"TAKE DAT WIT YOU" GRADES THE MAVS

[KillerLeft]

Isolated this isn´t the worst offseason but for me it comes down to a different question. How would you grade the last three years? Since the Luka draft.

I suppose the extension doesn't kick in until the season after this one, so technically they have the trade deadline ahead of them still before this part of the story closes, but it sure doesn't feel like they have the trade assets necessary to get involved with any bigtime names that might be available at that time to me. So for all practical purposes, I'd say this summer is the end of the period. 

Just like you, I feel that the moves made this summer were good and it was a decent off-season, but yeah, the time from Luka's draft night to now has been wheel spinning, now that we know how it turned out. 

On the bright side, it could be worse.

[Jmaciscool]

On the bright side, it could be worse.

Yep, agree.

We didn't sign Dinwiddie. We didn't sign Oladipo.  Somewhere in the darkest timeline Mavs universe one of those things happened and that version of me is saying "whelp, it can't get worse." 

[omahen]

Yep, agree.

We didn't sign Dinwiddie. We didn't sign Oladipo.  Somewhere in the darkest timeline Mavs universe one of those things happened and that version of me is saying "whelp, it can't get worse." 

Mavs did a C (or D or E) level of job. Sure, it could be worse and they could get an F. But the FO is not expected to do a C level job. They are expected an A level and that's why they are paid a lot.

[soog]

I love THJ at an appropriate price! I think $16M is still a bit high as you pretty much have to start him at that #. I think his value as a starter is way lower than at $12M as a 6th man. Especially with Luka in the lineup.


Do you think THJ is a hot commodity/trade asset at that price? I think the amount of teams willing to pay a high price for him is low, maybe about a quarter of the teams in the league.

If a quarter of the teams in the league would pay a high price for him then his value is set - he is a high price player.  Whether you like it or not, that’s how markets work. 

And that means that even based on your supposition, his contract is easily tradable with 8 teams who would be interested.

[Chicagojk]

Mavs did a C (or D or E) level of job. Sure, it could be worse and they could get an F. But the FO is not expected to do a C level job. They are expected an A level and that's why they are paid a lot.

Yeah, it will be a low grade for me this offseason.   I can't change my expectations on what I expected going into the offseason.   I may be totally wrong, but the Mavs hit maybe one area of target that I was hoping for this offseason.

I can't believe this was their plan after missing out on Lowry.   Just a really strange offseason.

[Jmaciscool]

Mavs did a C (or D or E) level of job. Sure, it could be worse and they could get an F. But the FO is not expected to do a C level job. They are expected an A level and that's why they are paid a lot.

Oh definitely, if there are no further trades or moves and this is the final roster for the season then it's a C grade at best.

I do think their approach has been better than previous years (hence could be worse) but they've still fallen short of expectations like you say if this is the roster.

[Chicagojk]

We will see if they are done.  It certainly appears when their plan A was unsuccessful that Nico and team tried not to be too aggressive in losing some of their assets.  Who knows though....that could be totally wrong.

If no other big moves are coming, it certainly seems like they want to rehab KP.   In the current market, I believe that is the best strategy.  Whether he is here for another year or fives years is TBD.    It also feels like they were hesitant to give up a young player minus an offer they could not turn down.    I also think this is a sound strategy but we need to find ways to let them have wings a little with some playing time.  Terry may need another year, but I will be disappointed if Green gets DNP-CD in most games.

My plan would be to resign Brunson to a team friendly contract.  He may need to give up some money to sign now, but getting 40-44 million is a nice compromise and should keep him as a solid asset.   Brunson is not like KD who can get hurt and still expect a good payday.   So he may be interested in security now vs maybe more upside in $ next offseason....especially if he sees a path to 25 minutes a night.

I believe Maxi is not guaranteed next year and Powell only has 6 million guaranteed next offseason.   That is something to watch and both could be viewed as positive assets next year.    If one of our young kids shows promise, that could be the formation of a solid offer to a bigger player.   Probably not at the Beal level unfortunately, but maybe a level down.

[ThisIStheYear]

Very fair analysis.  This is a C or C plus off-season. Not horrible in a vacuum, arguably a slight positive. But, the real question is how this off-season works in the context of acquiring a historically great player and having three offseasons to add talent before the team is stuck.  Most competent teams who’ve acquired generational talents have succeeded in building a high quality roster before their window closed. We’ll see how it goes. Anything less than 55 wins or so next year would be off schedule and disappointing. In the end, even with just hitting singles in free agency, I can’t help but think it’s the questionable coaching hire that poses the greatest threat to future success.

[mavsluvr]

I have held off trying to give the offseason a grade, trying to avoid giving a knee-jerk response. Also, of course, the offseason isn't over. 

But, judging it as if they're rolling out the new season with what they now have (including players who have agreed to sign), I'm not getting many good vibes. 

It's not catastrophic. Luka refusing to sign his next deal, or demanding to leave, would have been the nuclear disaster. We'll assume he's enthusiastic about sticking around, at least for, let's say three more years, with the Mavs on the clock for giving him a high-quality roster when he next has a decision to make. 

It's not at a crisis point. If THJ had turned into a puff of smoke, that would probably trigger the immediate necessity to overpay someone -- anyone -- who can dependably score on most nights, and is expected to play almost all of the games. Just relying on KP and Luka, and hoping random other guys give you something from one night to the next would not cut it. 

But I don't see much in the way of improvement here. Josh Richardson was a poor fit, and they got rid of him without giving up an asset. Okay. Doesn't especially matter if they don't replace him. Reggie isn't really a complete replacement for the guy Josh was supposed to be. JRich was supposed to be a playmaker, at least to an extent, and Reggie is advertised as another 3&D guy. An important role, and maybe you can't have too many of those players, but the cupboard was not empty on that sort of player. 

The important needs weren't addressed. The team has a desperate need for another playmaker/scorer, and nothing has been done to address that. They need a big man who can protect the rim, rebound, set good screens and hopefully provide some rim-running. I don't think Moses Brown is that guy, and what limited reporting we have suggests that he may not even ever play. Zilch. The starting lineup needs upgrading, and they really haven't done much about that. They've mostly added depth in areas where they were already in a decent position. 

Evaluation. I realize the offseason is not over, and changes can be made during the season. But judging on what we know now, they appear to be counting mostly on internal improvement, by virtue of player development and different coaching, to make the next leap. Some of that will happen, no doubt. But, short of KP getting to the level they hoped he would be on signing, I don't know that we're going to see anything dramatic. 

Putting aside the limitation that we are grading in the middle of the semester, I don't know how you regard this as anything but a fail. Nico has never put a roster together in his life, so I wasn't expecting him to come up with some virtuoso performance in his first time out. But the hype bringing him here was that he would be able to recruit important free agents. The fail isn't all his fault. It's partly the fault of his predecessors and the situation he inherited. But, whoever the finger should be pointed at, it's still a disappointment. So far. 

Would love to be convinced otherwise.

[ReunionMav]

Thanks Mavsluvr though I didn’t especially enjoy your conclusions. Donnie often partially recovered his early failures most off seasons. I think our NBT will as well. I am interested in what we’re going to do for extensions for Brunson and DFS as well. I think Brunson WILL find a way to improve. His playoff performance would improve simply by not playing the Clippers. 

I also see an improved KP as our best way to make the season an A plus season. I remain hopeful he will.

[omahen]

I find it funny Mavs entered both 2019 and 2021 summer with basically max cap space, yet finished both years operating over the cap. On the other hand you have Chicago, for example, who entered summer without significant cap space and finished signing FA Ball and DeRozan for nearly 50 mil.

[mavsluvr]

Thanks Mavsluvr though I didn’t especially enjoy your conclusions. Donnie often partially recovered his early failures most off seasons. I think our NBT will as well. I am interested in what we’re going to do for extensions for Brunson and DFS as well. I think Brunson WILL find a way to improve. His playoff performance would improve simply by not playing the Clippers. 

I also see an improved KP as our best way to make the season an A plus season. I remain hopeful he will.

I imagine Brunson will get better, and we might avoid the Clippers next season. But those things are true regardless of any of the offseason moves. 

If KP doesn't get back to some semblance of what we hoped he would be, it's probably time for an overhaul next summer, and then what? I guess we don't have to face that music at this point. 

Thanks RM, can always count on you to look on the bright side.

[chaparral]

Sounds like a lot of us are hoping for hope.  Also, sounds like this guy reads this board or is a member.

The Dallas Mavericks are frustrating - Mavs Moneyball

[ItsGoTime]

Sounds like a lot of us are hoping for hope.  Also, sounds like this guy reads this board or is a member.

The Dallas Mavericks are frustrating - Mavs Moneyball

This board group has been researched for articles by many a Mavs writer, I have no doubt of that. This article is along the lines of where I am, although I think Dan or FGump would have been able to answer Stein's question about what would you do differently, much better than the writer! Of course, Stein has a better feel for what would have been available to the Mavs than any of us, and in all honesty Mark Stein, since you're reading this, I'd like to see a piece written by you of what YOU would do differently!

[loki]

Sounds like a lot of us are hoping for hope.  Also, sounds like this guy reads this board or is a member.

The Dallas Mavericks are frustrating - Mavs Moneyball

They're frustrating because they seem to do the absolute minimum. One small change that may or may not work and they're content. Mark should have saved the money he spent hiring Nico and put it towards next year's luxury tax.

[Mavs2021]

Ultimately I always said they should look at this as a gap year, where they position themselves better for the future by keeping the projected level of the team the same, but add more room for improvement and better trade assets (and yes that always means gettting younger, cause that´s how this works). The Mavs managed to keep the team at the same level and do absolutely nothing to add to their bare asset stock. Even the one piece they did add (Moses Brown) was seemingly more a cap necessity and he might still be waived.

It´s not that the team didn´t get better. It´s that the future didn´t either.

We haven´t added any reclamation projects, neither on the lower or higher end. You add Bagley and Diallo to our bench, just by default one of them will average 15+ points, cause somebody has to. That goes a major way toward this star trade THEY are looking for. Just draft picks will not get this done, because the other team always has to present their fanbase some quantified (young) talent, not Dwight Powell, Maxi Kleber and Trey Burke.

[mavsluvr]

It has struck me that it might be a useful construct to divide the assessment of the situation into two parts -- the front office, and the offseason as a whole.

Under that framework, you probably have to give the front office a C or so, given that they had limited assets to work with, and may have played a meh hand reasonably well for all we know. 

Whereas, judging the offseason as a whole, which is more an assessment of the entire body of work determining where they are in the team-building process at this point in the Luka era, it seems that this is a critical offseason in terms of being the last one with money to spend, and that they should have been in a better position than they were, and should have made stronger moves toward solidifying the roster than they did. 

It's not over, of course.

[DallasBasketball]

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of not screwing the whole thing up. 

- In the long-run, there will come a time later in Luka’s contract when Cap space may be an option again. 

- In the mid-term, there will be plenty of time to be opportunistic to try and pull off a series of magical moves.

- In the short-term, continuity can’t be overlooked, a new coach, the continual progress of a group consistently making the playoffs, and the immediate need for intense focus on the turnaround of Kristaps Porzingis.

[DaRiv]

But I don't see much in the way of improvement here. Josh Richardson was a poor fit, and they got rid of him without giving up an asset. Okay. Doesn't especially matter if they don't replace him. Reggie isn't really a complete replacement for the guy Josh was supposed to be. JRich was supposed to be a playmaker, at least to an extent, and Reggie is advertised as another 3&D guy. An important role, and maybe you can't have too many of those players, but the cupboard was not empty on that sort of player. 

This may be an unpopular take, but we are approaching a reckoning of whether the issue is with the players we have paired with Luka in the past, or with Luka himself.  So far, we have churned thru:  DSJ, Seth Curry, Delon Wright, and JRich.  DSJ may or may not be an NBA player.  Seth definitely is, but was wildly inconsistent here.  Delon didn't fit in, even though he has had a solid career.  JRich played good D, hit his free throws, and was amazing behind the arc DURING THE PRESEASON, but he failed, too.  I am skeptical that Reggie Bullock with outperform the mean here.

[Kammrath]

This may be an unpopular take, but we are approaching a reckoning of whether the issue is with the players we have paired with Luka in the past, or with Luka himself.  So far, we have churned thru:  DSJ, Seth Curry, Delon Wright, and JRich.  DSJ may or may not be an NBA player.  Seth definitely is, but was wildly inconsistent here.  Delon didn't fit in, even though he has had a solid career.  JRich played good D, hit his free throws, and was amazing behind the arc DURING THE PRESEASON, but he failed, too.  I am skeptical that Reggie Bullock with outperform the mean here.

I get why people go here (it is logical) but when we look at the evidence of Luka in every other situation outside of DAL we don't find these issues at ALL. There is something about the environment IN DAL that has led to these issues IMO. I am hopeful that the coaching change up will be the big watershed moment that changes the dynamics.