11-15-2023, 08:31 AM
(11-15-2023, 08:15 AM)Mavs2021 Wrote:
DeRozan Negatives:
- Lots of mileage
- Position of need, but not necessarily skills of need (aka defense)
Take Vucevic.
He´s basically the center version of DeRozan (age, games played, strengths and weaknesses). Only difference is that with his age and Lively´s level of play, it would be a designated bench role coming at 60/3 deal, that is pretty hefty for that specific assignment and could hamper your future roster building. Interior bench scoring/rebounding are positional needs. Yet you still have a lack of defense.
One positive from the Grant Williams interview was the takeaway that the Mavs had finally (?) started to work on a deal with Duffy for months before the S&T materialized and I´m pretty confident the same is the case here. They´ll have very good info on Vucevic. Maybe they were happy to gamble on Lively starting, and temporarily keeping Holmes, because they already knew Vucevic was going to become an option and the Mavs were a preferred destination.
Given Luka's young age, I suspect there will be era's within his tenure here (like the Finley/Nash era of Dirk's career). I like that Vuc is 3 years which matches Kyrie and is out of the way before you have to extend Lively. Maybe the next few years you have vets like Irving, Vucevic and THJ in your top 8 while you let the kids season some more.
We have some data on Vucevic and DJJ playing together (D-Rating of 109 last year and 108.5 the season before). Whether that is a bench tandem or a starting tandem (short term), there probably are ways to get the Vuc positives without being just awful defensively.