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

[Jason Terry]

I'd be interested to know the situation is with some of the other teams who have trade capital that absolutely dwarf the Mavs. I feel like some of them held back this TDL in order to understand more about their roster letting the season play out (OKC), before potentially going ham in the off season. Making this TDL a better opportunity for us to have gotten something of value than the off season will be given what we are competing with. But haven't looked too deeply at that situation.

This is an important point. 11 teams control 75% of all picks. The competition with teams like OKC, Orlando, New Orleans would lead to us losing a bidding war. There was an advantage to us being first movers. 

At this point, the only real player decisions coming up are on DJJ, THJ, Hardy and the 2024 2nd which will likely be pick 58(two 2nds are forfeited) 

2028 Miami 2nd is now unavailable. We have the 2025 Raptors 2nd, a 2028 least favorable and our own 2031 2nd 

Nico and Dennis have shown they excel in the draft. We don’t need high picks for them. I like the idea of letting them work with what we have to bring in more young talent each year. It’s nice they have a starting point to doing something in this draft. It’s considered a “weak” draft but that may be good for us to find value. Hardy has no role on this team and i think the best move is to get a future asset for him before his contract is up

DJJ can either take the tax MLE or not. At the full MLE there was a chance he could be a bad deal. At the smaller MLE it would be excellent value regardless. If he says no, I’m hopeful we will find someone else

THJ is the spot that if we REALLY wanted to go all in it would be him. THJ + Omax + 2025 FRP + 2031 FRP + swap for Lauri?!?!?!?……….. I’m not ready for something like that NOW or this summer. Possibly next TDL if it makes sense, but we need a good year of evaluating what we currently have

Its an exciting time to be a Mav