Luka Dealt to Lakers: Nico Harrison is a Basketball Terrorist

[KillerLeft]

You could make the argument that Nico didn't want to give him up at the time of the trade with Lively out the rest of the season if they were in win now mode.

Yeah, maybe. Just seems shortsighted to me. So much so that I'm less than satisfied with that answer, plausible as it is. To be clear, that doesn't mean it's not the right answer. 

I think that's my least favorite thing about all of this. I know there's a shot blocking component with Gafford (and an all around defensive component with Lively) that's important here, as the Mavs become the latest team to try to simply "be bigger" than their opponents, but I can't get over the mental hurdle of Gafford and Lively both being pick and roll bigs, and GOOD ones, in a league full of pick and roll teams, and both stuck on a team that now appears to be going away from the spread pick and roll. 

Maybe I'm jumping the gun on that last assumption a bit, but if the plan is for Kyrie to be the PG, I'm really confused. The one thing that all the current Mav options (Kyrie, Exum, Dinwiddie and even Hardy) have in common: none of them are really pick and roll handlers. I think they're all more competent as players than the board seems to think, but the closest to understanding how to use the vertical spacing a rolling big provides is probably Exum, and that understanding is nullified by his total lack of a pull-up jumper. 

I continue to wonder just what the long term plan will be offensively. I know many are struggling with the idea there's enough talent here, but that's not my issue. I think there's more than enough, I just wonder how it fits on that end.