Trade & Free Agency 2026/2027

[F Gump]

I think a lot of the Naji hate comes down to two factors:  his three point shooting as you mentioned and the analytics of him and Flagg sharing the court being a net negative.  I'm not a big analytics guy and I'd throw out a lot of last season because it was a lost season when they were trying to lose and ideally the biggest chunk of Naji's playing time will come with Cooper getting rest.  And because I watched so many of our dreadful games, Cooper and Naji have good chemistry.  Naji knows how to defer and when to assert himself.  Cooper aside, Naji is a big reason why we hung around in so many games last year.  Dude can get quality shots for himself.  

And I'm going to beat this drum until everyone is deaf.  He wants to be here.  Don't undervalue that.

The "issue" some have with Naji is about 3-pt shooting, to be sure. But to add to that, they also put a hard requirement on all Mav players other than Flagg being a floor spacer (shoot a lot of 3s as their game).

1 think that's short sighted to have such a singular criteria. I don't think that the Mavs will see that as the deciding factor for who they want to employ and play. And - this is one that's supremely ignored - I don't assume that every player they are adding will be some great floor spacer, just because we hope they can be one. What if some of these kids can't actually make 3's after all - and can't do the other things that Naji can do either? BUT - we have a whole season to see who can really contribute, and who can't, before making any hard choices.  

One more factor in the mix is Flagg himself. If HE develops a 3-pt shot (and if I'm in charge, that's the one thing I have him working on developing from now until October), then they will need a player exactly like Naji is now (not another 3-pt guy), who can space the floor by forcing the defense back into the lane to stop his drives. It takes both. 

Of course, another avenue is figuring out how to get 3s out of Naji at a high volume, high percentage result. That would help too.