Trade & Free Agency 2026/2027

[Scott41theMavs]

Good thing basketball teams don't use hockey shifts. Fun fact, I read somewhere the starting five of an NBA team only plays together an average of around 10 minutes per game. Bench guys even less. Obviously that varies per team.

Dan, I like where you're going with the theory.

If you do some digging on Mathurin, Rick Carlisle, who I still respect as one of the top minds in basketball, once said he spent more time with Mathurin than any other young player in his career. He called him a professional scorer and said he came out of the womb with 20 points. He called him a Kawhi-like bucket getter. But in the same conversation, he said Mathurin's heros growing up came from an era that looked totally different than today's NBA. It's not hard to read between the lines. Carlisle saw the potential, and he worked hard to modernize Mathurin's approach because his game didn't align with today's NBA. Then he was traded.

I have no idea what Mathurin's game looks like now but I do think the Mavs could use a bench scorer. And with the right developmental staff maybe he can become much more. Sort of in keeping with other recent moves. Add developmental talent and see what happens.

I was going to ask you, what makes you think May could do anything with him if Carlisle couldn’t? Then I remembered how RC dealt with every rookie prior to Luka and to some extent Brunson and said, “Never mind, answered my own question.”