2019-2020 Mavs Trade Discussion + Salary Chart

[Scott41theMavs]

Does Dwight have any trade value?

Dan suggested that he did and wasn't just a system player, but I don't think he ever replied to my post asking him to detail why in real-life basketball terms aside from advanced stats. That said, I was watching Powell's picks tonight, and he is very good at that.

Almost missed this (and did miss the "he never replied" post). Boy, did I pick the wrong day to mount a defense of Powell .

With that said, let's not act like advanced stats are some form of Voodoo Economics. I can understand a distrust of the formula based stats like PER or Win Score where he's averaged a WAY above average 18 on PER and .179 on WS as a Maverick. Formula's have flaws and you can always look at the rankings and say "yeah, but what about so and so...clearly the formula is flawed". But, Box Plus Minus and VORP also show Powell to be substantially above average. At some point when the numbers tell a consistent story you have to wonder if it is the eye test that is failing us. But, let's set aside ALL of the formula based data.

There is absolutely no denying that something good happens when Powell is on the floor. His O Rating is has averaged a stunning 126 during his time as a Mav (and consistently over 120) during good times and bad. He has the highest Net on/off on the team this year (the offense is better and the defense is better when he's on the court). Is the ultimate goal for Powell to excel at (fill in the blank box score stat) or is it for the TEAM to have a positive spread over its opponent? Yeah, but Powell sucks at rebounding...but the TEAM gets 50.7% off all boards when Powell is in and 50.6% of all boards when he's not. With the team 4th in the league, it is hard to argue that Powell's sucking at individual rebounding is a problem. If he was a problem, wouldn't we be worse as a team when he was in?

"Yeah, but Powell sucks at 3's". Sure, but how does the TEAM shoot when Powell is on the floor. The TEAM has the 3rd highest EFG% in the league at .543%. When Powell is in it is .568% and when he's out it's .523%. Those aren't "advanced stats". They are facts. In my book Powell doesn't have to actually hit the 3's if something he's doing is making the TEAM shoot better. BTW, .568% is easily the best mark on the team and only Powell, DFS and Luka (in that order) are above the team average of .543%.

It is a lazy argument to say Powell is a "system player". What does that mean and is it necessarily bad? Powell makes the system work. That's a good thing.

This isn't what I was talking about. A real-world basketball explanation for Powell not being a system player would be things like, he boxes out, he's great at perimeter switching, can keep himself between his man and the basket, defenders think he can actually hit a three, things like that. Things that offset realities like 1) he doesn't have the strength to defend most wings and all NBA posts in the post, 2) he can't rebound in terms of actually getting the ball in his own hands for the Mavericks, 3) he can't defend the rim (although he looked damn good in the 4th against the Nets, I will allow), and 4) he can't shoot a three.