Okay sometimes you have to make a move, find a trade, improve the team, but right now the Mavericks may not be the top contender or have the highest chance to win the title, but what is a truly productive move for the Mavericks right now?
I know some people are saying we may lose Jalen Brunson or Dorian Finney Smith or both in free agency this summer and so we must trade so not to get anything for them this summer. Yet, why lose the chemistry of having them right now when we can try to sign them this summer or at least get our own free agents to replace them.
Sometimes you have to go with the team you have because you are not going to get some astronomical difference by trading. I have said before, do not make a checkers move. Moving pieces to move pieces doesn’t always mean improvement.
I think the Mavericks are on an uptick and we can get better with Jalen and Dorian staying with us. Sure the Mavericks lost Tim Hardaway Jr., yet there are potential people on the bench that can replace the points he put up each game. And quite frankly maybe even do a bit better. Tim wasn’t having his best year so playing Sterling Brown and Trey Burke his minutes may not be a bad thing. Just don’t have Trey and Jalen on the Court together for any significant minutes, not because they aren’t good together, just because the other teams could put two bigger guards up against them and create an unnecessary disadvantage.
When you rest the two starters, Luka and Jalen one by one, you could put Sterling with Jason and Trey with Luka. Not a title winner contender move, but the chemistry and effort is already there on this team so make the adjustments as necessary and these two guard rotations for short bursts could be beneficial due to the potential scoring bursts Sterling and Trey could offer while on the floor. Tim was not the best defender on the team so we are not losing that much on that side of the equation anyway. You keep Dorian, Reggie Bullock and Maxi Kleber rotating into these lineups and you should do well.
The only change you need to make is to find some athletic big that is a bit bigger than Dwight Powell to back up Kristaps Porzingas. And you might find someone to fit that bill without giving up too much.
The goal for the rest of the season is to keep Luka, KP, Jalen, Dorian, Maxi, Reggie, followed by Dwight, Sterling, Trey, then Josh Green, Frank Ntilikina and Moses Brown as your long term projects hoping one or both becomes the next Dorian in value (and Josh is starting to touch on that), and finally Marquese Chris and Theo Pinson who are also projects, but have not been on the team long enough for the rest to feel the loss if they get traded. Boban is on a island when it comes to value. He is more than just a player so losing him would actually mean you better be getting someone serious in return. Otherwise keep him for the value he brings to the team as a whole. His situation is truly unique and he needs to remain.
Tim Hardaway would have been a good trade chip even though he is well respected within the team. His production this year though was hurting the product on the floor so even though losing him would have had some psychological repercussions, if you received value back it would have been worth it. Now that he is injured, trading him is out of the question. Hopefully next year he can regroup and get back to being a more consistent scorer.
Again unless you bring back some other worldly talent, trading any of the top tier players even with the free agency situation will not be a productive move for the rest of the year. Time to let the chips and cards lie, go all in on what you have and hope for the best. The team is getting better and every year is different so no reason to make a change to make a change.
So if we make any change it is to bring in a bit more beef in the 5 position that can play and trading one of the projects hurts, but if the talent is there it might be worth it. Think about running out a mix of starters and 6th man quality players with new Center, KP at 4, Maxi, Dorian or Reggie at the small forward and then mixing up the guard rotations mentioned above and you have a a great flow into the bench that would eventually lead to Trey at the 1, Sterling the Shooting guard, Dorian or Reggie again at the small forward with Maxi and Dwight at the 4 and 5. This creates depth nightmares for opposing coaches and we could go into the playoffs with a ten deep rotation. Not too many teams can do that. All this after starting Luka, KP, Jalen, Dorian and are you ready for this Reggie. Yes flanking three great scorers with two damn good 3 and D guys, and why does anyone want the Mavericks to make a trade.
And honestly I like Dwight and he deserves the minutes, but we get killed with certain centers in the Association so having someone who can at least body up and play against them for 2-3 minutes a quarter just rounds out the team real well. So the above rotations are based on who we play against, but it gives us the most flexibility of just about any team out there.
Cheers
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