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

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I’m not despairing, and I think the team did just get better. I’ve been asking for PJ Washington for weeks and weeks.

But I think it’s extremely naïve to say that the picks will be low. Kyrie Irving will absolutely, 100% be gone and probably retired before any of those picks get made, and I think you could get pretty good odds in Vegas that Luka Dončić will be gone, too. The first one of the picks in question happens after what would be the first year of his NEXT contract. The pick swap they just made with OKC will happen after the second year of his next contract. Etc, etc.

You don’t think he’s going to arrive at three agency and wonder what the hell the Mavericks are going to do to improve the team moving forward from there with no draft capital?

I’m not trying to be a wet blanket, and in fact I want very much to enjoy the team. But my goodness, anyone who is not a fan of the team and not biased wants to talk about nothing but the consequences of this approach, and we all just seem to have our heads buried in the sand. I just think we should acknowledge that this bill is going to come due.

I've been the most vocal critic of the PJ Washington trade but it's not all bad news.  

The Gafford acquisition is something to be excited about.  I believe he's the best player who was traded either Wednesday or Thursday.  I think he's our 4th-best player immediately.  We've really struggled in the non-Lively minutes this season.  I ran some numbers and Lively has only played 37% of the center minutes this season. Having Gafford take over most of the non-Lively minutes will just make us a much better team.  It will make us more competitive against some of the bigger teams in the West like Denver and Minnesota. I believe we can beat any team in the West in a playoff series even if we're not the favorites.  That wasn't true 2 days ago.  

In other good news, Josh Green has been playing well lately and is looking like a competent starter.  Kleber has even shown signs of life.  

Mark Cuban is no longer our majority owner and if he does enough stupid stuff, he'll no longer have any input into roster-building.  

Finally, if we fail in the playoffs this season, we'll almost certainly have a new coach next year.  I think a more creative coach would really make a difference.

There's lots of good news.  I apologize for harping on the PJ Washington trade for so long.