MAVS NEWS:

[KillerLeft]

https://x.com/ShamsCharania/status/20292...76127?s=20


Memphis is signing O-Max to a standard NBA contract.

Good for him! 

I hope he continues to get time to develop there, and I hope he takes advantage of it. He has already beaten the odds a little by earning a 2nd chance, so it's kind of a long shot, but I'm pulling for him.

[Chicagojk]

I liked the first viewing of the new two way guy from Yale.  Not saying he is an NBA player or even deserves a two way spot, but I thought he came in and made some things happen.   Seemed to be active and showed good movement.    This year will be a huge trial for him as those two way spots are highly competitive.

[Winter]

I liked the first viewing of the new two way guy from Yale.  Not saying he is an NBA player or even deserves a two way spot, but I thought he came in and made some things happen.   Seemed to be active and showed good movement.    This year will be a huge trial for him as those two way spots are highly competitive.

I believe the guy was a senior (John Poulikdas) at Yale.

He played basketball at Yale for four years. In the last three years, he never averaged under 40% from the three-point line (good volume too). He now holds the Clippers G League record for three pointers made in a game (10). His highlight game was where Yale beat Auburn in the 2024 NCAA tournament. He scored 28 points and was 6 of 9 from the 3 pt line.

I mean you just have to see what this guy can do. No?

"The lack of exclusivity is what allowed Poulakidas to sign with Dallas, but his new contract is less flexible. Unless he is waived, Poulakidas will be with the Mavericks organization for the rest of the season.

For a full season contract, a player may play up to 50 games for the major league club, and receive a salary equal to half the rookie minimum, according to the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement. In the 2025-2026 season, a two-way player would earn $636,435 for a full season. If this contract is signed partway through the season, both the salary and game limit are prorated. Poulakidas’ contract thus allows for up to 12 games on the Dallas Mavericks and a $153,622 salary. "

https://yaledailynews.com/articles/poula...14-minutes

[Chicagojk]

I believe the guy was a senior (John Poulikdas) at Yale.

He played basketball at Yale for four years. In the last three years, he never averaged under 40% from the three-point line (good volume too). He now holds the Clippers G League record for three pointers made in a game (10). His highlight game was where Yale beat Auburn in the 2024 NCAA tournament. He scored 28 points and was 6 of 9 from the 3 pt line.

I mean you just have to see what this guy can do. No?

"The lack of exclusivity is what allowed Poulakidas to sign with Dallas, but his new contract is less flexible. Unless he is waived, Poulakidas will be with the Mavericks organization for the rest of the season.

For a full season contract, a player may play up to 50 games for the major league club, and receive a salary equal to half the rookie minimum, according to the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement. In the 2025-2026 season, a two-way player would earn $636,435 for a full season. If this contract is signed partway through the season, both the salary and game limit are prorated. Poulakidas’ contract thus allows for up to 12 games on the Dallas Mavericks and a $153,622 salary. "

https://yaledailynews.com/articles/poula...14-minutes

I wonder how many people who played Yale in 2023 and 2024 knew they were playing against two future NBA players (sort of).  Danny Wolf was on that team for two years prior to transferring to Michigan.

[Chicagojk]

Mavs have a tough schedule to end the year, but if relatively healthy they will continue to fight and the will win some games.   They are two up on the Grizzles.   Grizzles have less available talent at the moment but they should continue to play hard.   This may go neck and neck for the rest of the season between those two teams.  

Pelicans are only one game different than the Mavs.  I think the Pelicans will pass the Mavs, but we will see.

Mavs are two games up on the Jazz.  Despite the win last night for the Jazz, I don't expect to see the Mavs passing the Jazz in the standings.

[Smitty]

Cooper Flagg on potentially facing Jayson Tatum on Friday, via @christianpclark:

"He's one of the guys I grew up watching. Kind of modeled my game after. Watched him at Duke ... He's somebody I've always looked up to. I'm excited to face off and compete against him for sure."

[Scott41theMavs]

Mavs have a tough schedule to end the year, but if relatively healthy they will continue to fight and the will win some games.   They are two up on the Grizzles.   Grizzles have less available talent at the moment but they should continue to play hard.   This may go neck and neck for the rest of the season between those two teams.  

Pelicans are only one game different than the Mavs.  I think the Pelicans will pass the Mavs, but we will see.

Mavs are two games up on the Jazz.  Despite the win last night for the Jazz, I don't expect to see the Mavs passing the Jazz in the standings.

Yep. Right on all counts. 

The only things I would add are 1) the Mavs aren't catching the Jazz (nor the Wiz, nor the Pacers, nor the Nets) because those teams will prevent it from happening by any and all means necessary, and 2) the Grizz shouldn't catch the Mavs for the same reason going the other direction, although the lose-come-hell-or-high-water process may be difficult for the Mavs given how much more talent they are rolling out than the other tanking teams.

[myconsumerclub]

we have a much tougher schedule if you ask me

[ThisIStheYear]

Just randomly came across the details again of the Jaren Jackson trade, and it’s still just absolutely stunning how bad a return the Mavs got for Luka, who’s like miles better. It basically works out to Max Christi (who isn’t any good) and a couple of draft picks that are as crappy as it gets. It’s just an unprecedented level of incompetence for a franchise. Still hard to believe. Yet, if we can get a top 3 pick in this lottery, we’ll be right back in business. The Mavs have a 20% chance to be relevant again, even with the incredible, incomprehensible stupidity of the organization. That’s a miracle in and of itself.

[F Gump]

....even with the incredible, incomprehensible stupidity of the organization....

Another plea ^ for Presti! (That's how I'm reading it, anyhow!!)

[cow]

 Max Christi (who isn’t any good) 

Did we just become best friends?

[myconsumerclub]

I think whoever we draft it has to be BPA but we would really benefit more if that player was a PG so that we can groom that player for being Kyries replacement and of course it would help if he had SG size so he could play at PG with Kyrie.

Then of course a 3 point shooting wing who can defend and a center to back up and play when our injured centers cannot play. I think we could even find undrafted centers available in this draft who provide more defense than what we have behind Lively but Krivas at 50 is a good find to bring on. There are some great 3 point shooters available at 30. If you pick a non PG with that first pick you could add a PG later and maybe move up by trading someone.

Hopefully all 3 picks can be developed and play in the rotation next season and give us a more solid team because we are a bad team at this time. I am for trading assets that some would possibly want to keep. We need to get more picks, if possible.

We will need to rebuild PJ's worth after this seasons dip. I can only hope his 3 gets back to where it was.

Naji needs to show he can improve his 3 as well.

Martin has just about gotten back to where he was before his injury and he can produce at a nice level for what little play time he gets and he is an ok 3 point shooter with a decent 3pfg 36.5% for 5th best shooter on the team this year.

Trading or not resigning players so we can find a younger player special enough to develop is what we need to do.

We can keep Kyrie and Klay they are proven contributors that are worth keeping because their production is steady and not falling.

There is no path to success keeping vets on the downside of their career who cannot perform at a high level. Middleton is done and has no place here. He needs to be replaced by rookies.

Trade if you can Martin, AJ & Gafford if you cannot do it in the offseason then we need to improve that value enough to trade them at the TDL.

At the TDL you need to get PJ and Naji back on track or you trade them anyway. If they can start to turn things around I am happy to let them stay but I need to see that 3 pointer working more often and at a much higher level because we will have other options to shoot 3's at their position and if they deserve more play time that bottle neck is going to force us into trading them for what we can get because teams will know that we cannot ask for much.

Starters will include a lot of Duke guys Kyrie Cooper and Lively are locks at the starting lineup if not injured still. If we can get another Duke guy Bagley resigned at a good fair salary he can play behind Lively if Lively goes down again and if the rookie we draft is too raw to play this year and I would want him over Gafford because he is more useful and can hit the 3 and may be an option at PF as well.

We should be giving the new 2 way guys a lot of playing time to see what they can do. John may be a 3 point threat that can make Naji a short timer. Tyler is bis bigger than PJ and could be a better 3 point threat. Younger and more reasonable $$$ would free up funds to use in free agency. If you can trade PJ NAJI AND GAFFORD you need to look at what we can get back hard. We should convince the 2 two way guys they have a real shot to move up so they will chose to stick around if they look good while we have them this season.

[Mavs2021]

I´m not looking to get rid of Washington, Gafford, Bagley or Marshall, unless it´s a complete no brainer. You add one of Sexton, Simons or White and you have five supporting players, that are proven young veterans that have 4-5 good years of their prime left. They have also been humbled enough to know they are supporting actors. Christie and Lively are already in the house as further supporting staff, might get something good with #30 and even #50 in this stacked draft. Mavs "just" need to nail the top end of the draft and get another young star player, then you have the exact kind of mix that could yield great results in 2-3 years.

[cow]

I´m not looking to get rid of Washington, Gafford, Bagley or Marshall, unless it´s a complete no brainer. You add one of Sexton, Simons or White and you have five supporting players, that are proven young veterans that have 4-5 good years of their prime left. They have also been humbled enough to know they are supporting actors. Christie and Lively are already in the house as further supporting staff, might get something good with #30 and even #50 in this stacked draft. Mavs "just" need to nail the top end of the draft and get another young star player, then you have the exact kind of mix that could yield great results in 2-3 years.

I don't think you get a no brainer for Washington at this point.  Hopefully he, well everyone, starts playing better once Kyrie comes is back in the fold.

[loki]

PJ is still going to be playing out of position next year. What happens when he has a terrible start to the season and they can't get anything at the trade deadline? The Mavs should not allow themselves to be stuck holding that 4 year deal. Outside of the draft pick, I think trading PJ is the most critical part of the offseason. They stand to lose a lot more if he plays poorly than they would gain if he plays well.

[loki]

Mavs win (lose). Pels up by 9 in the 3rd. It's tough to watch any of this, but at least there are only 18 games left.

[Chicagojk]

Mavs win (lose). Pels up by 9 in the 3rd. It's tough to watch any of this, but at least there are only 18 games left.

Yeah, these games are tough to watch.  I started late and watched the first quarter and a half.  Then I saw the score and jumped live to the fourth.    Just not a lot there.   Made 5 threes and shot under 20%.   Two games ago they made 3 threes.    The only baskets Coop gets are typically his creation.  I guess he did get one alley oop from Marshall, but nothing is easy for him.   

I was watching PJ on defense in the first half.  He gets lost way too often.   Max is making a run of really ending the season with more question marks.   I think he is taking some bad shots.   No pass threes are a shot they can get at anytime.  Not sure why he is shooting them off the dribble.   Can't shoot, turnovers a lot, and poor defense.  There are times they look good but they are not long runs and then it gets very quickly back to a brutal watch.  The last 18 games are going to be a slog.

[Scott41theMavs]

The good news is that the Pels are just a game back of us now and should catch us in the next two weeks.

The bad news is that this is turning into a team that doesn't have to go through the "effort" of tanking - they're just plain awful. The really sad thing, as alluded to by Chicagojk, is that Max has shown out as garbage. If they waived him tomorrow, I would shrug. That's really frustrating, because it means that we're even farther behind on fielding a competitive team than I thought. Sure, it would be nice to move up instead of down in the draft, but even if we get one of the five or six blue-chippers in this one, putting together a team around Flagg and whoever that guy is will be a ton of work. I am still in a state of urgency regarding them getting a GM. The really bad news about that is that if they're really set on Presti (or even Lindsay), both of their teams will likely go to the very end of the postseason, so that we won't get a GM until a few shorts weeks prior to the draft.

The good news about our team being awful is that it's hard to imagine a scenario in which they finish lower than sixth in the tank-rank unless Kyrie or Lively plays, or unless Zion gets hurt for the millionth time. Since I can easily conceive of this piss-poor team not winning a single game more the the rest of the way, I think there's an outside chance we even make it to fifth or even fourth if the Jazz, Wiz, or Nets can't out-tank us due to how atrocious we are.

[Mavs2021]

These performances and losses mean nothing. The only concern is the draft, free agency, health and then you need to hope they can turn the switch back on.

[Knutsen]

These performances and losses mean nothing. The only concern is the draft, free agency, health and then you need to hope they can turn the switch back on.

Exactly - and as a fan it helps to not even watch the games, as hard as that may sound - because it’s very tough for me to root for them to suck while watching, but I can be happy about losses just reading the boxscore. 

Who would have thought that Flagg gets the real number one pick experience with being on one of the worst teams in the NBA after all? Crazy!

Concerning ranking: our next two games will be decisive, because they are winnable. If we lose these we might very well lose out and Utah having three winnable games could catch us. Not probable, but if we win one or two I‘d say the chances go to zero.