Trade & FA 2023-24: Lavine Market Barely There| NOP Want Trae or Murray

[dirkfansince1998]

Two thoughts on this.

First, we could also try to dump Kleber to a team with cap space. I know, we love him and he‘s holding up the well-established German guy from Wurzburg tradition - which is a beautiful city about an hour away from me by the way - but in reality he doesn’t fit Luka‘s timeline and is far too unreliable from an injury perspective for the 11 million he costs us, for example compared to DJJ. That way we keep Hardaway‘s contract until the deadline, where it will reach it‘s highest trade value and could get us a nice asset from a team that changes from trying to win the championship to trying to win the lottery midseason.

Second, I feel exactly the same about Lively needing 30+ minutes to maximize his growth gradient. But what if he‘s coming back from the offseason ready to get 10 of those minutes at power forward next to Gafford in the role of Kleber? Similar to Wemby or Chet, who are sometimes playing the four, but without their ballhandling tasks and more in a stay in the corner and stretch the floor kind of role? Problem solved, you can play physical and athletic for 48 minutes at center with Gafford and Lively each getting 30 minutes per night.

I think you need to have a stretch five on the roster. Gafford is somewhat redundant. If Kleber is going out they need to add someone that can play his role (small ball five, versatile defender). It could work if the Mavs add another SF/PF player and free up some of PJs minutes. PJs best stretches with the Hornets featured him as the small ball five so he should be able to do it for 10-15 minutes per game.