DRAFT: #18 [Green] & #31 [Terry] & trade for #36 [Tyler Bey]

[Scott41theMavs]

To clarify my position on Luka, I don't think we have to do anything stupid to put ourselves in a bad ongoing situation (like take on albatross contracts because the player is useful), i.e. a swing for the fences that could be very risky with the goal of contending right away. But I absolutely believe that Luka has to be convinced that you made significant successful efforts (in terms of the transactions, i.e. no "we tried but..." if not in terms of the resulting on-court product) to make the team more competitive. I don't think any sort of approach of "we'll be good eventually" wrt this coming year cuts it. At all.

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That's crazy. I guess it's possible then. I still don't see the Mavs being competitive next year unless they pull something huge out of thin air (or several things) but it's interesting to know that it has happened before.

I don't think it is that crazy. For example, if Wright is upgraded with someone like Schroeder, we sign a Millsap type player for MLE (and both moves work as planned) while all other players at least keep playing at last season level, Mavs are certainly much better than they were this past season. As far as playoffs go, these are basically two legit starters we were missing (Millsap still can be a starter level in playoff, would save him a bit in regular season).

Schroder and Millsap would be a very satisfactory offseason, depending on the length and size of Millsap's deal. It would be a home run if they somehow pulled it off without including 18. That's a scenario in which that approach of giving a questionable floor/high ceiling draft pick time to pay off could work - you addressed your immediate, sine qua non needs without needing to use the draft to do it. The same might be true to a lesser extent if you traded 18 but picked at 31 and that guy turned out to be a major steal.