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

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I'd just like if we had a stop-gap center for Luka to play with untill Lively is ready (Luka have not played with a starting caliber C his entire carreer here). Holmes or Hardaway to match salaries (maybe for Valanciunas or Nurkic that aren't positive value we don't need to add a 1st rounder? We still have a couple of seconds to play with) . We already have our closing lineup - Luka, Kyrie and our three 3nD players (Green/Williams/Kleber) and we also have some good role players to help untill our rookies are ready (Curry-Hardy, DJJ-Prosper, Powell-Lively).

A good scenario would be a Holmes + 2 2nds for Valanciunas. Takes Pels out of tax and give tham some ammo (they have a lot of 1st but very few 2nds).

Luka/Exum
Irving/Hardy/Curry
Green/Hardaway/DJJ
Williams/Kleber/Prosper
Valanciunas/Powell/Lively

I'm a Pelicans fan as well.  Valanciunas isn't the answer for the Mavericks.  He declined significantly this past season.  He can't guard the perimeter nor defend at the rim.  He is an excellent defensive rebounder which would help us but he's otherwise very poor at defense.  He's strong and physical and can score but I don't think our starting lineup needs what he has to offer on offense.

I think Nurkic would be a better fit but I've proposed that idea before and everyone seemed to hate it.  I think Portland would love to get off his contract and would accept a Richaun Holmes and JaVale McGee package for him.  Nurkic has 3-years left on his contract so we'd be stuck with that for an extra year.  I think he's still a pretty good defensive player though and also a strong rebounder.  He'd be a problem for us on offense though.  I think he and Powell would make a good center platoon for the regular season.  I also like that we could get him without trading any assets-  we might even be able to get a couple 2nd-rounders out the deal.

That's the deal I would make personally.  McGee and Holmes for Nurkic.  Portland is tanking anyway and trading Nurkic only improves their tank.