AROUND the NBA:

[Smitty]

Random thoughts after pouring through a range of NBA stats (mostly “advanced”):

1.  Milwaukee is fucked. I can’t stress enough how bad their off-season moves have been.
2.  Cam Thomas is a terrible player with an eye popping scoring average. I wouldn’t even pay him an MLE.
    The Nets should find a way out of that contract situation. On 2nd thought, I wouldn’t want him on my roster for the league minimum
3.  It pains me to say that SGA is the best player in the NBA.
4.  LeBron’s career achievements are even more ridiculous than I thought, especially his performance at     
    age 40.
5.  Jimmy Butler is underrated.
6.  GPII is the best remaining “value” free agent, though Grimes is the best actual free agent. The Grimes
    trade was epically horrible.
7.  Signing Klay to that contract was idiotic. I didn’t mind it so much at the time, but it is what it is. He’s old. He sucked
last year. His contract probably cost us Grimes, an actual two way player, and we’re still stuck with it. The best thing the Mavs could do would be to find a way out of the Klay contract.
8.  The Luka trade was idiotic.

These are all just statistically based observations with no personal bias.

I agree with pretty much everything here except for #7. Klay did not suck and his contract is not terrible. He is exactly who the Mavs wanted him to be. A high volume - high percentage 3-point shooter, that isn’t a turnstile on defense. He played a career low in mpg (~27) and scored 14 ppg. He shot ~8 threes a game at 39% (good) and 4 twos a game at 45% (bad). His role is needed even more so this season since Kyrie, another high volume - high percentage 3-point shooter will be out. I do expect his minutes to decrease again this season, and I’d want his 2PA to decrease even more.

I’m not against moving Klay in a deal that makes sense, but in no way am I in the same boat as you to say he sucked and his contract is idiotic. He is who he is and I think his contract (16.6M, 17.4M) is in line with skill set and impact.