MAVS NEWS: Luka Is Hurt, But is Trudging On | DLive's Mom Passes Away| Maxi OUT

[mvossman]

Good rational viewpoint. "It's only Aug 3" is a fair reply, but only IF you can see some routes still available out there to fill the gaping hole at 3rd Creator. Can you? I can't.

They had 3 things to do.

1 Upgrade the middle. In so doing, add one playoff-playable core player.
FIXED, it appears. (Note: Wood-McGee add up to 1 core addition, since they split one position).

2 Add a 2-way playoff-playable wing to rotate with DFS/Bullock. In so doing, add one playoff-playable core player.  DID NOTHING. HOPING TO GET LUCKY BY TURNING SOME OF LAST YEARS LEFTOVERS INTO WHAT THEY NEED. But nothing has been accomplished here so far.
..... THJ can fill minutes, but there is no world in which you want THJ to be doing what DFS/Bullock have been doing, especially in the playoffs. Now maybe you think THJ can be traded to get that guy, but if that's the plan, there's no indication they have found that trade partner, if one exists.The 3rd guy is still missing.
..... Green might improve enough to become  the 3rd guy in time. Perhaps. He has to become more aggressive on offense, and it remains to be seen if he can make that step. But so far, he's definitely not the 3rd guy. And c'mon, Dinwiddie is neither a 2-way wing, nor does he have any spare minutes to offer elsewhere.
 
3 Sign Brunson (nope) or replace him, even with a slightly lesser version (nope). BIG STEP BACKWARDS. LOSS OF A CORE PLAYOFF-PLAYABLE producer. The 2-at-a-time creators unleashed Luka to be off the ball at will, which changed the Mavs' whole dynamic.
..... Now there is NO ONE to be backup for TWO core players every game. This is not the ho-hum you paint it as.  
..... The Dragic negotiation by Mavs makes even less sense now than it did back in July, in light of their total failure to have anything else lined up. THEY NOW HAVE A GAPING HOLE HERE.

In total, there's a +1, a 0 (with dreams it later becomes a +1), and a -1. The need was to be +2 and so far, it's +0 when added together.

I'm going to put a little different spin on this.  As frustrated as I am about how this offseason played out after the Wood trade, I think the above can be looked at a little differently.

I don't think they view McGee and Wood occupying the same space.  I think they are looking at Wood as primarily a 4 and an occasional small ball 5.  I think the 5 rotation is McGee/Maxi/Wood/Powell and the 4 rotation is Dorian/Wood/Bertans.  I think the mindset is that we improved both the 5 and 4 spot, and by pushing Dorian down to the 3 more often we improved that spot as well.

We did not add another 3&D player to support Dorian/Bullock.  What we did do was increase the size and length of the team on the court.  We are replacing Brunson/Powell with Wood/McGee.  This will be a very long team on the court.  

I don't really understand the Dragic fumble.  He seems like the perfect fit on this team.  At this point I hope they sign Bledsoe.