(05-11-2021, 10:13 AM)KillerLeft Wrote: Did you not believe the reporting from Fish and others that Walker was their top priority in free agency the off season before last? It doesn't seem all that long ago to me, personally.
And honestly, I do think some (not all, he's vastly underrated here) of the shine has worn off of him since, so I'm not calling him a prize acquisition, exactly, but we're talking about possible returns for a MAX player who misses a lot of games and doesn't play all that well when he's healthy. I don't know that anything good is a realistic trade goal. You think differently?
I don't think "what the Mavs thought of Walker two years ago" would be a determining factor in whether they might want him now. Times change. Everything about that prior decision - his play, his health, his impact, the Mavs situation, their alternatives, their needs, what they would need for that cap expense to make sense - all of it has changed. And taken together, by a fairly significant amount, I bet.
You'd think the Mavs were fairly idiotic if they didn't constantly update their thinking and decisions, I'm sure, and were instead stuck to a decision of the past.
The negatives that existed before - his size, and the huge contract he comes with - are still there. But the positives are not. It was believed that some of his negatives would not be such a factor if he could play on a better team, and instead it's work ed the other way around - instead of them making him better, he's made them worse.
Add in his lack of reliability, plus the fact that Brunson is already here and a way better fit than KW would be, and there's nothing in the massively overpaid, oft-injured, weak defense, mediocre 3, Walker that makes sense for the Mavs.