NSL Insider - Team by Team: Dallas Mavericksby KLEMMELO, updated on Tuesday, October 19 2021, 07:50 am EST Hav'ya heard?!... It's Javi no more....
LJ in all his glory rose from the ashes of broken NLL hopes and dreams and years of mediocrity. He's just like Prince minus the transcendent Song writing and Instrumental skills... All that aside it's got more to do with him being so polarising and is the NSL's very own generational icon.
A man who decides every morning who they wanna be that day and just goes out and lives his best life. He likes to Zig abruptly, when no one else told him to even Zag in the first place...
MJ.
JT. #BBoyz4Life
*Whispers* BJ's
And now... LJ. Season Highlight:
Dispatching a 53 win Clippers team in the first round, while comfortably getting it done in 5. KD melted them averaging 39.8/9.4/3.2/1/1.2 with Schroder coming up big averaging 25/2/6. Season Lowlight:
A number of things would be on the shortlist for Dallas' season lowlights, or at least numerous scenarios where they could've been better and/or just a victim of bad luck.
Best trade: For Portis/Cancar
Buddy/Forbes/Ojeleye/Fernando/DAL 2022 1st/DAL 2023 2nd
As listed above... Sure, majority of this is just a case of some really bad injury luck... But it's not exactly like you can claim ignorance or feign surprise when a guy like Dipo goes down long term again... Buddy isn't some fringe all star or anything don't get it twisted; But he knows his role and can be handy for a team contending. In game he's probably a fair step above the player he is currently in the NBA, depending on the engine/settings... So it kind of evens out... Other notable trades:
Was a close second for "best trade" and probably would've been no question for me being the best if Young hadn't of shown out as much as he has lately.
You do this every day of the week as a contending team and yeah, KD's spotty injury history and at his age, his shelf life is limited. His in game domination even compared to his NBA numbers is what mitigates the smaller window to contend.
Free Agency:
Things are Grim. Not going to lie. They have 8 roster spots filled and you would imagine there's no reason they don't bring back Birch and Dipo as easy re-signs. I would say they would be in a reasonable position, even if Schroder was going to be a player they'll have to spend big points on to keep... That's the problem. We are a week out and the Mavs are sitting on 2 points... Which is a fair effort to get back from -40/50 from lux fines.
What ever way they go there's a lot of risk involved and will need to pick up 5-6 guys on the day in a perfect world. That's the other thing, with Birch/Dipo back they'll be sitting on around 115-118m. Full MLE will be available to them which is good. But if they used most of that and picked up a handful of min guys that's 130+ already on the best day.
KD. Already considered by some to be top 15 All time and quite comfortably I might add... 1 MVP, 2 Rings, 2 Finals MVP's, 9x All-NBA, 4x Scoring champ, 2x All-Star MVP, ROTY, All Rookie.
27/7.1/4.2/1.1/1.1 Career Avgs. Shooting splits of 49.4/38.4/88.3 playing with the possibility of being in the 50/40/90 club for his entire career is ridiculous, reserved normally for a group of players consisting of low volume pass first PG and role playing specialists. Last season for the Mavericks KD dropped 38.4/8.2/4.8/1.1/1.5 over 45 games... I'm not saying he would've nor SHOULD have won MVP but he would've been right there if he was able to suit up for more then half a season... Expecting big things.
LJ'S Communication skills in trade negotiations. There, I said it.
Seriously though... I don't think you can deny that it's Oladipo... To go from acquiring a big starting piece with the assumption he was going to re-sign in the offseason locking him up for a few years... A move almost making the Mavs a "Big 4" down south...
To now after staring down the barrel of another devastating injury and long lay off, being forced to essentially signing a minimum one year deal to try and get back on his feet... Not exactly ideal.
Also going to give a dishonourable mention to the 2k Gods in Generally crippling the Mavs with injuries, perhaps holding them back from their true potential...
You hear that 2K?...
Too many to mention. They got proper bent over but with KD missing half the season coming back from the Achilles for the most part... Zinger missed his typical 10-15+ games just because he's an alien and 7+ foot guys aren't aloud to move like that... Oubre with a few annoying stretches here and there, and Obviously Dipo going down for the season and a good part of this coming one.
Otherwise going forward *Touch Wood* they don't have any current injury issues to plan around.
Showed up on the night, with no picks but just wanting to be there "For Support...?"
...We didn't have/Want to ask any follow up questions.
The Future:
Freddy and Zinger project as the obvious future for the Mavs. They'll be the Dynamic Duo they'll rely on in KD's twilight years/post retirement. That's assuming he isn't traded while he still held value. The rest is pretty in flux at the moment and like any other contender, the roster will see quick turnover outside of the main core. It's normally the one or two big deals on the way down the mountain that properly signify a shift in gears. So only time will tell...
They at least have all their 1st Round picks in years 2023-2026 and I do really like Cam Johnson with Okeke having some real promise to be something special. Other then that I do hold out hope that Freddy, with Lowry now moved on, could go up a level or two as one of the stars on the NBA Raptors. |
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