Trade & Free Agency 2026/2027

[KillerLeft]

On the other hand, THIS guy seems ready to waltz right into the league and be a positive rotation piece to me. Here are some summer league highlights from THREE YEARS AGO with the Grizzlies...I think he was ready to be a positive as a floor spacer THEN, and there's a little movement shooting in this footage, too. Definitely not a creator (at least then), but he does move the ball in intelligent ways at times and even runs the break once or twice. Again, three years ago. 

I think I've got Biberovic fever. So happy that the new front office understands that shooting is important. 

https://youtu.be/PmrKaAZCwy8?si=Yw6aBOLIBk5PbDfD

[F Gump]

I agree that DeLarrea needs work, but I may be way more optimistic than others here. I think they drafted him based on the fact he had (1) positive positional size, (b) some positive experience in being a useful PG who creates offense, and © youth with a chance to develop his skills. It will be a process, no doubt, but to me this is exactly the type of guy you want to find.

[Scott41theMavs]

On the other hand, THIS guy seems ready to waltz right into the league and be a positive rotation piece to me. Here are some summer league highlights from THREE YEARS AGO with the Grizzlies...I think he was ready to be a positive as a floor spacer THEN, and there's a little movement shooting in this footage, too. Definitely not a creator (at least then), but he does move the ball in intelligent ways at times and even runs the break once or twice. Again, three years ago. 

I think I've got Biberovic fever. So happy that the new front office understands that shooting is important. 

https://youtu.be/PmrKaAZCwy8?si=Yw6aBOLIBk5PbDfD

Once again, I’m presuming the delay in getting his butt committed here for next year has everything to do with hangups in other stuff they’re trying to do - the importance of knowing what they really have to offer him.

[KillerLeft]

Once again, I’m presuming the delay in getting his butt committed here for next year has everything to do with hangups in other stuff they’re trying to do - the importance of knowing what they really have to offer him.

For sure. It feels like we're nearing the end of the "exhaust all contingencies" process, but there might still be 4-5 other irons in the fire. Idk...I just like this dude. I hope it works out, personally.

[Scott41theMavs]

I'm not sure whether you are trying to agree or not, but if you are trying to argue with what I said, you really aren't reading very closely.

The trade ideas being proposed that I spoke to were for Mathurin and Robinson. Fairly high salaries, and NOT players who are offensive engines for a team. I didn't (and don't) think that's a good move because I think those are just random skilled pieces, but don't address the area of need. The Mavs already have lots of skilled pieces.

I said they DO need "a player who can actually create offense, and do so efficiently". Of course players like Scoot or Black or Wallace would be desirable IF (but only if) they (1) can be that player AND (2) can be obtained. I'm kinda skeptical any of that is actually true

You’re right, my bad in glossing your last line. Obviously the key in targeting another creational guy is their belief in him. If we don’t get anyone else of that ilk, it will be because 1) M&M didn’t like them enough, or 2) their trade partners wanted a return M&M felt we couldn’t afford to give them. In M&M we trust.

Wallace, Black, Scoot, Jrue, and Dejounte. Those are the targets. Given the reasonable speculation on the 3-to-5-team trade, tho, that seems to have “BE PREPARED FOR MATHURIN MEDIOCRITY” written all over it. Edit: Though, to be fair, if we sign and trade for him, obviously it will be because M&M see something in him that most of us plebes don’t.

[Scott41theMavs]

KL and my other fellow Tarik Stans - the MFFL X account posted 3 hours ago that the Mavs are “closing in on signing him.” Let it be true!

[Jakeospikez]

I think both Mathurin and Henderson show signs of being fine shooters. Mathurin is over 40% on C&S 3s and corner 3s the past couple seasons. He has been bad above the break, so guessing he takes a lot of bad 3s from that area doing his hero ball stuff. Mathurin an 88% ft shooter last season in Indy, 86% after in LAC. Apparently playing through an injury with the Clippers could be the reason for the bad numbers there. Obvious question is if he can be a team player and not just a hero ball guy. If the FO believes in either, they both seem to be solid buy low targets that could take on bigger roles if Kyrie is out for whatever reason. The player that looks to just be a bad shooter straight up is Sharpe.

[BigDirk41]

I'm wondering if the Mavs are thinking that Aldama possibly has a Avdija jump in him with an expanded role. Aldama's stats last season are very close to Avdija's from 2 seasons ago. Maybe they think he's a hidden gem. He's taller than Advdija, but they have similar skill sets. Although not close in production at the moment.

[Scott41theMavs]

Sorry to be a broken record again, but the solution to anyone on the Mavs - Sergio, Naji if he’s still here, Lawal, et al. - having wonky outside shots is to have shot whisperer Dirk Werner Nowitzki work with them. Period. Look at how he helped OG level up to give him and JB the Larry. He’s our guy. Just make it happen. Make him our part-time shooting coach, then reap benefits.

Edit: This ranks just after getting a new NBA-near-best medical staff in terms priority and my impatience - get Dirk all the way back on board. He obviously felt alienated by the Nico staff. Need to see detente and then abundant treaties between M&M with Dirk very, very soon. He’s our statue man, for goodness sake. Some amateur Mav pundits have speculated that our stock up on Euros has to do with Project 2028. Could it also have to do with massaging that Dirk relationship?

[KillerLeft]

I'm wondering if the Mavs are thinking that Aldama possibly has a Avdija jump in him with an expanded role. Aldama's stats last season are very close to Avdija's from 2 seasons ago. Maybe they think he's a hidden gem. He's taller than Advdija, but they have similar skill sets. Although not close in production at the moment.

I don't personally think Aldama's future is as an Avdija-style point forward, but to your point, I do think he's valuable in terms of pulling opposing defenders (bigger ones) out of the paint in a way that literally none of the current Mavs bigs (including forwards) can, and I think his face up offensive skills are surprising. I think he's likely to continue to improve at attacking closeouts, making reads out of the short roll or out of pick and pop, etc. 

I don't think he's a starter, but a very, very useful player to have around.

[KillerLeft]

I don't personally think Aldama's future is as an Avdija-style point forward, but to your point, I do think he's valuable in terms of pulling opposing defenders (bigger ones) out of the paint in a way that literally none of the current Mavs bigs (including forwards) can, and I think his face up offensive skills are surprising. I think he's likely to continue to improve at attacking closeouts, making reads out of the short roll or out of pick and pop, etc. 

I don't think he's a starter, but a very, very useful player to have around.

Just to add to this: this acquisition was the moment I started to be able to see a potential role for Daniel Gafford on this team again. I don't know that things will break the way I'm envisioning, but this is the type of player you need (and the Mavs are picking up several of them at a variety of positions) to make spread pick and roll work.

[BigDirk41]

I don't personally think Aldama's future is as an Avdija-style point forward, but to your point, I do think he's valuable in terms of pulling opposing defenders (bigger ones) out of the paint in a way that literally none of the current Mavs bigs (including forwards) can, and I think his face up offensive skills are surprising. I think he's likely to continue to improve at attacking closeouts, making reads out of the short roll or out of pick and pop, etc. 

I don't think he's a starter, but a very, very useful player to have around.

IF and that's a big IF, but if he continues to improve and he's efficient shooting, I won't be surprised if we see a starting front court of Morez, Aldama and Flagg by the end of the season UNLESS Lively gets healthy and becomes a regular again. Lively deserves to start when healthy. I don't think Gafford will be here at the start of the season and I have a feeling that the rotation is going to look a lot different than people are predicting. I think they are bringing the Euros over to play immediately. That's not a win now move, but it can definitely be great for long term growth of this team.

[Scott41theMavs]

Just to add to this: this acquisition was the moment I started to be able to see a potential role for Daniel Gafford on this team again. I don't know that things will break the way I'm envisioning, but this is the type of player you need (and the Mavs are picking up several of them at a variety of positions) to make spread pick and roll work.

Hmmm. But what effect does it have on Gafford on the defensive end?

[KillerLeft]

The Mavs are deliberately and quietly acquiring shooting at all sizes and positions, which gives them options to put shooting on the floor no matter how they want to play. It could be that they have deals lined up with players outgoing that could tip their hand a bit on how they see the roster...OR, it could be that they haven't made those decisions yet and are simply trying to give their future selves options.

So far it's definitely not a home run of a retool around Flagg, but it's flashing encouraging signs of what they think is important, generally, in order to accomplish that. I'm relatively encouraged.

[KillerLeft]

Hmmm. But what effect does it have on Gafford on the defensive end?

I don't think Aldama's defense is all that bad, really, especially if surrounded by guys like Flagg, Sasser, Johnson, etc. I don't think anyone with Gafford is particularly promising, defensively, but...I honestly don't care, at the moment. 

I cannot watch a Mavs team that's as offensively inept as last year's ever again. I just can't. Through the first month of the season (when we'd all agree they were trying to win) they were HISTORICALLY bad, offensively. Like, the worst ever. Frankly, I don't care much for any other goals until this team can create good, easy, efficient looks on a regular basis.

[Scott41theMavs]

IF and that's a big IF, but if he continues to improve and he's efficient shooting, I won't be surprised if we see a starting front court of Morez, Aldama and Flagg by the end of the season UNLESS Lively gets healthy and becomes a regular again. Lively deserves to start when healthy. I don't think Gafford will be here at the start of the season and I have a feeling that the rotation is going to look a lot different than people are predicting. I think they are bringing the Euros over to play immediately. That's not a win now move, but it can definitely be great for long term growth of this team.

Re: Lively: just consider how different the two possible futures are with this guy: 1) he struggles so much with health the next year or two that the Mavs give up on him and he either ends up out of the league in a couple of years or tearing it up on another team. 2) He gets fully healthy, tears it up over the next two years, and becomes the prime facilitator of Project ‘28 happening. Yes, yes, I know there’s a colossal range of possibilities in between. But the spread between those two - wow.

[KillerLeft]

IF and that's a big IF, but if he continues to improve and he's efficient shooting, I won't be surprised if we see a starting front court of Morez, Aldama and Flagg by the end of the season UNLESS Lively gets healthy and becomes a regular again. Lively deserves to start when healthy. I don't think Gafford will be here at the start of the season and I have a feeling that the rotation is going to look a lot different than people are predicting. I think they are bringing the Euros over to play immediately. That's not a win now move, but it can definitely be great for long term growth of this team.

I'm not ready to predict starters just yet, but I'd be surprised if Aldama is among them. 

Johnson is trickier. I can't imagine they'd start him next to Gafford (or even Lively) right out of the gate, given what he brings to the table right away, offensively. I think his most likely way to be a positive on that end early in his career stems from him doing Gafford/Lively things...hopefully a little closer to Lively on the versatility scale. Given that they're clearly and undeniably focused on shooting as a means of creating space, I just can't see them thinking those combos at the 4/5 are the way to go, personally. If this was the finished roster I'd put my money on Gafford starting with Johnson coming off the bench, mostly at the 5...but, I also kind of think most of the top 10 picks will probably be starters from day 1, so it's interesting, and that's basically why 2/3 of Dallas fans assumed Gafford was gone on draft night. 

I do think Aldama/Gafford is a combo with some potential, but I could also see Flagg/Gafford starting at the 4/5 and Aldama/Johnson being the main bench pieces at both of those positions. One of them can fit with both Flagg and Gafford, the other can fit with Flagg instead of Gafford, and they can play together. 

I really, really think either PJW or Gafford will not be here when the season starts. I could be wrong, obviously.

[F Gump]

Given the reasonable speculation on the 3-to-5-team trade, tho, that seems to have “BE PREPARED FOR MATHURIN MEDIOCRITY” written all over it. Edit: Though, to be fair, if we sign and trade for him, obviously it will be because M&M see something in him that most of us plebes don’t.

Maybe I should mention that I don't see the speculation on there being a 3-to-5-team trade as being something that would land Mathurin (or anyone being discussed). Instead I think (a) the 3-to-5-team trade would just be a morphing of the trades to bring Aldama and Sasser, and (b) if there is any addition in it that pertains to the Mavs, I believe it would be the addition of an OUTGOING player to someone, which would then allow the Mavs to retain their TPE and/or BAE for possible use elsewhere. 

Outside the discussions here, I've seen nothing to indicate any particular Mav interest in Mathurin. To me, he's just a fill-in-the-blank answer to who else is out there that the Mavs might have the ammo to get.

[DanSchwartzgan]

Given the reasonable speculation on the 3-to-5-team trade, tho, that seems to have “BE PREPARED FOR MATHURIN MEDIOCRITY” written all over it.

I think this is reasonable.  I'm taking the position that we have 15 players at this point.  Sergio is signed and there are reports we are trying to sign Tarik (and it will cost us something to do it...which is logical given his history and the cost of his buyout).  You can put players whereever you like.  This is how I like to do it currently:

Lively/Gafford/Morez
PJ/Aldama/Martin
Flagg/Naji/Tarik
Christie/Klay/Sergio
Irving/Sasser/Nembhard

We also have access to moving Cisse from 2-way to third center and Morez up to a spot more befitting his draft status by trading Gafford.  Multiple places have reported many times that Gafford is on the trading block and one of the teams in our reasonably speculated 3-5 team deal has nothing at center at this point.  Look folks, this is going to be a large multi-team deal.  The players and puzzle pieces fit too nicely.  I believe Gafford will end up somewhere else and most likely in LAC.  It just makes too much sense.

So, what comes back?

1.  It could be nothing more than trade matching Aldama and we preserve the TPE
2.  It could be someone from LAC (and Mathurin makes sense as we've not heard anything about him and fits the bench self-creator/scoring guard role that is open on this roster)
3.  It could be someone else from one of the other teams in the group.
4.  It could be a trade match for Gafford from another team outside the group.  

No one is making making serious trade proposals for Robinson.  Some people didn't seem enthralled with Mathurin (option 2 above), so I simply suggested a more efficient player from option 3 above.  It was meant to be instructive more than a statement of ideal fit.  

Note that under #1 above, we still have the ability to use the MLE or TPE.  Under #4, we can potentially send out additional players and trade match whoever we wish (including Dejounte under a combo of #1 and #4).  Note also that in these scenarios the BAE is available as Sasser was trade matched in the larger deal by AJ Johnson.  If flexibility is a desire, then #1 provides it assuming there is something reasonable in terms of draft compensation that might come back from LAC if it isn't Mathurin.

[Jakeospikez]

Nemby currently playing for the GSW Blue summer league team, players just randomly play with other teams in summer league or it mean he likely gone?