06-21-2026, 11:56 AM
Bagley could be ready to be the guy now sometimes it just takes longer for big's to turn on the switch. He is a failure as a 5 maybe his real talent is as a 4?
Look at KAT in the finals he was labeled as garbage on defense but he took advantage of his opportunity and won a ring.
If Cooper can play at the 3 and 4 we have flexibility to make a move to put someone at either position next to Cooper.
If Bagley earns that opportunity then he is going to have to perform on defense better. His rebounding is strong and he can certainly be counted on to play better on D against other smaller PF's.
Maybe his defensive shortfall was due to his playing centers who had size advantages against him and if that is the case why would we sign him to play center?
I do not want him as a center unless we need him when an injury is forcing us to play him a center.
I want to see what he can do as a PF. He has the shooting touch and rebounds very well so next to Lively he could be a plus on the teams rebounding because Lively is a little weak there.
Now if we can snag a guy like any of the Michigan bigs or any of the other bigs at PF/C in the draft because we dropped down with say OKC to get an extra pick at 17 then we may not even need to sign Bagley.
However, if we draft a bunch of guards and wings then that resigning Bagley idea becomes a lot more important and so it all falls to what we do in the draft.
Till I see what we have to work with after the draft we need to be open to any possibility because we do not know what we will be stuck with.
Trades can happen and PJ and Naji who I like could be gone along with older vets with an injury history like Klay and Gafford. That would create some shakeup on the team and I can see Masai wanting to go with a youth movement.
All we know now is we have Cooper Kyrie and maybe Lively to build around and if someone wants to give us a no brainer offer for Lively maybe he is easy to replace in the draft and we can move him for a pick to find a replacement.
All the problems we face at center are due to his being injury prone. If he was healthy enough then he could be trusted to stay healthy and then I am sure we all would not want to sign guys like Bagley for insurance at the 5 but the 4 is a different position. However this team needs insurance for worst case scenarios.
Our fall from grace one year out of the finals happened because of our idiot GM trading Luka. It happened and we had to come to terms and deal with it but we need to add a lot of pieces to get back to what we need to contend again.
Pieces that fit next to Luka and took us far were surprises if you ask me. I did not think we had what it takes to win against Boston because they had been there and knew the mindset it took to win at that level and just like SAN this year showed us that experience and veteran leadership is needed to avoid the choking that youngsters are more prone to engage in.
Hence why I want Kyrie here to stay.
PJ is not fitting as well with Cooper so he has to be moved unless you want to gamble on another year of trying to make it work.
Naji was a better fit with his playing the main ball handler but we have Kyrie back now and it appears from all the discussion that we will go with a PG or SG/PG type using the 9th pick. I still like the idea of keeping Naji because he is a good defensive fit against a lot of players and maybe next to Kyrie he is a better fit in his capacity to take a pass inside and do well at the rim.
That means if we get a nice draft pic and can find a decent player to play next to Kyrie and Cooper plus Lively then who knows what we can do at 30 to find a guy that can be our insurance center.
If we make a trade and move up then that would help us to get a guy that can play center and PF and in that situation we could play cooper at the 3 and do well. I think we still need more insurance for Gafford as well because he did not look all that great last year after he came back and so maybe we do need Bagley in this situation as a backup big. Cisse may be worth a look as well he played good against a lot of guys last year.
I also hope we go after some undrafted bigs too because I can see a few that might go undrafted that could be useful enough to get signed at least to a 2 way and who knows what a trade may bring but in our weakened situation at center we need to be open to all ideas.
The mavs may use the 30th pic on a SF and figure to use Cooper at PF and that works also if that SF can hit 3's and play at the next level well enough straight out of college.
We are clutching at straws to keep from drowning because this draft is one we must make work for us. We do not have a lot more first round pics in the years to come thanks to he whose name should never be uttered ever again.
You saw a side to Bagley last year where he performed well when given the chance and if he has enough game as a PF you let him try his game there, but not at center, you play him only at PF.
I would not want to use him at the 5 unless injuries forced us to use him at the 5 and I still want to add a real 5 in the draft as well for Lively insurance purposes.
If a player sucks on defense against guys that are bigger than you then that is more likely because they are all bigger guys than you are and that should explain his bad defensive numbers.
You factor that situation into your evaluations and ask yourself what if we used him at a position where he would be bigger than most of the guys he matches up with at that position?
Is he able to match up that way? Yes he can be a PF and his shooting proves it plus he rebounds strongly for a PF. Maybe his defense as a PF is superb. Maybe he only sucks on defense when he is guarding guys that tower over him.
When a situation happens were guys are played out of their true position and the guy has a pedigree like being picked ahead of Luka in the draft out of Duke then you do not throw the baby out with the bathwater you rethink things and you factor in his value based on the situation and you see how that talent can be recycled at another position and you go in that direction with them.
The only bad thing with doing this is it takes Cooper and makes him a SF but if we cannot find a SF to play SF that is as strong at SF as Bagley is at PF then you got to play your best 5 and if he is not a starting 5 you can suffer with him at the 5 till you finally find a good SF so you can use Cooper as a starting 4. That way when we do get a decent SF you move Bagley to the bench and have a decent cheap backup 4 for Cooper.
Now you can trade off PJ to get something decent from OKC or some other team.
Look at KAT in the finals he was labeled as garbage on defense but he took advantage of his opportunity and won a ring.
If Cooper can play at the 3 and 4 we have flexibility to make a move to put someone at either position next to Cooper.
If Bagley earns that opportunity then he is going to have to perform on defense better. His rebounding is strong and he can certainly be counted on to play better on D against other smaller PF's.
Maybe his defensive shortfall was due to his playing centers who had size advantages against him and if that is the case why would we sign him to play center?
I do not want him as a center unless we need him when an injury is forcing us to play him a center.
I want to see what he can do as a PF. He has the shooting touch and rebounds very well so next to Lively he could be a plus on the teams rebounding because Lively is a little weak there.
Now if we can snag a guy like any of the Michigan bigs or any of the other bigs at PF/C in the draft because we dropped down with say OKC to get an extra pick at 17 then we may not even need to sign Bagley.
However, if we draft a bunch of guards and wings then that resigning Bagley idea becomes a lot more important and so it all falls to what we do in the draft.
Till I see what we have to work with after the draft we need to be open to any possibility because we do not know what we will be stuck with.
Trades can happen and PJ and Naji who I like could be gone along with older vets with an injury history like Klay and Gafford. That would create some shakeup on the team and I can see Masai wanting to go with a youth movement.
All we know now is we have Cooper Kyrie and maybe Lively to build around and if someone wants to give us a no brainer offer for Lively maybe he is easy to replace in the draft and we can move him for a pick to find a replacement.
All the problems we face at center are due to his being injury prone. If he was healthy enough then he could be trusted to stay healthy and then I am sure we all would not want to sign guys like Bagley for insurance at the 5 but the 4 is a different position. However this team needs insurance for worst case scenarios.
Our fall from grace one year out of the finals happened because of our idiot GM trading Luka. It happened and we had to come to terms and deal with it but we need to add a lot of pieces to get back to what we need to contend again.
Pieces that fit next to Luka and took us far were surprises if you ask me. I did not think we had what it takes to win against Boston because they had been there and knew the mindset it took to win at that level and just like SAN this year showed us that experience and veteran leadership is needed to avoid the choking that youngsters are more prone to engage in.
Hence why I want Kyrie here to stay.
PJ is not fitting as well with Cooper so he has to be moved unless you want to gamble on another year of trying to make it work.
Naji was a better fit with his playing the main ball handler but we have Kyrie back now and it appears from all the discussion that we will go with a PG or SG/PG type using the 9th pick. I still like the idea of keeping Naji because he is a good defensive fit against a lot of players and maybe next to Kyrie he is a better fit in his capacity to take a pass inside and do well at the rim.
That means if we get a nice draft pic and can find a decent player to play next to Kyrie and Cooper plus Lively then who knows what we can do at 30 to find a guy that can be our insurance center.
If we make a trade and move up then that would help us to get a guy that can play center and PF and in that situation we could play cooper at the 3 and do well. I think we still need more insurance for Gafford as well because he did not look all that great last year after he came back and so maybe we do need Bagley in this situation as a backup big. Cisse may be worth a look as well he played good against a lot of guys last year.
I also hope we go after some undrafted bigs too because I can see a few that might go undrafted that could be useful enough to get signed at least to a 2 way and who knows what a trade may bring but in our weakened situation at center we need to be open to all ideas.
The mavs may use the 30th pic on a SF and figure to use Cooper at PF and that works also if that SF can hit 3's and play at the next level well enough straight out of college.
We are clutching at straws to keep from drowning because this draft is one we must make work for us. We do not have a lot more first round pics in the years to come thanks to he whose name should never be uttered ever again.
You saw a side to Bagley last year where he performed well when given the chance and if he has enough game as a PF you let him try his game there, but not at center, you play him only at PF.
I would not want to use him at the 5 unless injuries forced us to use him at the 5 and I still want to add a real 5 in the draft as well for Lively insurance purposes.
If a player sucks on defense against guys that are bigger than you then that is more likely because they are all bigger guys than you are and that should explain his bad defensive numbers.
You factor that situation into your evaluations and ask yourself what if we used him at a position where he would be bigger than most of the guys he matches up with at that position?
Is he able to match up that way? Yes he can be a PF and his shooting proves it plus he rebounds strongly for a PF. Maybe his defense as a PF is superb. Maybe he only sucks on defense when he is guarding guys that tower over him.
When a situation happens were guys are played out of their true position and the guy has a pedigree like being picked ahead of Luka in the draft out of Duke then you do not throw the baby out with the bathwater you rethink things and you factor in his value based on the situation and you see how that talent can be recycled at another position and you go in that direction with them.
The only bad thing with doing this is it takes Cooper and makes him a SF but if we cannot find a SF to play SF that is as strong at SF as Bagley is at PF then you got to play your best 5 and if he is not a starting 5 you can suffer with him at the 5 till you finally find a good SF so you can use Cooper as a starting 4. That way when we do get a decent SF you move Bagley to the bench and have a decent cheap backup 4 for Cooper.
Now you can trade off PJ to get something decent from OKC or some other team.