If you are a life long or long term Mavericks fan, you have probably already written this blog post in your head.
As Mavericks fans, we always want the Mavericks to make a big splash, catch the big fish, or make the big trade, yet in all these circumstances the Mavs always seem to fall short.
And then when they do make a move we have to hold our breath on how it is going to turn out. And there are too many examples that things just turned out bad to horrendous.
We all know about the about face in free agency of DeAndre Jordan, the dreadful year Lamar Odom was a Maverick, how the Rajon Rondo trade worked out, the Nerlens Noel experiment, and even the KP trade, even though I do not think it was a bad trade or even turned out bad, but we took a chance and it did not bear fruit for the team overall, except we did get two players who have contributed this past year and one could be a great fit long term with potential to be a sixth man award winner candidate so there is still some hope going forward. These are the big stories, but year over year Mavs fans were disappointed with any moves they made. This is the worry, another move that falls flat on its face. We have all read that Mr. Wood has had some attitude problems in Houston and this same immaturity is what derailed Mr. Noel’s tenure here or the possibility of a complete bail that Mr. Rondo gave the Mavs.
Yet there have been some success stories and I want to avoid talking about those, because I do not want to give the impression I am comparing Mr. Wood to certain players that have come here who succeeded. Yet there is the possibility he can succeed here.
We read about his offensive potential and how much of a fit he can be with Luka. His stats show he can score and rebound and we definitely need the rebounding. So how good of a trade can this be?
If he meets the offensive expectations of being a good lob threat, a face up post player and can shoot threes as has been the last few years, he is an upgrade at center over Dwight Powell. If he rebounds as well as he has been, this adds to the value. So this makes this a fair to good trade.
So what makes this a good to great trade. He has been averaging one block per game. If he can step up his overall defensive game and increase this blocks per game average and able to hold his ground in the paint this begins to move the needle in a very positive direction.
Let’s say his blocks per game averages over 1.5 and he is able to play a stronger switching game and isn’t bowled over by players driving into the paint, his offensive production doesn’t drop and he stays with us a few years then this trade could develop into one of the top twenty acquisitions the Mavs have ever made. This is the hope.
A starting five of Wood, Luka, DFS, Reggie and Jalen can be a daunting team and then having Spencer and Maxi as your first two options off the bench we are down to just needing another good 3 and D player to round out a pretty formidable 8 man rotation for next year’s playoffs. Keep Bertran, Theo possibly Dwight and add back in some bench depth for the regular season and we got ourselves a good chance.
If we make some changes then Dwight and THJ give us some minor trade potential. I know I have not mentioned Tim Hardaway until now, but I just don’t think he is part of the Mavericks future, not because he cannot play, but because he just cannot defend strong enough anymore to make the top 9 or so on this team going forward. He is a good player, but he would not get enough playing time with the above group getting the most minutes to utilize what he can do. Spencer is not a defensive powerhouse, but he has some on Tim and he is a better driver into the paint overall so I think he will be winning much more of the back up guard minutes than Tim and his contributions have more potential. Again Tim is good, but he has his limitations. A team needing a person to come into a game and score 15 points in twenty minutes could use him. The Mavs are moving past that need and if they acquire another strong 3 and d player, even one that only scores 10 or 12 points off the bench, but has strong defensive skills, Tim’s need dwindles more and more.
It is a shame because like Dwight he has put in the effort to help this team and like Dwight, he has his limitations.
Maxi gives more flexibility either as a back up small ball center or a stretch four that that can play with Wood (if his defense improves) to give us better rim protection when a player starts to eat us up inside or a team is driving too easy on the Mavs. They wouldn’t play the whole game with both, but they could be on the floor together for small stretches to slow some things down or be part of a fourth quarter hold the fort moment. And this works since both can shoot three pointers so you do not lose anything on offense if you need to go this route. Dwight’s liabilities were laid bare this past year and Wood offers us a chance to over come this problem. This is the part of the hope.
The pundits are saying we are not giving up too much to take this chance and I hope they are correct, but the proof will be in the pudding next year. If he comes into camp with a I want to see how this is going to work out or I want to try and make this work this can be really good. If he comes into camp with the attitude he showed sometimes throughout this past year with the Rockets then, I hope the Mavs cut bait real quick. They had great chemistry this past year, better to fight through the same problems and see what they can get at the trade deadline than suffer through the first half of the season with distractions.
So that is the hope, yet there is the worry.
Let’s go Mavs!
And I am not ready to talk about the Cowboys, that play off game still ticks me off.
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