ROSTER TALK: Mavs favs for Vogel if no HC job exists. Kyrie handshake deal?

[dirkfansince1998]

I think you're misunderstanding how much I think McGee will be of importance to the overall rotation. He is simply replacing Dwight Powell for 10 minutes. McGee has shown he can be much more impactful than Powell can in those 10 minutes. He also costs half as much as Powell. 

I trust McGee to play 10 minutes per game in a playoff game. He's shown he can do it despite his lowlights being the starter for the Lakers en route to their championship. That same Lakers team had Kidd and Dudley on it. Suns are about to lose their starting center, and just lost their backup center, I really don't think they're happy their 3rd stringer just moved up a couple of slots. 

As to Suns fans lamenting the choice to bench him, I can pull up the RealGM/Reddit threads and pick out the comments that I saw during the playoffs, but we both know that doesn't really matter and that the Suns were desperate to close out the Mavs. Whether or not Monty made the correct choice, you brought up some good points for the affirmative, and truthfully the Mavs beat the Suns by their defensive strategy, not center play. But the Mavs still 4-1'd them from game 3 on. How much did the benching of McGee have on that outcome? Probably nothing. 

What I do think matters is that when the McGee signing was announced, the general opinion by Suns fans I saw on various online forums was that they lost a good player and they're sad to see him go (and he also apparently turned down more money from MIL to go to DAL??). I also think the main benefit of McGee is like you said,to reduce the load of Maxi and Wood while also providing productive minutes while he's out there. 

Also what other centers were out there that are younger/better at defending the post that also would've signed for TP-MLE money? By my count there is maybe 1 viable option that fits that criteria.

McGee started the playoffs as a 10 minutes per game guy but finished them as a DNP CD. At some point he becomes unplayable. We can argue that it is the same case for Powell but unless Powell is outgoing the Mavs just doubled down on bigs that won´t be a part of the rotation when it matters most.

The Suns could lose their starting center. They could also add Durant. In the big picture McGee had no value for them. They found a cheaper option that can play the same kind of role for the vet min. In my opinion a slightly better option.

As far as Suns fans complaining. I am not suprised that some of them argued in favor of McGee (just like some Mavs fans that asked for Boban minutes) but it´s probably at the end of the list of things that went wrong in the playoffs. And as mentioned. Looking at the small sample size of the playoff series they looked a lot better in the Biyombo minutes.

Looking at the center markets and options for the Mavs. It looks like Kidd and Nico wanted a big body that can rebound and protect the rim. Personally I think the addition of Wood was enough to round out the bigmen rotation. With the knowledge that Brunson is going to leave and with another clearly formulated need for another wing I would have prefered to use the taxMLE on another position.

I am simply not as high on McGee as others and think that his skill set was/is availabe for less money. Whiteside and Howard are still unsigned. Drummond signed for less. Maybe you and others prefer McGee over the mentioned players. For me they are all in the same category. Personally I don´t want any of them on the roster but if I had to choose McGee wouldn´t even be my first choice.

I would be a lot happier with the McGee deal if they find a way to turn Powell into a wing or another playmaker. Can only hope that a deal like this is in the making.