TRADE: Tyus Jones to DAL | Branham to CHA

[Mavs2021]

You aren’t getting the point.  It has nothing to do with those players or adding an older vet min guy.  It has to do with what you might get with the 30th pick.  The “generational” part of this draft is depth at the top 1/3.  We have no idea if that trickles all the way to #30.  Like every draft, #30 is a lottery ticket with a very small chance of being a real NBA player.  But, combined with other things…players like Gafford/PJ or with the TPE or with other draft assets (or some combination of all of that), #30 could be turned into something that actually makes the team better.  Thus, its inclusion in the depth chart is dependent…not on end of bench guys but on the teams ability to combine assets at the top of the roster.

If the #30 pick has such a small chance to help a team, why should another team give us a huge upgrade over TPE/Gafford/Washington, cause we include it in the trade?   Picks are chances. Rebuilding teams take as many chances as they can, as soon as they can. 

That you even suggest we combine multiple picks, when we KNOW NOTHING about our current team makes no sense to me.

Right now I think the Mavs have a few tasks:

1. TANK as hard as possible.

2. Extract maximum value from the draft in form of BPA. That could mean you trade down from #1 to #2, cause Utah badly wants Dybantsa and you can still get Peterson at #2. It could mean trading down from #3 to #4, cause you think Wilson will be better than Boozer. But BPA pick decisions need to be made.

3. Use the TPE.

4. Use the MLE.

We have two major question marks in our starting five with Irving and Lively. We should not do anything major, until we know about them. Everything changes based on their health alone.