm sure they can use expiring contracts for some wing D, if they like what they see in February. I agree that team with 41 years old, 52 mio contract player is difficult to go all the way, but we're talking about LeBron so who knows, maybe he has still 1 good season in him.

DFS will give you 6/4 but have defender attached to him at the 3 pt line and double digit on/off, Ayton will give you 16/10 and miss crucial rebounds and have negative impact.
Luka with Kyrie with bad role players missed the PO, with a rookie center and 2 guys that the league gave up on went to the finals, if the 7 years taught us anything, it's the value of role players next to Luka.
Same with Giannis, who was bad with Lillard and BroLo, despite the numbers and looks much better with defenders and shooters around him.

[Bob8]

We'll see...
I'm not as optimistic as you for this year, I think the all wings lineup last year was much better (Luka/Reaves/DFS/LeBron/Rui), but they fell short due to bad matchup combined with Luka being sick and Reaves being inexplicably off his game, and they lacked any depth, I don't think Ayton and Laravia fill DFS void, Smart is the wild card and he may save their season, he looked great against the Wolves few games ago, JJ has lots of blame also for last year series.
My hope is that they target POA defender, wing defender and backup C who is a similar to Lively (Jarret Allen for example), and build around Reaves and Luke, I'd be disappointed if they went all in for Giannis.

You can't play playoffs with 0 rim protection and with bad rebounders. DFS is extremely overrated by Mavs fans and is getting old. He averaged 6/4 with 53 TS% in playoffs. Sure his D is good, but his scoring ability is too weak to be game changer for title contenders. Teams just leave him wide open.

Ayton gives you 16/10 easily and some D, while Laravia gives you much better offense. Smart looked good in games he played. I'm sure they can use expiring contracts for some wing D, if they like what they see in February. I agree that team with 41 years old, 52 mio contract player is difficult to go all the way, but we're talking about LeBron so who knows, maybe he has still 1 good season in him.

DFS will give you 6/4 but have defender attached to him at the 3 pt line and double digit on/off, Ayton will give you 16/10 and miss crucial rebounds and have negative impact.
Luka with Kyrie with bad role players missed the PO, with a rookie center and 2 guys that the league gave up on went to the finals, if the 7 years taught us anything, it's the value of role players next to Luka.
Same with Giannis, who was bad with Lillard and BroLo, despite the numbers and looks much better with defenders and shooters around him.

Nobody is defending DFS anymore. In small ball lineups DFS is irreplaceable, not in lineups with C. Even if DFS stayed, JJ would have played Luka/AR/LeBron/Rui/Ayton and then you have 2 good defenders Smart and Vando off the bench. It would be great to have him, but I for sure prefer Ayton+Laravia. And btw DFS had ankle surgery.

[41Dirk41]

Lakers will not win at all this year but at least they are a PO team... Not so bad.

[Super Cooper]

DFS is spent. I have no idea why he signed with HOU given their young wing studs.

[Darren]

Grimes, VJ and Maxey are balling. This makes me wonder if we're better off rebuild completely.

[41Dirk41]

DFS is spent. I have no idea why he signed with HOU given their young wing studs.

KD always liked DFS.

[Super Cooper]

Grimes, VJ and Maxey are balling. This makes me wonder if we're better off rebuild completely.

I'm still pissed about Grimes. Lawd, could we use him at now. Instead we have a washed up Martin with a huge 3 year deal. Low key, you could argue that trade was more lopsided than the Luka/AD trade.

[Mr B]

Grimes, VJ and Maxey are balling. This makes me wonder if we're better off rebuild completely.

We would be better off but they’re not going to rebuild. The only way I see Dumont firing Nico is if they absolutely tank this season (organically tank). The there is a chance they fire Nico but if this team finishes with at least 40 wins Nico isn’t going anywhere unfortunately.

[Maverick41]

Grimes, VJ and Maxey are balling. This makes me wonder if we're better off rebuild completely.

I'm still pissed about Grimes. Lawd, could we use him at now. Instead we have a washed up Martin with a huge 3 year deal. Low key, you could argue that trade was more lopsided than the Luka/AD trade.

The bold is what I've been saying for a while now. Most people know that the Luka-AD trade was idiotic. But there's some people that actually thought it was a good trade (Note I'm not one of them) and had at least a little hope that it could work. There's absolutely no one that thought the Grimes-Martin trade was good. It was dumb from the beginning and has reached peak dumbness now.

[Bob8]

Grimes, VJ and Maxey are balling. This makes me wonder if we're better off rebuild completely.

I'm still pissed about Grimes. Lawd, could we use him at now. Instead we have a washed up Martin with a huge 3 year deal. Low key, you could argue that trade was more lopsided than the Luka/AD trade.

The bold is what I've been saying for a while now. Most people know that the Luka-AD trade was idiotic. But there's some people that actually thought it was a good trade (Note I'm not one of them) and had at least a little hope that it could work. There's absolutely no one that thought the Grimes-Martin trade was good. It was dumb from the beginning and has reached peak dumbness now.

Difference between those 2 trades is, you have those kind of uneven trades like Grimes-Martin, but they don't really have big influence on winning. Trading top 3 player in prime for 6 years older injury prone player, who's not even on the same level at the moment of the trade, is totally idiotic and happens once in lifetime.

Grimes-Martin trade shows that Nico really had in his head, how he needs only D without any kind of creation. That's why he didn't get AR in Luka trade. Nico is not only idiot, but he clearly doesn't understand modern basketball too. The same goes for Dumont. What are the odds of having 2 idiots without basketball knowledge with power to do whatever they want in basketball franchise?

[Archx]

What are the odds of having 2 idiots without basketball knowledge with power to do whatever they want in basketball franchise?

Probably the same as landing nr1 pick with 1.78% and yet here we are.

[Maverick41]

Here's a fun fact of how dumb that Grimes-Martin trade was/is beyond just PPG:

Quentin Grimes has made 95 3s since departing from the Mavs. Shooting 38% on a whopping 7-8 attempts per game. Grimes has averaged 4 apg since leaving the Mavs. He's also played 1069 minutes since leaving the Mavs.

Martin has made 5 total 3s since joining the Mavs. Shooting 26% on a pathetic 1 3PA a game. Martin has averaged 1 apg since joining the Mavs. Martin has played only 308 minutes in total with the Mavs.

There's our 3 biggest issues. Shooting, playmaking, availability. All of which Grimes could have helped with quite a bit.

[Bob8]

What are the odds of having 2 idiots without basketball knowledge with power to do whatever they want in basketball franchise?

Probably the same as landing nr1 pick with 1.78% and yet here we are.

I believe those odds are a lot lower than 1.78%.

[Super Cooper]

Here's a fun fact of how dumb that Grimes-Martin trade was/is beyond just PPG:

Quentin Grimes has made 95 3s since departing from the Mavs. Shooting 38% on a whopping 7-8 attempts per game. Grimes has averaged 4 apg since leaving the Mavs. He's also played 1069 minutes since leaving the Mavs.

Martin has made 5 total 3s since joining the Mavs. Shooting 26% on a pathetic 1 3PA a game. Martin has averaged 1 apg since joining the Mavs. Martin has played only 308 minutes in total with the Mavs.

There's our 3 biggest issues. Shooting, playmaking, availability. All of which Grimes could have helped with quite a bit.

Thanks for your research. That certainly brings the point home.

What I don't understand is why Nico felt he HAD TO trade Grimes. We had his bird rights and could match any offer, get a S&T, or simply let him walk and be relieved the $4.2m salary. The only thing I can think of is that Nico was pissed Grimes didn't take his paltry offer. I know the Grimes camp said they wanted $25m to $30m; but people in hell want ice water. The funny part is Grimes will get that contract this summer.

The Result?
PHI got another year of Grimes for only $8.7m. Grimes 33.3mins, 21.3pts, 2.94m3pt on 38%, 5.1rbs, 4.8asts 1.4stls in 31 games.
We got another 3 years of Martin for the bargain price of $27m. Martin 17.1mins, 4.8pts, 0.3m3pt on 27%, 2.5rbs, 1.7asts 0.9stls in 18 games.

[Mr B]

I'm still pissed about Grimes. Lawd, could we use him at now. Instead we have a washed up Martin with a huge 3 year deal. Low key, you could argue that trade was more lopsided than the Luka/AD trade.

The bold is what I've been saying for a while now. Most people know that the Luka-AD trade was idiotic. But there's some people that actually thought it was a good trade (Note I'm not one of them) and had at least a little hope that it could work. There's absolutely no one that thought the Grimes-Martin trade was good. It was dumb from the beginning and has reached peak dumbness now.

Difference between those 2 trades is, you have those kind of uneven trades like Grimes-Martin, but they don't really have big influence on winning. Trading top 3 player in prime for 6 years older injury prone player, who's not even on the same level at the moment of the trade, is totally idiotic and happens once in lifetime.

Grimes-Martin trade shows that Nico really had in his head, how he needs only D without any kind of creation. That's why he didn't get AR in Luka trade. Nico is not only idiot, but he clearly doesn't understand modern basketball too. The same goes for Dumont. What are the odds of having 2 idiots without basketball knowledge with power to do whatever they want in basketball franchise?

He may have been trying to stay under the 2nd apron. It was a dumb trade though especially considering what Grimes ended up getting paid this year. Talent wise the trade is not even close. Not to mention that they barely even use Martin. Grimes should be the starting 2 here instead of Klay.

[Archx]

What I don't understand is why Nico felt he HAD TO trade Grimes. We had his bird rights and could match any offer, get a S&T, or simply let him walk and be relieved the $4.2m salary. The only thing I can think of is that Nico was pissed Grimes didn't take his paltry offer. I know the Grimes camp said they wanted $25m to $30m; but people in hell want ice water. The funny part is Grimes will get that contract this summer.

Problem is Grimes' agent informed Mavs that he wants to be traded after the Luka deal. On his way out, he trashed the organization how badly they treated Luka. He was basically the first guy who spoke up about the trade.

But lets pretend both trades never happened. Grimes would give Mavs insane depth, which would have already been quite good. That team was legit 8-9 players deep and they could have gone toe to toe with OKC. So obviously many believed this was actually Mavs year to win. IND wouldn't stand a chance against that team in the finals.

So, with that being said, even if Grimes declined to any contract offer, the smartest thing to do would be to just ride it out and go for the ring and let Grimes walk, because you already accomplished the mission, you won it all. But no, Nico had to be smarter than that and completely ruined everything and now Grimes is getting actually paid LESS than Martin who Nico traded for because of APRON reasons.

And another fun fact if you didn't know, AD agreed to decline his trade kicker clause so that Mavs could stay under the 2nd apron with a chance of signing another cheaper player lol.

Nico literally screwed up 3 players and entire city of Dallas and Mavs fanbase IN ONLY A WEEK !!! Then after Mavs landed nr1 pick he had the balls to say "I hope fans can see the vision now".

And this is why he has to go even if by some miracle Mavs win a ring, fans will always hate this dumbass.