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

[KillerLeft]

This part with Powell I don't understand. You are preaching patience. Ok, I can accept that strategy, although Irving doesn't fit into it. Mavs as they are are not a contender. I can't see it. So the goal should not be to win a couple of games more, but to better position themselves to become a contender. I am not talking tanking. But I am talking about more minutes for the young guys, even if they are making some mistakes, and increasing value of players that will likely be traded. Powell will finish his career with Mavs, so play him in the role that is meant for him. Starter is not it.

They are trying to walk the line between getting younger and being competitive this year. Other than outright rebuilding, which would really be tough with Luka around, this seems like the only sane strategy to choose, because they simply didn’t have the assets left to build a contender in a matter of months. 

Lively IS their stab at a solution at center, hence the use of a lottery pick on him.

From there, there are two choices: 

1) start him right away and play him significant minutes, crash course style, and live with the losses as they pile up, all for the sake of tomorrow.

2) put together a committee of low/reasonably paid players to help the team play as competitively as possible while he learns. Seeing as BOTH Powell and Holmes are the exact type of pick and roll bigs the Mavs want Lively to be on offense, this makes loads of sense to me. 

They paid Powell appropriately for such a mentorship position. The fact that it’s a 3-year deal that they offered and that he agreed to, despite having a 1-year offer for THE SAME TOTAL money tells me that both Powell and the Mavs think he’ll be here for a while. Longer than Holmes, in all likelihood. I doubt HE will be here more than a year, and possibly not past the upcoming trade deadline. This time next year, he’ll be a very conveniently sized expiring. 

I don’t care who starts. Powell is going to play less than starter minutes, same as he always has. But, I happen to think he’s a better player than Holmes, so I happen to think he’ll play more. 

At the end of the day, KLEBER is the one who matters. Anyone hoping the Mavs compete this season should be hoping he’s healthy and playing well down the stretch and in the playoffs. The rest of this is just fans whining, imo.