MAVS NEWS: Luka Is Hurt, But is Trudging On | DLive's Mom Passes Away| Maxi OUT

[Chicagojk]

Man, I am just so thrilled with the moves over the past week. Time will tell if they made the right moves and hopefully more roster improvement moves happen as we move into FA. But all the moves the Mavs have made go in the direction of the vision I hoped the Mavs front office had while building around Luka and probably Kyrie.

1) draft a young guy who fits around a star(s) and something this franchise has lacked- Lively
2) Find another youngish prospect in the draft. I had hoped this would be a second round pick, but they got a first round pick- Omax
3) Look for a distressed asset. Now these are gambles and may not work out, but that is the game-- Holmes
4) Be aggressive in the UDFA market and sign a two way guy who has NBA toughness- Miles
5) keep most of your limited assets to be opportunistic for another move

I really hope the Mavs find at least one more good perimeter player this offseason. Last year, they had a ton of reasons why their defense sucked. I like adding more bodies who you can throw at the good/great perimeter scorers. Great scorers are so good that you can do everything right and they can still score 40 on you. But I want guys who will battle. Beat you to the spot, put a body on you, contest shots, not give cheap fouls, etc. Hopefully OMax can develop into this type player. I think Josh and Maxi are two other ones. Bullock was one, but hopefully they find at least one more guy to fill this spot. If you are a perimeter player with no rim protection, it makes your job really hard. Wing players had very little resistance last year when they got into the lane against the Mavs. Now, we will hopefully have more perimeter players who can play aggressively on the perimeter knowing they have better rim protection this year. It may take Lively some time, but that is my hope.

So while the offseason is really just beginning, the first week gets a big thumbs up for me.