Trade & FA 2023-24: Stein-Ingram Trade Inevitable| LAL Want Lebron Back On Any Terms

[Scott41theMavs]

I agree with you.  I dont see this is as a successful summer if we go into the season with

maybe Holmes was just terrible because of his family situation
maybe Lively can be ready two years sooner than anyone thinks
maybe Maxi will be actually be healthy

Too many maybes for a team that wants to at least be a playoff team right now.  

We also haven't seen much discussion about the McMahon nugget about Thybulle would have started over Josh Green if Portland had let him go.  I'm still not sure the Mavs are as high on Josh Green as everyone assumes.  Grant Williams might be your third best starter or at least in the running and he was an 8th man/out of the rotation for an actual good team.

The maneuvering the Mavs have done this summer has been pretty nice but the product on the floor still looks quite underwhelming.

This roster was complete garbage outside of Luka, Kyrie, and Hardy and Green's upside at the end of last season. They had to start somewhere to rebuild things, and it seems to me they started off really well. 

Going into the year, yes, of course, GW is their third best starter (presuming no further moves). At least they were able to get him, which is a giant step up from past years.

---

It’s not that a high pick equals ready to play. It’s that the Mavs chose him (literally instead of trading for Ayton) when they needed help at center.

We can think they were wrong to do so, but you’ll never, ever convince me they decided to do that thinking he wouldn’t play for two years. That’s nut bar factor 9.

And, for the record, if we’re still wondering if Lively can contribute two years in, that’s a bad pick. Period. It’s very possible that’s how it will play out. I like what I’ve seen, so far.

It's pretty obvious that you and Roy have much different evaluations of DL2's SL play. I'm far more on your side of things. Once more, it's the kid's intelligence (combined with his athletic gifts, of course) that gives me hope. Furthermore, I think it goes beyond their need for a center. Given how abominable the talent quotient outside of our two stars was, the Mavs absolutely had to do BPA. I think it's pretty clear they believed Lively was that guy. I'd say that if they're wrong, that would indicate that our talent evaluation hasn't improved as much as we hoped.