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

[KillerLeft]

Yeah I can't argue that. I just don't think it's good for Luka who is the prize in Dallas. The roster around them two doesn't help either.

It's tough to wrap your head around, for sure. We had some debate on this over the summer, with two camps forming. 

Camp 1: Kyrie is the 2nd star they've been desperately trying to get. They have him, but he's old. Go all in as quickly as possible to maximize the Luka/Kyrie window. It's a long shot that you can get good enough, but you can't just let the Luka/Kyrie window close without trying. 

Camp 2: Why'd they even bother re-signing Kyrie if the rest of their summer was going to be about drafting these damn rookies? Why are they trying to get younger, when the Kyrie trade and contract are clearly "win now" moves?? They should trade him immediately. 

I am probably closer to Camp 2, but then again, I wasn't a fan of the trade originally. I have to admit that he has exceeded my expectations. Not so much in terms of availability, which has obviously been sad, but in terms of fitting with Luka by playing mostly off-ball and fitting into the team and city culture. 

So...this is my "difficult to express, even harder to wrap your head around" take on the situation. I believe they wanted Kyrie here for the obvious: to help take pressure off of Luka on the court, and to be a leader in the locker room, hopefully attracting some interesting players here and there. I think they are also hoping he can have some sort of positive impact on how Luka goes about his business, kind of like Kyle Lowry would have back when they were after him, but that's just a hunch. His age is just something they felt they had to overlook for the first point and kind of helpful for the second, but...

...I think they're trying to build a young team, basically. I don't think Kyrie had many other options, so he kind of has to be cool with helping to oversee the development of a young team.  I think the Mavs have often avoided getting this young in the past because they didn't want to lose their collective understanding of "how to be a winning team." I know that's nebulous, but I stand by it. We can plainly see that since Carlisle, Brunson, DFS and even Dinwiddie have gone, the leadership of this team has been in newer, less stable hands. This is something we haven't had to deal with as fans for a LOOOOONG time around here, and I'm not sure all of us recognize the importance of stability. The Mavs have traditionally prioritized it a bit TOO MUCH, tbh. I think part of why they wanted Kyrie is specifically BECAUSE they were getting younger. I think their hope is that he helps this young team the way Van Vleet, Brooks (and Powell, if they had succeeded in signing him away) are helping Houston. The team needed someone to help with all the youngsters, if they were going to have so many. 

Finally, I believe they will stay young because of the coach. I think they have a less experienced, less in demand, cheaper head coach specifically because they think he can develop YOUNG players. When you look around the league, the coaches without skins on the wall have to fight and scratch their way to legitimacy by taking the jobs where YOUNG PLAYERS are going to play. Big name coaches want nothing to do with those teams. They wait until guys like Kidd, Mosley, Silas build the teams up to the point where they have a chance to compete, and THEN they come in to get the job done. For a coach to transcend one level and get to the next, he needs to WIN more than expected with his young team opportunity. I think Will Hardy is an example of someone who is in the process of rising through the ranks right now.

Talked about this many times, but I think once that Porzingis thing didn't work out the only good way forward was to replenish the youth of roster, building player assets while draft capital slowly builds back up, simultaneously. Luka is still so young. He's going to sign the next deal Dallas offers. It's the year after that they need to worry about as far as him leaving. They have time to do it RIGHT, so why consider something reckless for no reason? 

Again, if there's a good deal for Kyrie out there, I'd look at it, sure, but I'm in no rush, and frankly I don't think he's viewed as the valuable superstar being wasted here on a developmental team. I think he's close to done, and his availability reflects that. He's great when he plays, so that's awesome! But, I think he and the Mavs both knew exactly what they were agreeing to when that contract was signed. 

All just speculation that makes sense to me, of course.