NBA TRADE TALK: TDL over

[TXBamanut]

Why not just keep Jalen?
Why pay the same for worse players?

We don't need the pick  back to trade another or two on draftday.

I think the pick helps us (in theory) with a trade.  Because of the Stepien rule, we can't trade a first rounder outright until the future, which are less valuable.  Yeah, you can trade and swap on draft night, but swaps like that are less valuable than an outright draft pick that you can use or trade however you want... Pick swaps just don't move the needle as much.

Now where you fall on how valuable that is plays into trading Jalen or not.  You get some players back that might be able to fill the role that Jalen fills when our players are back at full strength, and get a better, younger front court player in Robinson.

Personally, I'm not super excited about the idea, because we always want more playmaking beside Luka and Jalen is shaping up into that very role right before our eyes.  In some ways, it's like that girl who wasn't that attractive and you knew her a long time, and she started taking care of herself, lost weight or whatever, but got more attractive, but you can't stop thinking about her as not attractive...while people who haven't seen her before think she's extremely attractive.

I think we've seen Jalen when he was a second round pick, and second fiddle to DSJ, then he might have some promise, then he was an okay player, then it was "hey, he might have something" and now people across the league are saying things like "the most underrated player in the league", one of the "hottest players in the league" and stuff like that.

The hard part to figure out with Jalen, to stay with the analogy, is he really "attractive" or is it just because we are nearly "closing time" (contract year)?  I like the guy and think he's a hard worker, he's obviously a winner if you follow his career, and he's definitely in the category of what Nick Saban would call an "and" guy and not a "but" guy, but can he keep the production up or is the "contract year" thing, that honestly, seems to be playing out with THJ?

So, does he get paid and production levels off or does he keep improving?   If it's the former, it's a sell high situation and get what you can...maybe with DoeDoe (contract year) too, but who knows?  That's the question...is he what we need going forward and improving or do we parlay that into a better player?

The Mavs actually faced this same issue about 12-13 years ago with another player that they had drafted (well, draft night trade) that was improving, and they traded Devin Harris for Jason Kidd and won a championship...so, they've been here before.  I really didn't want them to trade Harris, because he was improving and it felt more right to win it with one of "our guys", but I was wrong...we'll see now.