![]() ![]() If the Mavericks are going to fulfill the promise of their offense, they will have to make more trades to upgrade that defense. The problem in the contender theory is the Mavericks already have the 23rd-ranked defense in the NBA and now have traded away their best defender in Finney-Smith. The argument for this being a win for Dallas is it makes them a contender in the wide-open West - they have two superstars who can match any duo in the conference, and have surrounded them with shooting. Vaughn had quieted the noise around the team, had them focus on the court, and Brooklyn looked like a real threat in the East. They went 18-2 in the games before Durant got injured. There is one other disappointment in all this - it looked like the Nets, under Jacque Vaughn, had figured it out. If the rest of this season goes just okay and the Nets get bounced in the first round, that KD trade request very well could be back on the table, and the Nets could be back to rebuilding, but without their picks to do it. Brooklyn now has picks and players at its disposal to make more roster upgrades, particularly defensively.Ģ) Will Kevin Durant stay in Brooklyn, or ask for another trade? Can the Nets keep him happy? Durant didn’t think there was a future in Brooklyn last summer and asked for a trade, but the Nets didn’t really try couldn’t find one to their liking. Whether this ultimately is a win or loss for them will hinge on two future moves, or lack of moves:ġ) Can the Nets make another trade or two before the deadline? Even with a healthy Durant and what is now a deep and versatile roster, the Nets lack the second high-end star they will need come the postseason (Ben Simmons is not going to be that guy). ![]() Still, Brooklyn got worse in the short term - any team that trades a superstar does not get equal talent back. Brooklyn GM Sean Marks did as well as he could with the situation. They got out of the Kyrie Irving business and don’t have to pay him long-term - if they had made this trade over the summer the conventional wisdom reaction would have been, “good job getting out from under all this.” And the Nets landed a couple of quality players who can help them now in Dinwiddie and Finney-Smith. There is a case to make the Nets did well in this trade - and maybe even got better by making the roster deeper, and more versatile. They have to roll those dice, and they will try again with the next superstar who becomes available. Trading for Irving would have been a huge gamble, but that is where the Lakers are now. There is no clear path to building a title contender around LeBron and Anthony Davis. Maybe It’s Me- LeBron James February 6, 2023 The Mavericks could offer more, better players right now plus the picks (there is also a report that Nets owner Joe Tsai didn’t want to send Irving to his preferred destination). The Lajers had tempting future picks, but the player at the heart of any offer was Russell Westbrook. Lakers GM Rob Pelinka tried, the problem is the Nets want to retool a contender around Durant immediately - Brooklyn wanted players who can help them win now. They are squandering an All-NBA level, record-breaking season of a 38-year-old LeBron James, sitting four games below. The only team that might have been more desperate? The Lakers. The Dallas Mavericks showed how desperate they were as a franchise with this potentially Faustian trade. But it’s a move the Mavericks had to make, and now Dončić knows they will do everything they can to land stars to put around him. ![]() There are a lot of questions about the fit of Dončić and Irving together - will Irving accept a role as the No.2 option on this team (as he did with Durant most of the time)? How well will Doncic play off the ball? This trade makes the Mavericks’ 23rd-ranked defense worse. Now, Dallas has that in the guy with maybe the best handles in the league, someone averaging 27.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game and shooting 37.4% from 3. Dallas desperately needed another shot creator and star next to Dončić to lighten his load. Luka Dončić was good with this trade - Dallas went to him and got his approval before proceeding with it, reports Marc Stein.ĭončić has been at a historic usage rate this season and was physically wearing down from the load. Irving now gets to play next to Dončić, another of the league’s top five players, and is on a team with the potential to contend in a wide-open conference, and he gets a relatively clean slate to prove he is worthy of that massive contract this summer. When the Nets weren’t going to give him that extension, Irving forced his way to a new team where he is more likely to get paid (not that it’s close to a lock, the Mavs are reportedly hesitant). His troubles with the Nets going back to the summer stem in part from him not getting the max contract extension he wants - four years, $198.5 million, with no strings. Irving made a brilliant business move demanding a trade before the deadline. ![]()
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