MAVS NEWS: Luka Wins Community Cares Award! | DLive's Mom Passes Away

[MaxiThreeba]

I think for the first time in a long time (a decade+?) they have reasonable, even redundant, depth at every position.

Centers: Lively, Gafford, Maxi, Powell
Wings: Luka, PJ, DJJ, Maxi, Omax
Guards: Kyrie, Green, Exum, THJ, Hardy

Here’s how much better the depth is…I forgot to even mention Hardy!  That’s another microwave at your disposal.  And someone said it, but Dwight Powell might be the best #3/4 center in the NBA.  

The depth is actually nuts. 

That depth can help you finish the regular season strong.  Then, it’s just a question of whether a solid 7-8 man group can hit their best stride at playoff time to ride shotgun with Luka and Kyrie.

[Branduil]

Name your top 3 worst match ups for us with this lineup.

I think the Nuggets, Clippers, and Celtics are pretty easily the scariest teams in the league right now. Most other teams look beatable, although that certainly doesn't mean the Mavs would be able to do it.

[youzigizag]

I think the Nuggets, Clippers, and Celtics are pretty easily the scariest teams in the league right now. Most other teams look beatable, although that certainly doesn't mean the Mavs would be able to do it.

Next three after that...since Im a casual and that is the exact same three I came up with.

A trying:

Orlando (due to size)
Houston (their center is absurdly good)
Minnesota (their size and late game defense is worrisome)
Indiana (they have looked good)
LA Clippers (size and experience)
Cleveland (?)
New York (have been consistent)
Sacramento (their center is crafty and fox is troublesome)
LA Lakers (Lebron and AD)

Assuming both teams are trying and players have decent understanding of system and are trying...I would like to see us play:

New York because of Brunson and their team doing well
Minnesota because I like their size
LA - Bother teams because of size and experience
Indiana because of talent and Rick

Houston and Orlando are interesting but perhaps too young

[SkenfromLMF]

So there is something about the athleticism the Mavs bring after the trade deadline that they have either been undersized or athletically deficient (and often both) to be able to impact prior to today. A LOT of it revolves around DJJ. With Luka and Kyrie, the 3 does not need to be an offensive force. That is where DJJ is incredibly valuable as a POA defender. When Green was on the floor as a POA defender at the 2, it appeared Dallas could go with either Maxi at the 4 OR THJ at the 3 for an offensive look with one of Luka/KI sitting. Point being that Maxi's health was of massive importance, when Williams was struggling, and the best Dallas could come up with was Grant and DJJ manning the 4/5 simultaneously and well...

Today, there were no instances of Dallas being forced to go small. PJ and Maxi covered the 4; Maxi and Gafford manned the 5 and only in limited lineups did DJJ have to play the 4 (offensively). Point being, Dallas can play DJJ like they did DFS, and Green in the Bullock role as they did in the Conference Finals run, and they still have PJ that serve as a POA defender against teams with larger wings (looking at Kawhi specifically) as well (which was Maxi's assignment). The beauty of Gafford patrolling the 5 today is knowing Lively is now able to play MORE AGGRESSIVELY because his backup is not Powell or Grant Williams going forward.

So the 5 greatly improved and is still looking for another expected boost...
The 4 has been doubly addressed and not compromised by trying to consistently cover 2 positions (4 and 5): Kleber, PJ, and some DJJ.
The 3 is either offense (THJ) Defense (DJJ) OR Luka when Kidd wants to play 2 guards with Doncic
This new depth helps with the guards because we are not forced into 3 and 4 guard lineups (unless we choose to go small by our own design, or we see a matchup we want Luka exploiting on the blocks)

I was extremely glad for today's game:

IF I could have asked for 2 players I would like to see as Mavs (going back about a year and a half) it would have been PJ and Gafford. I would never have thought getting both was remotely possible. When it happened I was the happy kid at Christmas. I have since had some of that joy diminished because people were not thrilled at either the cost or the fit and the Mavs both by fans and national media have been ripped for the deals. This is the most balanced roster Dallas has put on the floor since Caron Butler got injured... and both trades needed to happen for size AND athleticism.

[SleepingHero]

[SleepingHero]

[DanSchwartzgan]

So there is something about the athleticism the Mavs bring after the trade deadline that they have either been undersized or athletically deficient (and often both) to be able to impact prior to today.  A LOT of it revolves around DJJ. With Luka and Kyrie, the 3 does not need to be an offensive force. That is where DJJ is incredibly valuable as a POA defender. When Green was on the floor as a POA defender at the 2, it appeared Dallas could go with either Maxi at the 4 OR THJ at the 3 for an offensive look with one of Luka/KI sitting. Point being that Maxi's health was of massive importance, when Williams was struggling, and the best Dallas could come up with was Grant and DJJ manning the 4/5 simultaneously and well...

Today, there were no instances of Dallas being forced to go small. PJ and Maxi covered the 4; Maxi and Gafford manned the 5 and only in limited lineups did DJJ have to play the 4 (offensively). Point being, Dallas can play DJJ like they did DFS, and Green in the Bullock role as they did in the Conference Finals run, and they still have PJ that serve as a POA defender against teams with larger wings (looking at Kawhi specifically) as well (which was Maxi's assignment). The beauty of Gafford patrolling the 5 today is knowing Lively is now able to play MORE AGGRESSIVELY because his backup is not Powell or Grant Williams going forward.

So the 5 greatly improved and is still looking for another expected boost...
The 4 has been doubly addressed and not compromised by trying to consistently cover 2 positions (4 and 5): Kleber, PJ, and some DJJ.
The 3 is either offense (THJ) Defense (DJJ) OR Luka when Kidd wants to play 2 guards with Doncic
This new depth helps with the guards because we are not forced into 3 and 4 guard lineups (unless we choose to go small by our own design, or we see a matchup we want Luka exploiting on the blocks)

I was extremely glad for today's game:

IF I could have asked for 2 players I would like to see as Mavs (going back about a year and a half) it would have been PJ and Gafford. I would never have thought getting both was remotely possible. When it happened I was the happy kid at Christmas. I have since had some of that joy diminished because people were not thrilled at either the cost or the fit and the Mavs both by fans and national media have been ripped for the deals. This is the most balanced roster Dallas has put on the floor since Caron Butler got injured... and both trades needed to happen for size AND athleticism.

Just about covers it. Any questions?

[SleepingHero]

Just about covers it.  Any questions?

How can we keep DJJ at a reasonable cost, and if we can't who would be a proper replacement for flight 55?

Also, Maxi's defensive versatility is huge for us. It always has been, but he's made of glass. Is it reasonable to want to try and find a suitable Maxi replacement (is there even one?) in the summer as Maxi insurance?

I saw A LOT of great defensive stops from PJ today, but I don't think he has the size to bother the unicorn centers like Maxi can.

[Mavs2021]

How can we keep DJJ at a reasonable cost, and if we can't who would be a proper replacement for flight 55?

Also, Maxi's defensive versatility is huge for us. It always has been, but he's made of glass. Is it reasonable to want to try and find a suitable Maxi replacement (is there even one?) in the summer as Maxi insurance?

I saw A LOT of great defensive stops from PJ today, but I don't think he has the size to bother the unicorn centers like Maxi can.

DJJ won´t require more than the MLE in the summer. Part of the deals was how well they massaged the cap.

Now we are top 2 heavy, but here is the list of teams that pay their 3rd highest paid player less than the Mavs next season: 

Hornets
Pistons
Rockets
Pacers
OKC
Magic
Sixers
Wizards

Drew a line through the team that likely won´t be, when next season starts. So it´s basically all rebuilding teams plus OKC/Orlando.

[mvossman]

How can we keep DJJ at a reasonable cost, and if we can't who would be a proper replacement for flight 55?

Also, Maxi's defensive versatility is huge for us. It always has been, but he's made of glass. Is it reasonable to want to try and find a suitable Maxi replacement (is there even one?) in the summer as Maxi insurance?

I saw A LOT of great defensive stops from PJ today, but I don't think he has the size to bother the unicorn centers like Maxi can.

Since DJJ 3 point shooting has come down to earth, I’m not sure he will get the full MLE. As it stands right now I think we could offer more than the tax MLE. That might enough without making any cap clearing moves

[SleepingHero]

From my quick math the Mavs are about 7 mil below the 1st apron for next year and just a hair under the tax line. I'd put DJJ's offensive production and defensive ability at a max of 10 mil a year.

Just playing with cap numbers to see potential avenues...

If we could manufacture a trade of THJ+Hardy (combined ~18mil) to bring back a guy making roughly 12 mil a year, we'd be able to carve out the full NT-MLE that we could theoretically split into 2 guys.

The tax MLE is around 5.5 mil. I really don't think DJJ is signing for that (not that he'd have to, just throwing out that that number seems to low for DJJ to get excited).

If the Mavs stand pat and don't do anything this summer other than resign DJJ the most they could offer is around 7mil and stay right below the 1st apron (but become a tax paying team). My numbers may be a bit off. I've seen the Mavs have up to 10.1 mil of NT-MLE available and as low as 6.5 NT-MLE. Conservative estimate I did with my calculator is 7.1mil accounting for empty roster charges. That'd put a deal for DJJ at 3 years 22 mil. It seems pretty low for him honestly.

Guys who are hovering right around 12 mil a year or less that the Mavs could have interest in:
Thybulle (11)
Terance Mann (11.4)
Caruso (9.8)

[SleepingHero]

Mavs Film Room ?? (@MavsFilmRoom)
Ayton and Capela were the two most popular center names during the offseason on Mavs Twitter

Salaries for this season:

Ayton: 32.45 Million
Capela: 20.6 Million

Lively and Gafford combined: 17.1 Million

[Mavs2021]

Also you can call me the angry one, but compare the activity and mood of the board last night and then the genereal activity and mood over last 4-5 years. That´s what hope and sunshine looks like. We can all pretend everything was fine the last five years, but it really was not, except for the brief WCF glimpse that in true Mavs fashion Cuban had to ruin immediately with the Brunson exit. 

Luka is a generational talent you get every 20 years and we could not even manage to put a remotely competitive team around him for five years. Huge credit to Harrison (to have the humility to sign) Lindsey to finally get on a level front office playing field with the rest of the NBA. Just look at the progression from Powell to a normal sized rookie Lively to a normal sized NBA starter Gafford and you start to understand how special Luka is.

Harrison has taken some bumps and bruises like don´t sign old players with mental health issues looking for a last contract to multiple years or don´t sign Batman, when he has the physical tools of Batgirl. But just the ripple effect that tanking for Lively had. That is something Cuban would have never done by himself. Cause you got to value the culture of the additional two wins.

Also I like the new owner already. Very little interference so far, one interview and immediately praising Nico for his work. Have a sneaky suspicion that Cuban might think he´s still running things, but at the end of the day the new owners have to sign off on every deal. If Nico/Lindsey don´t like it, they´ll listen to them and not Cuban. 

It´s fair to point out the overly expensive detour we took to get PJ Washington, but the sneaky 10 games tank literally allowed us to turn....

Bertans into Holmes and an additional 1st round pick. Then turn Holmes and an additional 1st round pick swap into Gafford. So basically we turned Bertans into Lively + Gafford + Omax at the cost of a potential swap. That´s why tanking works, if you know what you are doing.

Without the tanking for Lively, we have to keep Bertans. We probably still sign Grant Williams. We most likely trade an unprotected 1st and something for Capela and our front court is...

Williams/Bertans
Capela/Powell

at 54M a year. 

Now we pay

Washington/Kleber
Lively/Gafford

44M a year for the next three years.

Halleluka!

[surfpuckmd]

Since DJJ 3 point shooting has come down to earth, I’m not sure he will get the full MLE. As it stands right now I think we could offer more than the tax MLE. That might enough without making any cap clearing moves

His minutes will go down now with our superior depth and he'll probably come off the bench.  I believe he'll choose to come back on a 2-year deal with the 2nd-year as a player option.  He fits in really well here and I expect he enjoys playing with this team.  As long as we can offer $6 million or more this offseason, I think he'll come back.  I believe we'd then have early bird rights on him after his theoretical 2nd season here.

[KillerLeft]

Tbh, while I WANT DJJ back right now, there’s a chance we feel differently by the summer. He might be this team’s 10th man, once everyone is healthy.

[DanSchwartzgan]

Allowed us to turn….
Bertans into Holmes and an additional 1st round pick. Then turn Holmes and an additional 1st round pick swap into Gafford. So basically we turned Bertans into Lively + Gafford + Omax at the cost of a potential swap. That´s why tanking works, if you know what you are doing.

I know you want to make this about tanking (and it was an important factor in all of this), but it also tells a story of skill on the part of Nico and Lindsey.  Nico inherited KP and the picks it took to get him.  He inherited the structure of the Brunson contract.  I think this goes back to splitting KP (who needed to go) into Dinwiddie (who played a sizable role in the WCF run) and Bertans.  Dinwiddie with DFS and 2029 became Kyrie.  I’d argue that breaking up KP into tradable pieces was the right thing to do.  But, if you trace it back this far, then KP (the Boston version when healthy) plus DFS plus 2029 (and eating Bertans) is a lot to give for Kyrie.  But, Kyrie is a better fit than KP and we’ve rallied well (with the help of the draft pick at #10) to back fill what we gave up.

I would call that (and the Brunson fiasco) digging out from the sins of the past.  Something changed this summer in terms of creativity and aggression.  As you point out, we traded down to get rid of Bertans, but did it in a way that created a TPE.  We then ate a contract in Holmes to pick up OMAX.  Holmes and a 28 swap got us Gafford.  So, a two-spot trade down and a 28 swap (plus the tank) got us Lively, OMax and Gafford…genius.

I’m not sure GWill was our first choice this summer.  His S&T came after Portland matched on Thybulle.  We were apparently in on several other things (including PJ according to PJ).  It is reasonable to criticize the pick swap with SA.  But it got rid of Bullock’s salary and we got four seconds back (all tangible things) and used two seconds to get GWill.  GWill and a lightly protected 2027 got us PJ and two more seconds.  So, a 2030 swap and the 2027 pick turned Bullock into PJ and four second round picks.  

I think you also have to give credit for negotiating good deals for Irving and Green and bringing in DJJ and Exum as reclamation projects…not to mention drafting Lively, Hardy and OMax.  We’ve sent out KP, DFS, Bullock, 2027, 2029 and swaps in 2028 and 2030 and turned all of that into Kyrie, OMax, Gafford and PJ.  I don’t include Lively as we didn’t trade anything (except maybe some pride) to get him, but we were quite clever in the way we took him at 12 instead of 10.  

Give me Lively/Gafford over KP (on this team after seeing the KP-Luka fit).  Give me younger and bigger PJ over DFS (Sorry Cow).  This version of Kyrie is probably worth the two firsts we’ve sent out if he were to hit the market today.  If you go back to KP, it is less amazing than if you start from this summer.  But, going all the way back to KP means you are also cleaning up other people’s messes.  As someone who throws out dozens of ideas every summer and every TDL (that I think are fairly realistic), I’ve spent years being underwhelmed by the performance of the FO.  The summer of 23 and TDL of 24 have both been just incredible given what we had to work with and given our cap sheet and young assets are still in tact.  I may feel differently in the summer of 27 or the summer of 29, but that story isn’t written.  The story of right now has been written and it is encouraging.

[KillerLeft]

Dan, great post.

As someone who has been suffering from paralyzing buyer’s remorse panic over the past couple of days, I have to say (again) that I love the strategy in terms of players targeted/acquired, and I don’t think they overplayed, really. You could make an argument that they got great deals, actually.

All my worry is really just about them being BROKE. And, as you say, that’s on the last group, not the current one.

[Jason Terry]

Nico allowing Lindsey to come in and help was a big deal. They seem to play off each others strengths

The tanking thing……IMO, just as important as the pick from that……embarrassment…..Cuban and the team and FO were embarrassed by what they put around Luka. I think this was a big factor in the aggressiveness

Luka is a big factor too. Do we want to keep Luka? Okay well Luka wants to win now. Not screw around for a few more years and then have a good team. These moves are the way to keep Luka happy. And if they don’t work he has some responsibility for putting pressure on the FO. I don’t see him going anywhere. When’s the last time a player turned down an extra $100 million?

[BigDirk41]

From my quick math the Mavs are about 7 mil below the 1st apron for next year and just a hair under the tax line. I'd put DJJ's offensive production and defensive ability at a max of 10 mil a year.

Just playing with cap numbers to see potential avenues...

If we could manufacture a trade of THJ+Hardy (combined ~18mil) to bring back a guy making roughly 12 mil a year, we'd be able to carve out the full NT-MLE that we could theoretically split into 2 guys.

The tax MLE is around 5.5 mil. I really don't think DJJ is signing for that (not that he'd have to, just throwing out that that number seems to low for DJJ to get excited).

If the Mavs stand pat and don't do anything this summer other than resign DJJ the most they could offer is around 7mil and stay right below the 1st apron (but become a tax paying team). My numbers may be a bit off. I've seen the Mavs have up to 10.1 mil of NT-MLE available and as low as 6.5 NT-MLE. Conservative estimate I did with my calculator is 7.1mil accounting for empty roster charges. That'd put a deal for DJJ at 3 years 22 mil. It seems pretty low for him honestly.

Guys who are hovering right around 12 mil a year or less that the Mavs could have interest in:
Thybulle (11)
Terance Mann (11.4)
Caruso (9.8)

I'm not even a THJ fan, but I don't want to lose him and Hardy to resign DJJ. I don't think that makes us a better team. DJJ can resign cheap or walk. He's not going to get a ton of minutes going forward imo. He will definitely be used situationally in the playoffs to try to shut people down.

[DanSchwartzgan]

Tbh, while I WANT DJJ back right now, there’s a chance we feel differently by the summer. He might be this team’s 10th man, once everyone is healthy.

It could also go the other way and he’s a playoff hero (even as a bench player).  He’ll likely have to take no more than the TP-MLE if he wants to stay.  But as a bench guy with a questionable outside shot, that is probably close to his value.  His per game numbers are up a bit, but that’s strictly minutes (which may change soon).  He is exactly who he’s always been on a per minute basis and that player had to take a minimum last summer.

If he has a heroic playoff run, he might could get the room MLE or part of the full MLE from a lesser team.  So, there is a chance he’s leaving a million or two on the table to stay here.  But, as you point out, it might not take close to that.  

In my mind, we are sitting about $700k into the tax next season with 13 players including our second rounder.  We’ll have a minimum (maybe Morris, maybe Lawson) and we’ll have the TPMLE.  The combination will take us right to the first apron, but the main thing we lose there is the ability to take on a trade spread.  You have the same situation if you are sitting a hair under the first apron as the ability to take on extra salary in a trade depends on where you are relative to the apron ‘after’ the trade.  

I think you bring back the band.  I want to see Green and PJ as our 4th/5th guys as Lively grows in year two.  We have a strong and diverse bench in Gafford, Maxi, DJJ, THJ and Exum (or Hardy if Exum is hurt).  I’d prefer to take some time and see what we actually need as this is almost a new team between injuries and trades.  We’ve never seen this combo of players and I’m not sure Green or PJ will be easy to upgrade.  I also like THJ much better with some D and some size around him.  I think our biggest weakness is dealing with Exum’s injuries and Kyrie’s age.  Hayes isn’t some superstar waiting to be discovered.  But, he can give us some minutes of ball handling and size.  If he can be a little better than Frank as a 15th guy, it might be worth giving him some of our remaining MLE on a two year with a TO on the second so we’d have a path to keeping him and DJJ this summer.