Teffer10 wrote:Dirk wrote:It's mystifying how you head over to the Trade Board forum and seeing the million topics with trade ideas on DSJ...I hope DSJ continues to embarrass those who so forcibly tear his value down, propose trades for guys who can't even play on tanking teams -
A guy who teases you all the time because even going back to last season he shows flashes of brilliance. He has a problem with consistency but if his 3 point shooting and effort on d are for real... then I don't really know what people expect. I'd understand things better if DSJ was so bad and the 2017 draft had all these gems that were picked around him, that's not the case... so the impatience is baffling.
One of the most interesting things about DSJ is how humble he has always seemed to be and willing he always looked to defer to Luka. Thankfully his play level has massively improved and it's good to see he doesn't seem to be phased by having a phenomenon taking over the spotlight. Still big questions around him, but the signs are very positive.
The situation I see with DSJ is the time table more than anything.
Mavs have a clear leader who is 19yo and is fully capable of leading a team of star players in their prime so I can understand Cuban going for it now.
However they have DSJ who is only 1yr older than Luka who could be a great Robin to the Batman Luka for over a decade. I think we all agree that it will take some time for DSJ to reach his full potential but the big question to me and perhaps some others is whether he will be able to reach his full potential by not having the ball in his hands enough. With Luka being the obvious primary leader and floor general on this team for many many more years I'm still wondering if we'll ever see DSJ at his full potential on this team.
Meanwhile, Cuban is in win-now mode which also doesn't bode well for DSJ's development but allows Luka to fully take over a PO contenting team.
So the question becomes, is DSJ more valuable to us now with the hopes of being a strong asset in the future or would it make more sense to use him as a piece to acquire a more experienced player to play with Luka and Barnes now?
I'm completely on the fence with that one but if Cuban is hell bent on winning now I say we move him for a star caliber player if possible. Personally I would take advantage of having two studs below the age of 22 and start building from that with players under the age of 25.
Right, the Cuban factor... now you made me travel to those days where we were always over the cap and in the market. And never had to think of young players. It's actually kind of scary to think that somehow they take of the approach of the Mavs as being in "win now" mode and lock up their cap space to have a middling playoff team.
I think the best bet would simply be to let them grown organically and if you have to be bad/mediocre next season, so be it. They are still so young, it's senseless to think that the Mavs will truly compete next year via trading for a vet.
it's always complicated to debate these things because we truly don't know the market value of the player. DSJ is of high variance, one moment he makes careless turnovers, the next he actually shows good passing touch and instincts. His shot looks funky but he's improving his percentages. So yeah, not knowing exactly what his value is, I still prefer to see what the Mavs can get out of him (and who knows, at least increase his trade value) over trading him away because someone else is a prototypical better fit around Luka.
Some weeks back, there were legitimate discussions about DSJ for the French Knicks guy. I guess we have moved on from those. It was puzzling. But now take this trade idea:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1786316#p71520953I would say no to it. Conley is a very interesting fit and has a lot of intangibles that would be great around Luka, but honestly... I just don't see any point for the Mavs to press in building a "playoff team" and in the process absorbing monster contracts for old players with some questionable injury history.
I'll be ok with DSJ flaming out and ultimately not getting any meaningful return for him, over trading him now while he is showing positive signs of growth. The fit with Luka will always be a big question, even if he actually does well, so the looming idea of moving him will always exist... but we're nowhere near that stage where those sorts of decisions need to be made.
