Free Agency, Trade Ideas, Rumors V.7

[HacksawButch]

The Mavericks are looking to acquire a 3rd all star. I'm kind of thinking we should make that happen this off season. The Mav's could sign and trade their FA's, Jalen Brunson and Tim Hardaway to the Bucks for Kris Middleton. Brunson is an ascending defensive stud currently averaging 13 ppg off the bench with close to a 50/40/90 shooting splits. Hardaway could replace Kash with the downgrade not that noticeable.

A starting 5 of Brunson, Holiday, Hardaway, Giannis and Brook looks pretty good to me.

[HacksawButch]

I mean the team still practices pretty regularly. They probably have a decent idea of what they have in nwora and Merrill. This team is going to need to gel. They are definitely trying some new stuff out from time to time, with mixed results. But it's absolutely the time to try stuff out. And thats what we're doing. If we are winning a championship this year, it's probably due to the current guys gelling moreso than some crazy development from a rookie or a bid acquisition. The team has talent and that talent needs to figure out the best way to maximize each other. So I'm fine not extending the bench and letting these guys play. Id still be active in the buyout market, but there's a good chance the vast majority of our playoff minutes are on the roster already.

I look at someone like DJ Augustin. He's 34 years old. It's possible he hit a wall and just isn't decent anymore. Or it's possible he's just not shooting it well and is still adjusting to his role. I'd rather let DJA play through his struggles in hopes he rebounds to close to the guy he was the last 2 years or so than hope Merrill has something unexpected.

I'm not advocating to giving the rookies big minutes by any means. What would it hurt if we gave them a role for a couple games just to see how they fit in if they get some minutes. Look at Christian Woods as an example. Not saying he's a great NBA player, but he's certainly good enough to have a bench role on this team. Daikite is another guy that deserves a shot in a meaningful game. There is a chance that he might be better than Portis in a couple years if given some opportunity. If you have these guys on your team, they should all get 10 or 15 minutes of meaningful basketball in 3 or 4 games in a meaningless regular season. The time to do it is now, not in the last 20 games of the season, when we're trying to get ready for the playoffs.