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

[SleepingHero]

While I want to like the idea, 2 things to me are deal-killers, both of them major:
1 Mavs are already overloaded with bigs, and here we are trading 1 wing for 2 bigs. No can do.
2 I'm told Val lost a step (or maybe 3-4) last season, and his defense is now iffy. Not interested in that.

While not a deal-killer, I'd also object to the Mavs giving away picks just to give them. That's a Cuban motif, and it's bad. This is not a steal for the Mavs at all, and in fact they probably get the worst end of the deal [THJ is arguably the best player in this trade, and they solve problems for BOTH the Pels ($$) and OKC (numbers)]. The team getting a pick or two in this deal, if anyone, should be DAL.

Ok, fair on all those points. Let me go through them.

Regarding 1), yes the Mavs are big-heavy. Currently they have Maxi, Omax (are we counting him?), Holmes, Powell, Lively, and McGee. That's 6. But McGee's time here is all but done. He is not going to see the court again from the Mavs. Either he's waived, benched, or traded, but in the end it doesn't matter. So we're down to 5. Lively as much as we all want him to make an impact day 1, I think he's going to take time. I also think the Mavs believe this as well if we take McMahon's G-League comment to heart. So that leaves realistically a big rotation of Maxi, Holmes, maybe OMax and Powell all splitting minutes at the 4 and 5. There is definitely some room for minutes to be soaked up here. Especially if we're trying to relegate Powell to bench cheerleader for the majority of the time.

2)- If that is the case, then that should only further embolden the Mavs to capitalize and perhaps get some draft capital here. Should Valanciunas have taken a step back, then it only makes sense to have him play a reduced 20mpg role and have him start the 1st and 3rd quarter. His expiring contract means there is no future cap strangulation for an aging big. Further I'm not necessarily interested in Valanciunas as a defensive stopper, as he's never been that. But as a rebounder and potential floor spacer he'd fill a role that I believe we desperately need. We have no size at the center position. We ranked dead last in rebounds as a team and points in the paint. We we're 18th in the league for opponent points in the paint. We need a big bruising center. And here is a potential deal where the Mavs can get one and perhaps as you point out get draft compensation since we're sending the best player in the deal.

Is there a world where the Mavs can use the 2 2nds they have and get either a 2025 FRP or a 2027 FRP? Or maybe even a 2029 FRP? OKC has so many 2025 firsts (although 3 of them are littered with heavy protections). NOP has 2 firsts in 26 and 28 from the Holiday trade. There is a lot there.