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

[F Gump]

Looking around the league, one of the problems is that the bad teams have been bad for quite some time and there is not much left to take from them. Chicago seems like a most obvious team to blow it up, but they have been like that for two seasons already and they just keep staying pat. Will they fire their GM and bring in a guy to clean the house and start over?

Other than Chicago there are not many obvious targets that would consider blowing it up. Boston, Denver, OKC will just continue to try to improve, no matter the result. Phoenix, Clippers, GSW, Lakers, Miami, Milwaukee, Minny are in all-in mode but I don't see any of them blowing it up, even if they don't even make it out of first round. Pelicans could probably need some reshuffling, but I don't see them trading their interesting young wins unless a star is involved (no interest in Zion or Ingram). New York, Orlando, Houston, Indy, Memphis and Sacramento will be looking to improve. Philly will be star hunting and will have almost an empty roster at the summer start outside of their stars. Charlotte, Detroit, Toronto, Portland, San Antonio and Washington will likely remain bottom of the league and don't have anything interesting anymore, that would be available. Atlanta is the only other team that could go in either direction. Not really anything interesting there for what Mavs need.

Based on this, my dream target would remain Paul George. More realistic would be Caruso. Perhaps combination of Caruso and Williams, as Mavs could use another bigger wing. THJ + Green + draft assets for Caruso and Williams (SnT). Resign DJJ for taxMLE. The move solves the minutes issues at the second guard position and adds another bigger wing behind PJ. I think it wouldn't be difficult to stay under hard cap making these moves (to allow SnT).

I agree with most of what you said in both your posts.

Yes, I would sign DJJ at TxMLE of 5.2 all day long, if he is open to it. I think that's an ideal price, but maybe so low in salary that he can't say yes (except for the fact that it is ALL the Mavs can possibly pay). Frankly, that would be an easy default plan for the summer: sign DJJ to the TxMLE, and then you have 2 open slots at the end of the roster (currently filled by Morris and Lawson) that you can fill with minimums or TPEs or trades. Trade THJ if you can, or just ride with basically the same crew.

I do agree that division of minutes can be a bit of a challenge when you have many good role players, but THJ outgoing for Caruso opens up over 2000 minutes (that's how many THJ has played this year), which is a bit larger than Caruso had in CHI. So nothing changes other than the player filling the minutes. I do envision in my Caruso idea that DJJ keeps his same role of defense and rebounding and super-athleticism, and Caruso becomes the 6th man to replace THJ/Hardy and provide offense -- but a much smarter player with some defensive skill. 

Also, minutes typically aren't the issue we expect. Injuries tend to change the landscape over and over during the season, and winning helps a lot. I recall when the Mavs won the title, they were so deep they didn't have minutes for everyone, and then Caron Butler - a really good starter - was lost for the season, and they won it all anyhow. When the year was over, everyone WANTED to return, even though minutes were tight.

As for Paul George, I don't think he is a practical pursuit for the Mavs. I'd like to have him - he's a star, not a role player, albeit one whose ongoing injury limits might create real problems. It sounds like a Mark Cuban type of pursuit, to be honest. But I think it would be a mistake to make that the focus, and the size of his contract is the issue. First, matching 49M takes so much of your team. Second, salary matching rules are prohibitive for teams over Apron 2 (LAC) that make it very hard for a team close to Apron 1 to do a swap with them. And if PG is a FA, they can't SNT him at all.