Trade & Free Agency 2026/2027

[dirkfansince1998]

This is how I see it:

Kyrie/Sasser
Christie/De Larrea
Risacher/Biberovic
Flagg/Aldama
Johnson/Lively/Cisse

???? PJW, Gafford, Thompson

Maybe all three of the question mark guys are here still when the season starts, maybe only 1, whatever. Those who are here will need roles, of course. I'm waiting for Dan or someone to do the math, but I'd be pretty surprised if this move didn't put the team over the tax line, or right up to it, and I'd be equally surprised if we didn't see at least one of those three outgoing in a salary dump to avoid paying the tax this year. Gafford and PJW have the two longest-term deals on the books, so there's an element of longterm planning to that thinking as well. Heck, avoiding the tax this year is longterm thinking.

But looking at the depth chart the way I have it - to me, it makes SO MUCH sense. You can bring one of those bench players in (almost any of them) and slide people around to play differently. So much positional versatility, so much synergy.

PJ basically hasn't played any small ball five for the Mavs. But if we look back at his time with the Hornets that was his best position. Knowing how much Ujiri values positional versatility and how often the Raptors would play small ball lineups. Would anyone be suprised if they have PJ in front of Gafford in the depth chart? They still have Cisse (and potentially Lively) for traditional center stuff but for me this once again screams vision 6'9.