01-21-2022, 12:14 PM
(01-21-2022, 12:02 PM)SleepingHero Wrote: The Mavs cannot include their 1st this year legally in any trade. At all. Full stop. The Stepien rule explicitly states you can't go 2 drafts in a row without a first round pick, so you can't do a pick swap between a 1st and a 2nd to circumvent the Stepien rule.You are correct. Though we have all see the Stepien rule can be circumvented, if teams really want to. As long as the NBA is happy with the outcome like moving a big superstar into a major market. I guess if we tried any outrageous shenanigans for a basic Gary Harris/THJ trade, they´d happily step on our throat.
If it was so easy I'm sure the Mavs would have done it already. And as much as I would like Lillard I don't see how any Mavs package is nearly as attractive as say a 76ers package or even a pick based OKC package.
I actually I agree with you we are 1 star away from being finals bound. I just don't see the Lillard angle as much as I'd like to. Brandon Ingram is the name I keep coming back to and his fit next to Luka. He's also a long lanky defender that is switchable which fits Kidd's defensive philosophy.
But not going to get hung up on some technicalities here. Make it three 2nd round picks instead of the swap and you still have a deal. Removing the protection is as easy as calling the Knicks, but first you need the sufficient superstar trade. Of course you are not offering to remove the pick protection until then.
Ingram could definitely work, but not sure he´d solve the play-making problem that we also saw in the Suns game. Luka and Brunson combined for 14 turnovers, when the Suns started to double them aggressively. Adding a third guard in that situation means you cannot single out one player and Lillard also has better instincts when and how to relief that double team pressure by making himself available, whereas DFS and Kleber are "spot-up monkeys" that don´t read the situations properly.