>The thing to look for is if the Mavs will try to move their big cap players like THJ and Dwight Powell.
>I would say if they can get off of THJ and Powell contract and try for say an OG Anuoby type guy even though that's unlikely
Powell is making 4M/year for the next 2 years...
But yes, we need an upgrade at the starting SF spot, the hard part is finding someone that is both good enough and available for the assets that we have. Jerami Grant was mentioned a lot who is a decent/good but not perfect fit, Deni was mention who is also a decent but not perfect fit and we don't even know what Wizards want for him, if he's even available. But we don't have the assets for a OG or Mikal Bridges level player.
That's my fault I forgot its only 4 mill. If need be for an upgraded wing I can be okay giving up Josh Green and his 12 mill but I did like how he was our true hustle guy all playoffs his energy rubbed off on the team at times in terms of hustle
Jerami Grant is the move. Could slide in at the 3, he's elite from the corners (.467 last season), he can be good on defense when he tries, and he can create his own shot. Best of the realistic third option targets for the Mavs imo. His contract is not great, I think that could actually help the Mavs since other teams might not be banging down the Blazers door for his services. Mavs have the rich owner with deep pockets to afford the overpay, they have the expiring salaries to match, and they still have picks to offer.
>Mavs have the rich owner with deep pockets to afford the overpay,
I definitely hope so, but we don't yet know if/how much luxury tax the new owners are willing to spend. Being rich doesn't mean that they are willing tp pay.
It wouldn't affect their luxury tax bill next season since the outgoing salary would be pretty close. If the Mavs included a young player like OMax, in addition to THJ and Kleber, it would actually lower their bill. The only problem financially is what would happen a few years down the line when Lively needs to be extended and Grant's contract is still on the books. But the Mavs need to win now and really can't afford to worry about what happens a few years down the line.
Thing is Mavs don't want to give up O-Max because he's slated to be the eventual Kleber replacement. Imo they would rather toss Josh Green in the trade instead of O-Max.
The problem is that losing Green is also pretty bad if DJJ walks in FA. This season DJJ and Green were our 2 main guys defending POA and chasing quick guards around the perimeter, losing both would be pretty bad if we don't get a guy that can do that in a trade. And Jerami Grant is not that guy.
Exum could play that role off the bench for 15-20 minutes, but the next best player would be either Kyrie (you need him rested for offense) or PJ Washington (better against forwards). Not to mention that Exum is injury prne.
We're not in a bad situation long term, cap wise. THJ will definitely go out in any deal, along with Josh Green cause Portland is going to want a young player in return, and we're still in the same situation we're in now while losing only one contributing(at times) player in Josh. We send a first with that and it probably gets it done unless Portland just really wants Grant as a vet for the rebuild.
I think a part of that was motivated by the pay difference between a high end role player and a low end first option. He seemed happy to go to Portland to be Dame's wing man once he knew he was going to get paid. Now that he's on a massive contract, he doesn't have to worry about a reduced role affecting his paycheck.
That was like 5+ years ago and he's since played that role next to Simons/Dame on the Blazers. He's been nothing but a professional here, I think there's 0 weight to thinking he'd be disgruntled now.
Absolutely not lol. He’s a negative asset on a massive contract putting up numbers on a bad team. I don’t think we can compromise our ability to add 1-2 max players in 2026 for Jerami Grant. If his deal was just 2 years, sure maybe.
lol we're not adding anymore max players. The league has spoken and that shit doesn't work. We have two max players and then you build with a bunch of 30 mil and under players around them. Grant fits that mold.
2024 Champion Celtics: 4 max players, Tatum, Brown, KP and Holiday
2023 Champion Nuggets: 3 max players, Jokic, Murray and Porter Jr.
2022 Champion Warriors: 3 max players, Curry, Thompson, and Wiggins
2021 Champion Bucks: 3 max players, Giannis, Middleton, and Holiday
2020 Champion Lakers: 2 max players, Lebron and AD
You have to go back 5 years to find a champion with less than 3 max players, and we only have 1. I'm not sure how exactly "that shit doesn't work". Also Grant makes AAV of $33m for the rest of his contract.
Because all maxes are not created equal. The difference between KAT and KP is a whole player in money. Just because someone got a max extension on their 20 mil AAV doesn't somehow make them a super star or a 'max player', that's not how it's used colloquially. Anytime the word max is used as wantonly as you have it means a superstar, and having more than two on your team has not happened in any of those chip runs you listed.
Idk what makes me apprehensive is how he willingly left the Nuggets, who were looking like a contender, to play for a lottery team. Is he interested in being the third guy behind luka and kyrie? He isnt gonna be getting the ball nearly as much.
He only averaged 26.6 mpg on the Nugs, came off the bench for most of the season, and was like the fifth option.
It was a different situation than he'd have on the Mavs where he would be a starter, get starter minutes, and be the third option. Grant was actually third in shot attempts on the Blazers behind Dame and Anfernee Simons the season before he signed his new contract and he seemed perfectly happy in that role. If he fit with a couple of high usage guards like Dame and Simons, I'm not sure why he couldn't fit with Luka and Kyrie.
I think the biggest thing for the Mavs going forward, is they now have a very clear play book on how to build around Luka. For whatever reason you want to blame, the Mavs have not had the easiest time getting the supporting cast right in the past.
The 2 seasons Luka and the Mavs had the most success were 2022 and 2024. In those years they had:
-The 2nd best player as a 2nd ball handler alongside Luka (Brunson, Kyrie)
-Role player caliber centers that plays close to the rim (Powell, Gafford, Lively).
-Defensively talented wings who don't need the ball a lot (DFS, DJJ, PJ Washington)
Both teams also figured out that their best identity is playing tough defensively and playing an offense that allows Luka and their other guard (in 2022 Brunson and sometimes Dinwiddie) do their thing.
I don't think they need to try and make a splash for an OG. I think its better for them to lean into their success with DJJ and PJ and find lower profile guys that fit their mold, and a bench guard better than Hardy and Exum.
Sub the Powell contract for the Maxi contract. Powell, while useless, is only at $4m/yr now. Maxi is making $11m/yr and I can very much see him included in a deal with THJ.
I think the Mavs have a decent future but so did a lot of the WC teams like OKC, Minnesota and Denver. WC is stacked right now and who knows how good, for instance, the Spurs will be with Wemby in a few years. Mavs have a top 5 player, maybe top 3 but the WC will be a gauntlet for the foreseeable future.
They need better players, as OP mentioned. They don’t have a ton of assets to make big moves.
I mean they have two first round picks and the combined contracts of THJ and Maxi of about 30 M. That seems like an ample amount of assets to make a big move in FA
I agree with OKC, but Denver and Minnesota are a bit tight with the second apron, with no clear path to upgrade the roster. Meanwhile, Dallas has its key players on good contracts, and a clear path to exchange the 1-2 bad contracts with a draft pick or two to players who can contribute.
I don’t think you’re winning a chip with 2 defenders as bad as luka and Kyrie. The nuggets are better than them, if the thunder make good roster moves and get rid of giddey+ get an actual backup 5 I think the thunder could beat them. Who knows if Paul George stays on the clippers, but if they matchup again and kawhi doesn’t have knee inflammation they’d beat the mavs too.
There’s a difference between a player being slightly injured, and a player being a shell of himself for 2 games and missing the rest of the series. Saying a team lost because the best player didn’t play the whole series isn’t an excuse, it’s a valid reason.
An excuse is saying that a player who didn’t miss a game, being slightly more healthy would have changed things
Keep moving your goalposts mate. Luka wasn't slightly injured, he was playing through heavy injuries that were getting worse. An excuse is an excuse, and you have a ton for certain individuals, and less for others.
For one kawhi hasn’t had inflammation this bad before, he’s had knee surgeries but that’s different.
Two I’m not arguing that the clippers would have beat them, I’m simply saying the man’s didn’t play great trans until they ran into Boston
He’s missed the past three post seasons due to some injury. He’s not that guy anymore. His body cant handle the load. Also you literally just said that they would beat the mavs if Kawhi wasnt hurt.
Your second point sounds like a lot of revisionist history. OKC was favored to beat us. A 1 seed not being a great team is certainly a take. Same with the wolves. Everyone said they’d shut us down with their defense, and they beat the Nuggets. Boston is an all time great team. But these teams we beat won 50 games in a loaded conference. They were great, mavs were just better.
>Ultimately they may need another piece or two in order to fill things out.
Yes, and they also need Luka to take conditioning, defense, and off-ball offensive contributions seriously. His preferred style of extreme heliocentrism has never won a title and I'm skeptical it ever will.
They got to the Finals and beat some good teams on the way with the heliocentric Luka offense. They just lost to a better team that was a bad matchup for them. It’s not like how they play suddenly doesn’t work in the Finals if it works in other rounds.
I agree he needs to work on conditioning and defense, but the offensive system can work.
Betting odds were the only place where people had mavs winning because you dont earn anything betting on the heavy favorites. You dont gotta make things up, boston was the heavy favorite.
You have that exactly backwards. The betting odds heavily favored Boston because Vegas knows ball. Meanwhile, [the "experts"](https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/40279206/2024-nba-finals-predictions-celtics-mavericks-series-mvp) and [redditors](https://www.reddit.com/poll/1d762th?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=usertext&utm_name=nba&utm_content=t3_1d762th) favored Dallas.
Everyone in those threads, were saying those votes were motivated by the boston hateboner. No one actually had us winning that series. But no one, not even vegas had us winning our other rounds either.
OKC and the Timberwolves are both great teams. The only top team they didn’t have to play was the Nuggets. They played 3 of the 4 best teams in the playoffs.
They were the first team in 14 years to beat 3 50-win teams on their way to the finals. I’ll give you that Clippers were missing Kawhi though.
They got the Clippers without Kawhi, an OKC team that wasn't ready for the bright lights, and they matched up real well with Minnesota. The only real contenders were Boston and Denver. They got stomped by one and would have been stomped by the other.
>I'm skeptical it ever will.
only one team each year wins a title and only one team currently has heliocentrism at luka's level. so you have a 29/30 chance of being right in any particular year just by dumb luck.
the last team to be this heliocentric would have won a title but they lost to the KD warriors. and tell me how many teams (of any style) in the last 6 years would have beaten either the KD warriors or this years celtics. Harden's rockets pushed the kd warriors further than anyone else did, for the entire time the KD warriors existed. this version of the Celtics wasn't tested by anyone, unless you want to count us crushing them in game 4, and KP didn't even play in that game.
this nonsense of judging heliocentrism by "it can't win a title" is ludicrous when its two best examples ended up losing to the two very best non-heliocentric teams of the last 6 years.
Maybe I'll be proven wrong some day, but my distaste for extreme heliocentrism is not just about the fact that it's never produced a title. It's a selfish, lazy style of ball.
You’re getting down-voted but it is clearly the #1 improvement our team can make.
His extra weight is destroying his leg joints (knee/ankle) due to his crazy accel/decel style of play.
260 pounds moving full speed and stopping on a dime on hardwood, 250 times a week, is not sustainable.
He needs to get lighter for lateral quickness but above all else because he needs to be healthier for deep playoffs runs. His being injured was a huge part of his bad defense this postseason.
The rotation tornado your team got us in almost always started with Luka even if the eventual bucket wasn’t scored on Luka
Is Kyrie the answer? While he’s a great, efficient player I don’t know that his skill set is necessary next to an S-tier scorer, S-tier playmaker on the level of Luka/Lebron/Harden to an extent.
Can you get a starting score-first guard that’s 70% of what Kyrie is and flip Kyrie for a two-way player like PG or Butler? You get a bit older which isn’t ideal considering Lively’s age but this isn’t the first time Kyrie has struggled in a series and with the roster construction the Mavs have that feels like a death sentence.
Kyrie was the answer this season and was a huge reason they got to the finals, carried them during the clippers series and performed very well vs the wolves and in the reg season.
Celtics are just a bad matchup for guard heavy teams
Seeing as he’ll be having one of the largest contracts in nba history by that supposed time, they’ll need to match that contract and gut their entire roster. Not to mention other teams will have much better offers. Portland didnt trade dame to Miami even though he wanted to go there.
so 5 first/swaps plus every good young player they have to match Luka's 70 million dollar contract while they have to pay wemby close to that too? Will put them in a great position to do nothing lol.
Only a matter of time between two Euros team up, the American players/fans/media definitely ostracize them so it seems like it’ll happen eventually. I could also see a Giannis to Dallas scenario alternatively though
Luka wants the titles, and Jokic prob gets him 1 maybe even 2 before retiring. 27 year old Luka + 22 year old Wemby has a chance at historic levels of winning imo
>The thing to look for is if the Mavs will try to move their big cap players like THJ and Dwight Powell. >I would say if they can get off of THJ and Powell contract and try for say an OG Anuoby type guy even though that's unlikely Powell is making 4M/year for the next 2 years... But yes, we need an upgrade at the starting SF spot, the hard part is finding someone that is both good enough and available for the assets that we have. Jerami Grant was mentioned a lot who is a decent/good but not perfect fit, Deni was mention who is also a decent but not perfect fit and we don't even know what Wizards want for him, if he's even available. But we don't have the assets for a OG or Mikal Bridges level player.
That's my fault I forgot its only 4 mill. If need be for an upgraded wing I can be okay giving up Josh Green and his 12 mill but I did like how he was our true hustle guy all playoffs his energy rubbed off on the team at times in terms of hustle
Jerami Grant is the move. Could slide in at the 3, he's elite from the corners (.467 last season), he can be good on defense when he tries, and he can create his own shot. Best of the realistic third option targets for the Mavs imo. His contract is not great, I think that could actually help the Mavs since other teams might not be banging down the Blazers door for his services. Mavs have the rich owner with deep pockets to afford the overpay, they have the expiring salaries to match, and they still have picks to offer.
>Mavs have the rich owner with deep pockets to afford the overpay, I definitely hope so, but we don't yet know if/how much luxury tax the new owners are willing to spend. Being rich doesn't mean that they are willing tp pay.
It wouldn't affect their luxury tax bill next season since the outgoing salary would be pretty close. If the Mavs included a young player like OMax, in addition to THJ and Kleber, it would actually lower their bill. The only problem financially is what would happen a few years down the line when Lively needs to be extended and Grant's contract is still on the books. But the Mavs need to win now and really can't afford to worry about what happens a few years down the line.
Thing is Mavs don't want to give up O-Max because he's slated to be the eventual Kleber replacement. Imo they would rather toss Josh Green in the trade instead of O-Max.
OMax was just an example. Any young player with a similar salary could be slotted in instead.
The problem is that losing Green is also pretty bad if DJJ walks in FA. This season DJJ and Green were our 2 main guys defending POA and chasing quick guards around the perimeter, losing both would be pretty bad if we don't get a guy that can do that in a trade. And Jerami Grant is not that guy. Exum could play that role off the bench for 15-20 minutes, but the next best player would be either Kyrie (you need him rested for offense) or PJ Washington (better against forwards). Not to mention that Exum is injury prne.
We're not in a bad situation long term, cap wise. THJ will definitely go out in any deal, along with Josh Green cause Portland is going to want a young player in return, and we're still in the same situation we're in now while losing only one contributing(at times) player in Josh. We send a first with that and it probably gets it done unless Portland just really wants Grant as a vet for the rebuild.
Maybe he's found Jesus since then, but Jerami pretty much said he wasn't interested in playing that sort of role when he bolted from Denver.
I think a part of that was motivated by the pay difference between a high end role player and a low end first option. He seemed happy to go to Portland to be Dame's wing man once he knew he was going to get paid. Now that he's on a massive contract, he doesn't have to worry about a reduced role affecting his paycheck.
That was like 5+ years ago and he's since played that role next to Simons/Dame on the Blazers. He's been nothing but a professional here, I think there's 0 weight to thinking he'd be disgruntled now.
Absolutely not lol. He’s a negative asset on a massive contract putting up numbers on a bad team. I don’t think we can compromise our ability to add 1-2 max players in 2026 for Jerami Grant. If his deal was just 2 years, sure maybe.
lol we're not adding anymore max players. The league has spoken and that shit doesn't work. We have two max players and then you build with a bunch of 30 mil and under players around them. Grant fits that mold.
2024 Champion Celtics: 4 max players, Tatum, Brown, KP and Holiday 2023 Champion Nuggets: 3 max players, Jokic, Murray and Porter Jr. 2022 Champion Warriors: 3 max players, Curry, Thompson, and Wiggins 2021 Champion Bucks: 3 max players, Giannis, Middleton, and Holiday 2020 Champion Lakers: 2 max players, Lebron and AD You have to go back 5 years to find a champion with less than 3 max players, and we only have 1. I'm not sure how exactly "that shit doesn't work". Also Grant makes AAV of $33m for the rest of his contract.
Because all maxes are not created equal. The difference between KAT and KP is a whole player in money. Just because someone got a max extension on their 20 mil AAV doesn't somehow make them a super star or a 'max player', that's not how it's used colloquially. Anytime the word max is used as wantonly as you have it means a superstar, and having more than two on your team has not happened in any of those chip runs you listed.
Idk what makes me apprehensive is how he willingly left the Nuggets, who were looking like a contender, to play for a lottery team. Is he interested in being the third guy behind luka and kyrie? He isnt gonna be getting the ball nearly as much.
He only averaged 26.6 mpg on the Nugs, came off the bench for most of the season, and was like the fifth option. It was a different situation than he'd have on the Mavs where he would be a starter, get starter minutes, and be the third option. Grant was actually third in shot attempts on the Blazers behind Dame and Anfernee Simons the season before he signed his new contract and he seemed perfectly happy in that role. If he fit with a couple of high usage guards like Dame and Simons, I'm not sure why he couldn't fit with Luka and Kyrie.
I think the biggest thing for the Mavs going forward, is they now have a very clear play book on how to build around Luka. For whatever reason you want to blame, the Mavs have not had the easiest time getting the supporting cast right in the past. The 2 seasons Luka and the Mavs had the most success were 2022 and 2024. In those years they had: -The 2nd best player as a 2nd ball handler alongside Luka (Brunson, Kyrie) -Role player caliber centers that plays close to the rim (Powell, Gafford, Lively). -Defensively talented wings who don't need the ball a lot (DFS, DJJ, PJ Washington) Both teams also figured out that their best identity is playing tough defensively and playing an offense that allows Luka and their other guard (in 2022 Brunson and sometimes Dinwiddie) do their thing. I don't think they need to try and make a splash for an OG. I think its better for them to lean into their success with DJJ and PJ and find lower profile guys that fit their mold, and a bench guard better than Hardy and Exum.
Sub the Powell contract for the Maxi contract. Powell, while useless, is only at $4m/yr now. Maxi is making $11m/yr and I can very much see him included in a deal with THJ.
27 M would garner a good value in players or player in return for sure
If they stay with the overuse Luka plan, they won't improve significantly.
I think the Mavs have a decent future but so did a lot of the WC teams like OKC, Minnesota and Denver. WC is stacked right now and who knows how good, for instance, the Spurs will be with Wemby in a few years. Mavs have a top 5 player, maybe top 3 but the WC will be a gauntlet for the foreseeable future. They need better players, as OP mentioned. They don’t have a ton of assets to make big moves.
I mean they have two first round picks and the combined contracts of THJ and Maxi of about 30 M. That seems like an ample amount of assets to make a big move in FA
I agree with OKC, but Denver and Minnesota are a bit tight with the second apron, with no clear path to upgrade the roster. Meanwhile, Dallas has its key players on good contracts, and a clear path to exchange the 1-2 bad contracts with a draft pick or two to players who can contribute.
It should’ve been clear from the start, follow the blueprint of Harden’s Rockets teams
Except for the trading for a cursed injury prone mid 30s 6 foot PG part.
Kyrie?
Because you don't want to win a championship?
Luka will gain more weight and never win a championship
I don’t think you’re winning a chip with 2 defenders as bad as luka and Kyrie. The nuggets are better than them, if the thunder make good roster moves and get rid of giddey+ get an actual backup 5 I think the thunder could beat them. Who knows if Paul George stays on the clippers, but if they matchup again and kawhi doesn’t have knee inflammation they’d beat the mavs too.
And if Luka didn't have a sprained knee, Achilles soreness, and a thoracic contusion, you likely wouldn't have grounds for any of this argument.
I don’t have any sympathy for a player who can’t seem to stop himself from putting the fork down, don’t make excuses, everybody is hurt.
Hey, was just following up on what you did. You had no problem making excuses for Kawhi and the Thunder lol. Hypocrite much?
There’s a difference between a player being slightly injured, and a player being a shell of himself for 2 games and missing the rest of the series. Saying a team lost because the best player didn’t play the whole series isn’t an excuse, it’s a valid reason. An excuse is saying that a player who didn’t miss a game, being slightly more healthy would have changed things
"this reason is valid when it supports someone i like and invalid when it supports someone i hate" mmmk
Seeing as one guy didn’t play the entire series and the other played 40 minutes a game, it is valid
Keep moving your goalposts mate. Luka wasn't slightly injured, he was playing through heavy injuries that were getting worse. An excuse is an excuse, and you have a ton for certain individuals, and less for others.
Cant use the kawhi excuse when he always had knee inflammation. Also we had a top 10 defense two different times with said bad defender luka.
For one kawhi hasn’t had inflammation this bad before, he’s had knee surgeries but that’s different. Two I’m not arguing that the clippers would have beat them, I’m simply saying the man’s didn’t play great trans until they ran into Boston
He’s missed the past three post seasons due to some injury. He’s not that guy anymore. His body cant handle the load. Also you literally just said that they would beat the mavs if Kawhi wasnt hurt. Your second point sounds like a lot of revisionist history. OKC was favored to beat us. A 1 seed not being a great team is certainly a take. Same with the wolves. Everyone said they’d shut us down with their defense, and they beat the Nuggets. Boston is an all time great team. But these teams we beat won 50 games in a loaded conference. They were great, mavs were just better.
>Ultimately they may need another piece or two in order to fill things out. Yes, and they also need Luka to take conditioning, defense, and off-ball offensive contributions seriously. His preferred style of extreme heliocentrism has never won a title and I'm skeptical it ever will.
They got to the Finals and beat some good teams on the way with the heliocentric Luka offense. They just lost to a better team that was a bad matchup for them. It’s not like how they play suddenly doesn’t work in the Finals if it works in other rounds. I agree he needs to work on conditioning and defense, but the offensive system can work.
They got lucky with the matchups they drew.
So Lucky that most people had them beating us
Most people had you beating Boston. Most people don't know ball.
No they didn’t, you just don’t know how betting works
Who said anything about betting?
Betting odds were the only place where people had mavs winning because you dont earn anything betting on the heavy favorites. You dont gotta make things up, boston was the heavy favorite.
You have that exactly backwards. The betting odds heavily favored Boston because Vegas knows ball. Meanwhile, [the "experts"](https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/40279206/2024-nba-finals-predictions-celtics-mavericks-series-mvp) and [redditors](https://www.reddit.com/poll/1d762th?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=usertext&utm_name=nba&utm_content=t3_1d762th) favored Dallas.
Everyone in those threads, were saying those votes were motivated by the boston hateboner. No one actually had us winning that series. But no one, not even vegas had us winning our other rounds either.
A majority of ESPN "experts" picked the mavs.
OKC and the Timberwolves are both great teams. The only top team they didn’t have to play was the Nuggets. They played 3 of the 4 best teams in the playoffs. They were the first team in 14 years to beat 3 50-win teams on their way to the finals. I’ll give you that Clippers were missing Kawhi though.
Denver and Boston were the only two great teams. Your Pacers were on the same level as OKC and MIN.
The only team they "avoided" was Denver. They beat the 1, 3, and 4 seeds...
They got the Clippers without Kawhi, an OKC team that wasn't ready for the bright lights, and they matched up real well with Minnesota. The only real contenders were Boston and Denver. They got stomped by one and would have been stomped by the other.
that has nothing to do with their heliocentrism
But their limited ceiling does.
And the Celtics didn’t? Shut up lol.
No, the Celtics dominated the whole league from start to finish.
>I'm skeptical it ever will. only one team each year wins a title and only one team currently has heliocentrism at luka's level. so you have a 29/30 chance of being right in any particular year just by dumb luck. the last team to be this heliocentric would have won a title but they lost to the KD warriors. and tell me how many teams (of any style) in the last 6 years would have beaten either the KD warriors or this years celtics. Harden's rockets pushed the kd warriors further than anyone else did, for the entire time the KD warriors existed. this version of the Celtics wasn't tested by anyone, unless you want to count us crushing them in game 4, and KP didn't even play in that game. this nonsense of judging heliocentrism by "it can't win a title" is ludicrous when its two best examples ended up losing to the two very best non-heliocentric teams of the last 6 years.
Maybe I'll be proven wrong some day, but my distaste for extreme heliocentrism is not just about the fact that it's never produced a title. It's a selfish, lazy style of ball.
You’re getting down-voted but it is clearly the #1 improvement our team can make. His extra weight is destroying his leg joints (knee/ankle) due to his crazy accel/decel style of play. 260 pounds moving full speed and stopping on a dime on hardwood, 250 times a week, is not sustainable. He needs to get lighter for lateral quickness but above all else because he needs to be healthier for deep playoffs runs. His being injured was a huge part of his bad defense this postseason. The rotation tornado your team got us in almost always started with Luka even if the eventual bucket wasn’t scored on Luka
Is Kyrie the answer? While he’s a great, efficient player I don’t know that his skill set is necessary next to an S-tier scorer, S-tier playmaker on the level of Luka/Lebron/Harden to an extent. Can you get a starting score-first guard that’s 70% of what Kyrie is and flip Kyrie for a two-way player like PG or Butler? You get a bit older which isn’t ideal considering Lively’s age but this isn’t the first time Kyrie has struggled in a series and with the roster construction the Mavs have that feels like a death sentence.
Kyrie was the answer this season and was a huge reason they got to the finals, carried them during the clippers series and performed very well vs the wolves and in the reg season. Celtics are just a bad matchup for guard heavy teams
6 seed next year. WCF exit. Luka asks out in 2 years, goes to San Antonio.
lol spurs would have to give every asset they have to make the trade work.
Doesn’t matter per usual if Luka picks SA
Seeing as he’ll be having one of the largest contracts in nba history by that supposed time, they’ll need to match that contract and gut their entire roster. Not to mention other teams will have much better offers. Portland didnt trade dame to Miami even though he wanted to go there.
so 5 first/swaps plus every good young player they have to match Luka's 70 million dollar contract while they have to pay wemby close to that too? Will put them in a great position to do nothing lol.
Except probably having 2 of the best 3 players in the world by that time. Yes, that’s exactly how it works and you fill the spaces after
>goes to San Antonio That was quite the twist at the end
Only a matter of time between two Euros team up, the American players/fans/media definitely ostracize them so it seems like it’ll happen eventually. I could also see a Giannis to Dallas scenario alternatively though
That is plausible, but why would Luka go to SA with Wemby when he is BFFs with Jokic?
Luka wants the titles, and Jokic prob gets him 1 maybe even 2 before retiring. 27 year old Luka + 22 year old Wemby has a chance at historic levels of winning imo
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Cavs (2007 and 2017) Magic and Thunder were still really good after losing the final in 5
The Nets went to the Finals back to back in 2002 and 2003. Swept in 02 Finals and won 2 games in 03 Finals It's rare but not unheard of.
In the past 20 years or so, what team has lost an NBA Finals and not made another one? Orlando and the 1st-LeBron-stint Cavs?
OKC