Trade & Free Agency 2026/2027

[KillerLeft]

I would be open to Mathurin, but my issue is that, unless Max is outgoing, for purposes of developing guys like Sasser (who, to be fair, is pretty good as he is) and especially Sergio (and maybe even Seva), as much as we whinge about imbalance and the lack of guards, there's only room for one big-minute guard. So in that event, I would rather see Scoot here than Mathurin. As I have hinted at, I see Sergio's main path to the floor this year as being a two, not a lead yet due to his handle issues. Therefore, Scoot wouldn't block him this year, and would provide solid starter minutes for if/when Kyrie is injured. 

If the Mavs were to, say, trade PJ for Scoot and Gafford for Mathurin and waive Klay, and assuming they traded Max for a first rounder, I would see the rotation as something like

Kyrie-Scoot-Sasser
Mathurin-Sergio-Seva
Naji-Risacher-Tarik-Martin
Flagg-Aldama
Morez-Lively-Cisse

To me, that's actually a decent playoff team. If the young guys developed as hoped, perhaps eventually a contender.

I think there's reason to think Mathurin might be in De Larrea's way a little early on, as I expect the rookie will find it easier to get onto the court and succeed WITH Kyrie than he will replacing him (early on). But, I'm not sure that competition isn't the best thing for De Larrea, moving forward.

With Sasser...I wouldn't expect him to play WITH Kyrie much at all, for obvious size reasons. Their games would work together fine, but something tells me this front office isn't going to want to play two guys that small together very often. 

It's funny that you mention Henderson. I think I might be getting further away from wanting him than I originally was. Between him, Risacher and Howard, it would start to feel like the team is collecting recent lottery disappointments, lol. Idk...totally lacking in logic, but something about it just feels off to me about that now.