06-25-2023, 12:18 PM
(06-25-2023, 11:52 AM)ThisIStheYear Wrote: I’m not against an Ayton for basically nothing trade. He won’t stop Lively’s progress at first, but by sometime in year two, I think he could. And there’s no way they can share the court. But I’d still do this trade and sort it out later. Next year isn’t the year anyways. I just want the Mavs to win regular season games and develop players.
As for Maxi, I’m sorry to say that he’s awful. PER under 10. VORP of 0, very negative LEBRON, negative everything statistically, and he’s a near 7 footer who rebounds like a six footer, and that’s probably being generous. And that’s just when he can play. If he gets more than 15 minutes a game, he’s sure to suffer a longish term injury, which is why his production has fallen off a cliff. His body isn’t going to get better. He’s a great dude, like a slightly better version of Pinson, but as a business proposition, the only reason to keep him at his salary is because he and Luka seem close, which isn’t nothing, but it’s not worth eight figures.
Maxi had a bad injury riddled season last year, but if you look at a really big sample (the last several seasons) you see that this team is always significantly better defensively when he is on the court than when he is off. Last season the team defense was so bad he could not salvage it, but in seasons past he was the most consistently positive force on defense. I realize his offense is very limited and comes and goes, but for a team that is desperately trying to improve its defense (and has huge question marks at the 4 and 5) he still holds value.