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

[omahen]

I like your post but disagree with your conclusion.  Deni is similar to Josh only he's much bigger, rebounds much better and is a significantly better defensive player.  So, not very similar at all.  Josh has the potential to be an excellent defensive player but remains below average defensively on all the metrics including EPM, LEBRON and DRIP.  They are similar in that they are not stars and aren't high usage players.  

We need an elite role player and that's what Deni has the potential to become.  As he is currently, Deni would be the 4th or 5th best player on the Mavericks.  He would be an upgrade over DJJ and a massive upgrade over Grant Williams.  He's also only 23 and is much better this season than he was last season.  You have to pay something for potential in this case.

I don't think Deni is the best player we could add to this roster.  However, I think he is among the best players who are potentially available that we can afford.

There are approximately 20 teams who would like to improve at the deadline and only 4 or 5 who look to be open to trading their players.  Adding talent is currently very expensive.

I watched this board debate for two months whether or not Siakam would be a good fit here or not.  The vast majority of this board argued that we could obtain him for our 2027 1st and some crap contracts.  Ultimately, Toronto secured 3-first round picks and a good player on a flexible contract for him.  We never had the assets to be taken seriously there.  

We actually gave up a 2030 first round pick swap to obtain Grant Williams who was the 8th-best player on the Celtics last season.  Acquiring talent is expensive.  Acquiring young talent is even more expensive.

We've hit a low-point in the current season as we just don't have enough good players next to Luka, Kyrie and Lively to compete with other good teams.  We should be attempting to upgrade our role players.  Aaron Gordon and KCP are good role players.  The Nuggets won the championship with them starting.  Many posters are frustrated with Luka lately but I think Luka is surely frustrated being stuck with Grant Williams, Maxi Kleber and Josh Green as key supporting rotation players.

I believe Deni Avdija, WCJ, Gafford and Isaiah Stewart are the best players we can potentially afford to acquire before the deadline.  I think each of them would probably require our 2027 1st to obtain.  There are a lot of good teams with a lot of first-round picks who we would be bidding against.  

The alternative is to just sit on our current roster and finish somewhere between 7th and 11th in the Western Conference this season.  The upside of that is we'd have a new coach for next season.  I think we'd also see a lot of Luka Doncic mock trades as well.

Mavs desperately need a two-way player. Luka and espeially Kyrie miss games. We need someone who can step in in those games. Guys like Avdija are not it. PJ Washington is closer, but I am far from convinced about his defense.