Seven Costanza said:

---

May be tough to make the playoffs in the West...

(In no particular order):
Houston
LAC
Denver
Utah
Portland
LAL
Golden State
San Antonio
Dallas

---

It could certainly play out that way but I would be hesitant to write all of those names in ink just yet. Only a couple of those teams are deep enough to survive a protracted injury to their star player(s). Utah, LAC and Denver have both that kind of depth and quality so I think they are in no matter what. Houston, GS and LAL will make it if LeBron/Harden/Curry/Davis remain healthy but that isn't a guarantee. Even if healthy, I think GS and LAL could struggle due to their weak benches. I would favor the incumbents SAS and Portland to make it in over the upstarts (SAC, DAL, MIN, NOP) but their point differentials the last 2 years haven't been overly impressive. I'm just saying that things can change quickly. Every Western Conference all star except Davis/Jokic/Towns will turn *at least* 29 years old next year. Most of them are already over 30. GS just lost their dynasty in a single week when Klay and KD went down. I'm expecting big changes in the next couple of years.

I get what the Mavs are doing. They are signing multi-year deals as long as they don't hand out any bad contracts. They are looking for either defensive or 3-point specialists to put around Luka. This is an improvement over the 1-year "powder" deals they used to hand out. Wright, Curry and Boban are all useful NBA players and are signed to move-able contracts (if necessary). If they could find a defensive wing PF (Diallo?) then I would still call it a solid summer despite the initial frenzy. They still have 14M in cap space and trades are always a possibility. At the end of the day it was always going to be Luka/Porzingis who would really move the needle for this team. They didn't have a shot at any needle moving top 20 player aside from Kemba and I don't blame him for going to Boston which was a better fit. The Mavs are adding specialists signed to multi-year deals around Luka/KP while maintaining flexibility by not handing out any bad contracts. They didn't make any sexy moves but it wasn't a disaster. They will have a legit shot at the playoffs next year, it will be fun to watch.

Going to be an interesting year for sure. The East is still meaningless, dispute winning this year.

It would be good for the Association IMHO if Utah and Portland dominate instead of the stars created big market super teams.

For Houston a team stuck without the ability to do much anything, you probably couldn't have written a better what if scenario than what actually transpired.

You bring up a good point. Sacramento looked solid for much of last year and should only be better this year. New Orleans may get there quicker than we think. Dallas certainly has a lot of potential. Nearly all of the teams have major question marks due to age and/or injuries.

The only playoff team in the West that got definitively worse was Golden State.

Of the non-playoff teams; the Pels, Kings, and Mavs will probably make the biggest leap. It's not unrealistic to have 11-12 teams with a legit shot at the playoffs. The west is going to be an insane dogfight.

I still think the Lakers could potentially miss the playoffs again if Labron is just not his dominate self with injuries and age catching up.

Agnzona said:

---

I still think the Lakers could potentially miss the playoffs again if Labron is just not his dominate self with injuries and age catching up.

---

Lol

I think the Lakers miss again. My way too early WC prediction as of right now would be:

1. Denver Nuggets
2. Utah Jazz
3. Portland Trailblazers
4. LA Clippers
5. Houston Rockets
6. SA Spurs
7. GS Warriors
8. NO Pelicans

Kings, Lakers, Mavs just on the outside of #8.

what are we going to do with THJ? I'm seeing everyone projecting our starting 5 without him. Dude got 16, 3 and 2 for us averaging 30 mins a game last season. Surely that production wouldn't put him on the bench? I'm not a big fan of his game, but dude can score.

I don't think his contract is trade-friendly, so not sure what his future looks like for us...

ghostofthebanned said:

---

what are we going to do with THJ? I'm seeing everyone projecting our starting 5 without him. Dude got 16, 3 and 2 for us averaging 30 mins a game last season. Surely that production wouldn't put him on the bench? I'm not a big fan of his game, but dude can score.

I don't think his contract is trade-friendly, so not sure what his future looks like for us...

---

That's a tricky question. His contract almost demands that he starts, but almost every Mavs fan i know agrees that he is better suited in a bench role.

I think the game 1 starting lineup will look something like this:
1 - Wright
2 - THJ
3 - Luka
4 - Powell
5 - KP

With our primary second unit being:
1 - Brunson/Barea
2 - Curry
3 - DFS/Jackson <---This is the tricky spot. We could play both and bump Maxi to 5 and Boban to the bench.
4 - Maxi
5 - Boban

Reserves:
- Broekhoff
- Lee
- Burke
- Kostas/Macon/Roby/Reaves (take your pick of our G League guys)

^All of that is subject to change if the Mavs make a trade.

I think you gotta convince Tim Hardaway that he can be JET or Manu as an elite 6th man that plays 25-30mpg of high intensity minutes and runs the second team offense for the 25 MPG that Luka isn't out there.

Think you mean 12-16 MPG he's not out there... if Luka is playing 23 MPG then I'm not sure I'm optimistic about the future of this team.

But I agree with you. His game is well suited to that role. Keep the offense going somewhat, rather than trying to be the full blown Robin.

Ag Journalism major.

Guitarsoup said:

---

I think you gotta convince Tim Hardaway that he can be JET or Manu as an elite 6th man that plays 25-30mpg of high intensity minutes and runs the second team offense for the 25 MPG that Luka isn't out there.

---

The only issue with that is who is replacing him? Curry?

Our offense could be better (ie - more efficient), but that puts a ton of pressure on Luka. For all of THJ's faults (there are many), the fact that he can get his own shot is a quality few on this team possess. As scary as it sounds, Luka may need a guy like him to relieve some of that offensive load.

Guitarsoup said:

---

I think the Lakers miss again. My way too early WC prediction as of right now would be:

1. Denver Nuggets
2. Utah Jazz
3. Portland Trailblazers
4. LA Clippers
5. Houston Rockets
6. SA Spurs
7. GS Warriors
8. NO Pelicans

Kings, Lakers, Mavs just on the outside of #8.

---

Nah. With Caruso dishing to Lebron and Davis, it's gonna be Showtime.

Stolen from Reddit:

Dallas Mavs Cap Wizardy

Quite a few people (of course especially Mavs fans) were wondering why the Mavs who were the team with the biggest cap space remaining (almost 23m) almost didnt use any of their cap space (only 7.7m so far for Seth Curry), but after the Delon Wright signing, or to name it correct, sign&trade, it becomes pretty clear what path they are going and its quite brilliant to be honest. It seems like someone from the Mavericks front office read the post on r/nbadiscussion about how the Nets created about 10m cap space out of thin air...Mavs did basically they same but added an extra twist. Remember the Harrison Barnes trade in february? They created a 23m trade exception with that trade, but as some cap experts here know - if you use cap room you also void your remaining trade exceptions at the same time.

So what is the situation right now? Mavs so far signed Curry using up around 8m of their 31m cap space and signed Boban Marjanovic with their room exception and also agreed to re-sign Porzingis/Kleber/Finney-Smith using their bird/early-bird rights.

If they outright would have signed Delon Wright into cap space now they would be left with 14m in cap space (not to mention Grizzlies could and potentially would have matched that offer sheet since he is an RFA) BUT if they didnt sign any other free agents in the next days their cap space would have been away once Porzinigs etc offically re-signed - so what did they do?

They sign&traded Delon Wright into their Barnes (23m) trade exception - what did this change?

By using their trade exception, Mavericks no longer acted as a cap room team but an over the cap team.
They signed Boban using their BAE, Curry using their MLE - so now they can re-sign Porzingis/Kleber/Finney-Smith AND still have 12m of the Barnes trade exceptions left which they can use throughout the whole season and which could become very valuable since the Mavs are the only team besides the Hawks (13m cap space) that can absorb bigger contracts without problem. AND since there are so many teams looking to contend this year some will fail and be sellers and not buyers at the trade deadline and then the Mavs can get some picks or other valuable assets (or some buyers trade a contract into the Mavs trade exception in exchange for picks/rookie deals and then use their newly created trade exception to trade for a win now piece).

So they practically preserved 12m of their cap space.

^if that's accurate, the Mavs found a way to carry that Cap room into the season. That doesn't make up for what they did (or didn't do) this FA, but it makes it a little better. And now there's no rush to make something happen right now. They can be patient and wait until December/trade deadline when teams are looking to move players they just signed/extended.

M.C. Swag said:

---

Stolen from Reddit:

Dallas Mavs Cap Wizardy

Quite a few people (of course especially Mavs fans) were wondering why the Mavs who were the team with the biggest cap space remaining (almost 23m) almost didnt use any of their cap space (only 7.7m so far for Seth Curry), but after the Delon Wright signing, or to name it correct, sign&trade, it becomes pretty clear what path they are going and its quite brilliant to be honest. It seems like someone from the Mavericks front office read the post on r/nbadiscussion about how the Nets created about 10m cap space out of thin air...Mavs did basically they same but added an extra twist. Remember the Harrison Barnes trade in february? They created a 23m trade exception with that trade, but as some cap experts here know - if you use cap room you also void your remaining trade exceptions at the same time.

So what is the situation right now? Mavs so far signed Curry using up around 8m of their 31m cap space and signed Boban Marjanovic with their room exception and also agreed to re-sign Porzingis/Kleber/Finney-Smith using their bird/early-bird rights.

If they outright would have signed Delon Wright into cap space now they would be left with 14m in cap space (not to mention Grizzlies could and potentially would have matched that offer sheet since he is an RFA) BUT if they didnt sign any other free agents in the next days their cap space would have been away once Porzinigs etc offically re-signed - so what did they do?

They sign&traded Delon Wright into their Barnes (23m) trade exception - what did this change?

By using their trade exception, Mavericks no longer acted as a cap room team but an over the cap team.
They signed Boban using their BAE, Curry using their MLE - so now they can re-sign Porzingis/Kleber/Finney-Smith AND still have 12m of the Barnes trade exceptions left which they can use throughout the whole season and which could become very valuable since the Mavs are the only team besides the Hawks (13m cap space) that can absorb bigger contracts without problem. AND since there are so many teams looking to contend this year some will fail and be sellers and not buyers at the trade deadline and then the Mavs can get some picks or other valuable assets (or some buyers trade a contract into the Mavs trade exception in exchange for picks/rookie deals and then use their newly created trade exception to trade for a win now piece).

So they practically preserved 12m of their cap space.

---

This makes sense actually.

I think most fans would've rather seen them just use all of the space and get decent players, but maybe there will be something for the taking around the trade deadline.

M.C. Swag said:

---

^if that's accurate, the Mavs found a way to carry that Cap room into the season. That doesn't make up for what they did (or didn't do) this FA, but it makes it a little better. And now there's no rush to make something happen right now. They can be patient and wait until December/trade deadline when teams are looking to move players they just signed/extended.

---

It works. They rescinded the QO for Kleber and DFS to gain nearly 500,000 in cap space 7.1 million up to 7.6 in space), which was just enough to give Seth his 4 for 32 (starts at 7.45 million), then they traded for Delon Wright at the MLE (right at 9.2 million initial salary), which reduces the TPE from 21.2 to 12 million even. Then Kleber, DFS and Porzingis are signed with their bird rights and the Mavs sign Boban with their exception.

It's not the same as having cap space, because the TPE can't be combined with another player, but the Mavs can absorb a player up to that exception. Up until they make all of their signings final they can relinquish the TPE and combine open cap space (14 million) with a player (likely Lee) to absorb a player up to ~25 million (I believe this is accurate).

Jeramy Grant being a rough stand in for Delon Wright as you can't S&T as best I can tell with this tool:

http://www.shamsports.com/capulator?id=15366221915d23f9a537a0e205487502

Pretty smart.

hph6203 said:

---

M.C. Swag said:

---

^if that's accurate, the Mavs found a way to carry that Cap room into the season. That doesn't make up for what they did (or didn't do) this FA, but it makes it a little better. And now there's no rush to make something happen right now. They can be patient and wait until December/trade deadline when teams are looking to move players they just signed/extended.

---

It works. They rescinded the QO for Kleber and DFS to gain nearly 500,000 in cap space 7.1 million up to 7.6 in space), which was just enough to give Seth his 4 for 32 (starts at 7.45 million), then they traded for Delon Wright at the MLE (right at 9.2 million initial salary), which reduces the TPE from 21.2 to 12 million even. Then Kleber, DFS and Porzingis are signed with their bird rights and the Mavs sign Boban with their exception.

It's not the same as having cap space, because the TPE can't be combined with another player, but the Mavs can absorb a player up to that exception.

Pretty smart.

---

Right, it's not "cap space" per se but it's still useful. And I think we can do a couple things with Lee's contract to increase that exception if we need to.

I updated my post, I'm not sure they can do anything with Lee other than do two separate transactions to help facilitate a trade. In other words player for player(s) and TPE for player(s).

They can however, until they finalize the signings of Porzingis, Kleber and DFS, relinquish the remaining TPE to gain up to 14 million (?) in space to absorb a player with cap space + a player. That'd allow them to facilitate 25ish million in cap transactions.

Lol yea I don't freaking know. I'm just reading what other people are piecing together. Needless to say, keeping some room is better than losing it all.

Avery Bradley signs with lakers.


Man it freaking sucks that we always seem to want the same guys that the LA teams want.

I'm just playing around for my own edification. Right now the Mavs could absorb Gallinari and by 2021 with Gallinari and THJ's contract expiring they would have nearly enough room to sign Giannis or other to a max deal if they stand pat next off-season and let Gallinari walk. Just as a hypothetical.

If the Mavs win 50+ the next two seasons it's not out of the realm of possibility that they'd be more appealing to free agents by then.

http://www.shamsports.com/capulator?id=19001462625d23ffeeed3d2071673654

Grapesoda2525 said:

---

Avery Bradley signs with lakers.


Man it freaking sucks that we always seem to want the same guys that the LA teams want.

---

If they really wanted him they easily could have had him. My guess is they didn't like him, because he's a minus on defense and offense on his previous teams. At least according to 538.

Grapesoda2525 said:

---

Avery Bradley signs with lakers.


Man it freaking sucks that we always seem to want the same guys that the LA teams want.

---

Meh, he's pretty washed. Bench player at best now and we already have a plethora bench quality guys.

Per tim cato, the Kelly Olynyk to dallas might be back on the table if Westbrook to Miami happens...i'm not gonna pretend I know more than the FO, but what is with the obsession with him? Dont we have enough Centers and PF's?

rsf0626 said:

---

Per tim cato, the Kelly Olynyk to dallas might be back on the table if Westbrook to Miami happens...i'm not gonna pretend I know more than the FO, but what is with the obsession with him? Dont we have enough Centers and PF's?

---

Please no!

Olynynk is bad.

rsf0626 said:

---

Per tim cato, the Kelly Olynyk to dallas might be back on the table if Westbrook to Miami happens...i'm not gonna pretend I know more than the FO, but what is with the obsession with him? Dont we have enough Centers and PF's?

---

Only hope is that Miami agrees to waive protections on their pick (which is now owned by OKC) and then can attach a future 1 to Olynk. Otherwise, I have no clue what the appeal is for this. (unless they're willing to part with Winslow, Herro, or Bam)

They also just started announcing their signings as official, which pretty much means they are giving up on Free Agency and punting on their cap space. What a colossal fail

Current offer is Courtney Lee and 2nd rounder for Iggy....nba twitter is saying no chance Memphis agrees to it

rsf0626 said:

---

Current offer is Courtney Lee and 2nd rounder for Iggy....nba twitter is saying no chance Memphis agrees to it

---

Would iggy even report to the mavs and play hard?

He seems like a spoiled brat ( Derrick fisher 2.0) who only wants to compete on teams playing for championships.

He'll probably say he needs to spend time with his grandma who has a heart condition, then mysteriously sign in April with the lakers or clippers.

We don't need more defensive wings who can't shoot, especially one that is 35-36. Id rather just move on with what we have. Do not want him at all.

And I somewhat agree about his attitude. I can't stand him.