MAVS NEWS:

[Chicagojk]

I liked the off-season. I like the Masai, Schmitz, May and most of the players. I have questions about some of them and they will not all work out, but I see the vision and I like the gambles on most.

I am not going to change my view if doesn’t work right away or complaining if this is not a finished product yet. I expect there will be many more changes.

My two main negatives as we stand now though are the following:

1) lack of a young guard who can turn into a top 3 player on this team. Maybe one develops, but at the moment we have a 34 year old Kyrie and limited draft assets. It is a scary place to be if Kyrie does not reach his level of before his injury trying to find that guard.


2). Mavs used their flexibility and some assets for Morez, Aldama, and Risacher (Tarek to a much lesser case) and none of these guys have a clean vision to a ton of minutes. Maybe Morez is brought along slowly. Maybe Risacher gets minutes behind Max—-even if he cannot really create his own shot. Typically when you invest in gambles you want to give them a clean run of a lot of minutes. Maybe that comes but things are very crowded currently. Especially when you consider flag gets 32 plus minutes, PJ gets 28, and Marshall gets 25. The wing minutes are almost gone just with that.

[windjc]

I liked the off-season.  I like the Masai, Schmitz, May and most of the players.  I have questions about some of them and they will not all work out, but I see the vision and I like the gambles on most. 

I am not going to change my view if doesn’t work right away or complaining if this is not a finished product yet.  I expect there will be many more changes.

My two main negatives as we stand now though are the following:

1) lack of a young guard who can turn into a top 3 player on this team.  Maybe one develops, but at the moment we have a 34 year old Kyrie and limited draft assets.  It is a scary place to be if Kyrie does not reach his level of before his injury trying to find that guard.


2). Mavs used their flexibility and some assets for Morez, Aldama, and Risacher (Tarek to a much lesser case) and none of these guys have a clean vision to a ton of minutes.  Maybe Morez is brought along slowly.  Maybe Risacher gets minutes behind Max—-even if he cannot really create his own shot.  Typically when you invest in gambles you want to give them a clean run of a lot of minutes.  Maybe that comes but things are very crowded currently.  Especially when you consider flag gets 32 plus minutes, PJ gets 28, and Marshall gets 25.  The wing minutes are almost gone just with that.

Maybe the way to win is to create massive competition at all positions and to have depth that can compete through injuries and in the 2nd team, where many games are won and lost?

Culture and coaching. Culture and coaching. Culture and coaching.

[Chicagojk]

saw the Bam height comparison right after the draft. The Al Horford size surprises me though. I thought he is bigger. The Dwight Howard size is pretty shocking to me.

https://x.com/NickVanExit/status/2085065468012892565

[mvossman]

saw the Bam height comparison right after the draft.  The Al Horford size surprises me though.  I thought he is bigger.  The Dwight Howard size is pretty shocking to me. 

https://x.com/NickVanExit/status/2085065468012892565

Yeah, folks kept referring to him as a small ball 5.  He is overall bigger than Gafford.  The fact that he is that size, can guard the perimeter and has all the intangibles bodes well for his development.

[mvossman]

I liked the off-season.  I like the Masai, Schmitz, May and most of the players.  I have questions about some of them and they will not all work out, but I see the vision and I like the gambles on most. 

I am not going to change my view if doesn’t work right away or complaining if this is not a finished product yet.  I expect there will be many more changes.

My two main negatives as we stand now though are the following:

1) lack of a young guard who can turn into a top 3 player on this team.  Maybe one develops, but at the moment we have a 34 year old Kyrie and limited draft assets.  It is a scary place to be if Kyrie does not reach his level of before his injury trying to find that guard.


2). Mavs used their flexibility and some assets for Morez, Aldama, and Risacher (Tarek to a much lesser case) and none of these guys have a clean vision to a ton of minutes.  Maybe Morez is brought along slowly.  Maybe Risacher gets minutes behind Max—-even if he cannot really create his own shot.  Typically when you invest in gambles you want to give them a clean run of a lot of minutes.  Maybe that comes but things are very crowded currently.  Especially when you consider flag gets 32 plus minutes, PJ gets 28, and Marshall gets 25.  The wing minutes are almost gone just with that.

Agree will all of this.  This is probably a stretch but I think there is a chance Larry can be that guy.

[FireNicoHarrison]

saw the Bam height comparison right after the draft.  The Al Horford size surprises me though.  I thought he is bigger.  The Dwight Howard size is pretty shocking to me. 

https://x.com/NickVanExit/status/2085065468012892565

He is a center.

[Scott41theMavs]

He is a center.

I think he’s more a center than a power forward, but most folks after seeing him in summer league think he isn’t ready to be an NBA center. Methinks that’s a rather drastic conclusion because it would mean he’s already a bust. That was not what I saw in summer league.

[Chicagojk]

I think he’s more a center than a power forward, but most folks after seeing him in summer league think he isn’t ready to be an NBA center. Methinks that’s a rather drastic conclusion because it would mean he’s already a bust. That was not what I saw in summer league.

I can't say for certain yet on Morez, but I think I like him less if his best position is center.   I have tried not to chime in with Lively because he needs to prove he can be healthy.   Although in an ideal world, I think my favorite Mavs lineup would be Lively, Morez and three decent sized creators (one being Coop).

Others may like Johnson at the five, Coop at the big forward and three more creators.    

I will need to watch more of Johnson but at the moment I envision him more of a PF type.

[WillE]

saw the Bam height comparison right after the draft.  The Al Horford size surprises me though.  I thought he is bigger.  The Dwight Howard size is pretty shocking to me. 

https://x.com/NickVanExit/status/2085065468012892565

To put this into perspective a bit more, take standing reach into account:

Bam 9' 0'' (53%ile)
Al Horford 8' 11'' (38%ile)
Dwight Howard 9' 3.5'' (90%ile)
Morez 8' 11'' (38%ile)

Aday Mara 9' 9'' (100%ile)

[mvossman]

I can't say for certain yet on Morez, but I think I like him less if his best position is center.   I have tried not to chime in with Lively because he needs to prove he can be healthy.   Although in an ideal world, I think my favorite Mavs lineup would be Lively, Morez and three decent sized creators (one being Coop).

Others may like Johnson at the five, Coop at the big forward and three more creators.    

I will need to watch more of Johnson but at the moment I envision him more of a PF type.

I think the hope/plan is that he can be both.  If you look at the last several NBA champions, they had a key player who could play the 4 or 5 (or in Jokic case a 5 that has 4 skills).  I hope he can easily fit into both your lineups eventually.

[mvossman]

To puts this into perspective a bit more, take standing reach into account:

Bam 9' 0'' (53%ile)
Al Horford 8' 11'' (38%ile)
Dwight Howard 9' 3.5'' (90%ile)
Morez 8' 11'' (38%ile)

Aday Mara 9' 9'' (100%ile)

To put things into even more perspective, lets add vertical leap:

Bam: 39
Horford: 35
Howard: 39
Morez: 39
Mara: 28

That puts max vertical reach at

Bam: 12' 3"
Horford: 11' 10"
Howard: 12' 6.5"
Morez: 12' 2"
Mara:  12' 1"

[KillerLeft]

I think the hope/plan is that he can be both.  If you look at the last several NBA champions, they had a key player who could play the 4 or 5 (or in Jokic case a 5 that has 4 skills).  I hope he can easily fit into both your lineups eventually.

If he can be both, that's super. I'm all for it. 

However, I can't wrap my head around the opinion that if pressed to make a choice, one would prefer him at the 4, where his skills are lacking (right now). To contrast this, his ability to move his feet and process things extremely quickly on defense, combined with a high motor, pretty much make him the ideal, prototypical center. The type that can impact a regular season game and a playoff series. There are like fewer than 10 such players in the entire NBA, and if Lively ever maintains health and Johnson can live up to the hype, they'll have two of them. 

Why on EARTH would people be upset if they don't end up being a good fit on the court TOGETHER?! I couldn't care less about that, tbh.

[mvossman]

If he can be both, that's super. I'm all for it. 

However, I can't wrap my head around the opinion that if pressed to make a choice, one would prefer him at the 4, where his skills are lacking (right now). To contrast this, his ability to move his feet and process things extremely quickly on defense, combined with a high motor, pretty much make him the ideal, prototypical center. The type that can impact a regular season game and a playoff series. There are like fewer than 10 such players in the entire NBA, and if Lively ever maintains health and Johnson can live up to the hype, they'll have two of them. 

Why on EARTH would people be upset if they don't end up being a good fit on the court TOGETHER?! I couldn't care less about that, tbh.

If Lively ever gets truly healthy you are going to want him on the court at least mid 20s a game.  If Morez lives up to potential you are going to want him on the court over 30.  These numbers will be higher during the playoffs.  They will need to be able to spend at least 10 minutes on the court together to get full value.  Not to mention, any ability Morez develops to make him more effective on the court with Lively will be just as useful when he is playing the 5.

[Scott41theMavs]

If Lively ever gets truly healthy you are going to want him on the court at least mid 20s a game.  If Morez lives up to potential you are going to want him on the court over 30.  These numbers will be higher during the playoffs.  They will need to be able to spend at least 10 minutes on the court together to get full value.  Not to mention, any ability Morez develops to make him more effective on the court with Lively will be just as useful when he is playing the 5.

I agree with both of you all. To me Morez needs to be both a center and a PF with the C aspect predominating.

[KillerLeft]

If Lively ever gets truly healthy you are going to want him on the court at least mid 20s a game.  If Morez lives up to potential you are going to want him on the court over 30.  These numbers will be higher during the playoffs.  They will need to be able to spend at least 10 minutes on the court together to get full value.  Not to mention, any ability Morez develops to make him more effective on the court with Lively will be just as useful when he is playing the 5.

Sure, sure...but...all I'm saying is if that 5 isn't a little emboldened compared to the 4 next to Johnson's name on some dry erase board somewhere...on a team that will apparently have Flagg, PJW, Aldama, Marshall, Risacher AND Biberovic all fighting for (and deserving) forward minutes...

IF they really think Johnson is a 4 (I don't), then they were sooooooo stupid not to draft Burries. 98% of the draw of Johnson is that he can defend on the perimeter FROM THE CENTER POSITION, enabling you to move away from drop coverage and switch in more situations without going small. That's the entire point of taking the guy top 10 and if they don't see it that way then I flat out hate the pick.

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Davis Bertans retires: Thank you for the great 15 years! It has been exactly a decade and a half since my first official match in the Latvian senior national team jersey. The time has come to listen to my body and, unfortunately – but with great joy and pride for everything I have experienced in these 15 years – the time has come to put an end to my career in the national team. It may hurt a little that we did not end the last match with a victory, but I believe that during all these years we have experienced incredible emotions – both in our hall and in tournaments and matches outside Latvia, such as the European Championships and the World Cup, which will remain in our memories for a very long time. I sincerely hope that basketball in Latvia is in a much better place today than it was before my first match. In the future, I will definitely be one of the biggest fans of the national team; I will always support them and, whenever I have the opportunity, cheer them on from the stands. Thank you all for your support, for being with us after both victories and defeats, for celebrating with us, and for grieving with us. Thank you!”

BasketNews

[Chicagojk]

If the keep PJ to start the season they better have him in a good role and get him plenty of playing time.    I thought he was pretty bad last year.  His defense was really disappointing.  He really struggled covering anyone on the perimeter.  That needs to change.  I will give last year a pass but he needs to play better.    Otherwise those remaining years at 21, 22 and 24 million are not going to be easy to get off of.    It will be challenging with an already crowded front court if they don't clear some out a little.