AD is broken. Let us admit this and move on with a plan.

[meistermatze]

I’ve been saying this for weeks: AD is one injury away from completely ruining his career - or at least whatever trade value he had left.

People kept saying, “We’re not in a rush, we can hold on to him.”

That was utter bullshit back then, and it’s nothing but pure hubris now.

And surprise, surprise - he’s injured again. Anyone shocked by this hasn’t been paying attention.

He played 33% of all games with the Mavs. Since 2018/2019 he had ONE season with 76 games. The rest? 62 games max, a little over 60% on average! And this guy is not getting any younger.

The writing was on the wall from day one. That’s exactly why his value was so low. That’s exactly why we had zero leverage.

What really makes me furious is this collective delusion that AD is some kind of superstar and that we deserve a “nice return.”

This constant reality-denying nonsense is unbearable. Whoever trades for him now is an idiot. (Frankly, they were one before too — but let’s not open the Luka can again.)

So PLEASE, for the love of God: Get real. AD is not a trade chip. He is a burden.

And we should be happy to move him for a bag of beans - ideally one that comes with some form of cap relief.

Only if we accept this, we can collectively move forward and talk about realistic plans.

Thank you, that is all.

[jerryjohnson]

Depressingly accurate.

[SkenfromLMF]

So by this evaluation of AD, WHY would any team offer salary relief to take on this burden?

The only hope the Mavs have of coming out of this is a choice of:
A) pay to get off his money
B) play the contract out and get cap relief when it expires

We do not have the type of assets to pay to get off his contract and still have any hope of building a team around Flagg.

I am rose colored glasses hoping that this description of AD is more a reaction to scar-tissue from the Luka trade than actual objectivity toward him.

[mvossman]

So by this evaluation of AD, WHY would any team offer salary relief to take on this burden?

The only hope the Mavs have of coming out of this is a choice of:
A) pay to get off his money
B) play the contract out and get cap relief when it expires

We do not have the type of assets to pay to get off his contract and still have any hope of building a team around Flagg.

I am rose colored glasses hoping that this description of AD is more a reaction to scar-tissue from the Luka trade than actual objectivity toward him.

I think the OP is overly harsh, but there are arguments that AD has more value to some teams than he does to Mavs (who are building around a player that just turned 19).  There are or will be AD trades out there that make sense for both teams.

[F Gump]

And we should be happy to move him for a bag of beans - ideally one that comes with some form of cap relief.

The chance you will see that "bag of beans" trade for AD that you are hoping for is probably about 0 in a million. And maybe less.