Occasionally, and during non-game months, we try to measure the temperature of our staff, whatever the topic of the day. If you have visited our site at all last week, it’s very easy: Free Agent! Some Jalen Brunson (many Jalen Brunson), new (old?) Maverick JaVale McGee and so on.
Where you are concerned Dallas Mavericks And free agents?
Matthew: Not surprising. The Mavericks have consistently had one of the lowest salaries in the league for the past six years. They have one of the five most successful seasons in franchise history and have left the second best player on the team for free. After that, they overpaid JaVale McGee, who will be a very useful player this season. The Mavericks have consistently kept overall salaries low while overpaying players in low-end roles. If they have the incredibly tight salary constraints that they clearly run, they have to be smarter about the details of these contracts.
Ben: Mavericks, as always, isn’t doing well with free agents. The Mavericks have made a variation of the old strategy, although there is still time to do something to recover from the loss of Jalen Brunson. I’m disappointed.
mat: Worry-Apart from another move, I don’t feel Dallas is working on that need. After showing that Jalen Brunson’s Ascension and the addition of Spencer Dinwidy have increased the number of creators and ball handlers who can maximize the potential of Dallas as a five-out nightmare, they decided on their playstyle. Lost his most important player, Brunson, and replaced him with a traditional overpaid center. I’m still bullish on adding Christian Wood, but after reaping the team with Gobert, Eighton, and Maggie, it’s irrelevant to use our full taxpayer MLE for the big ones.
Kirk: Concerned. At this point in the free agent for the last 10 years, I was cooking Mavericks like fried chicken. But there needs to be some reason why Jalen Brunson is leaving. I think part of that wasn’t getting enough money, but he wanted to play in New York. At that point, is it more about how no one in Dallas expected it, not about free agencies? JaVale McGee is a great addition to rotation, so there should be something in the work, but not enough for real progress. And look at the rest of the NBA. While Mavericks is now a step back, Western teams are increasing their competitiveness in a variety of new ways. It’s ugly.
Jordan: I’m going to get started, I’m sad. I was a big fan of Jalen Brunson on and off the floor. It’s not worth discussing the numbers right now, but it confused me. Other than that, we’re trying to focus on adding Christian Wood rather than JaVale McGee’s contract. Wood could be really fun with Luka Doncic, Reggie Bullock and Dorian Finney-Smith.
Still, so far, it’s difficult to characterize the off-season as a success. Owner Mark Cuban continues to be very cheap and the front office has a head scratcher to follow for all good moves. What kind of I make you stupidly believe that another move is on the horizon.
Tim: After the first day of the free agent, I was bedridden.Jalen Brunson Knicks It was still disappointing when it happened three days or so before the start date of the free agent. JaVale McGee’s landing meets the needs of the Mavericks, which general manager Nico Harrison was very vocal in an interview at the exit, but he doesn’t move the needle much for me. He gets better and is better than Dwight Powell — but the Mavericks would be better off moving his sleeves up to improve the roster through trading. Free agents don’t seem to like us.
David: I feel déjà vu. The Mavericks free agent front office has high expectations and low production every year. This year is the same as before. Do you think Tim Hardaway and Spencer Dinwidy can replace Branson’s work? yes. Am I upset because I haven’t stretched him yet? Also, yes. Dallas hasn’t gotten worse since the addition of Christian Wood, but I’d like to see some moves to improve once.
Josh: This free agent period will always be quiet and unpretentious. The capped-out Mavericks team had so many options to fill the place of just a handful of rosters. But Branson leaves everything that the Mavericks can do sour. They lost the second best player on the Western Conference Finals team for free. And regardless of the mistake, it just stinked. Mavericks was nevertheless limited to two more seasons, so it was important to maintain Branson.
The Javale McGee deal is so weird that it’s no surprise that some Mavs fans have jumped into the deep end. Dallas has joined a free agency that is likely to need cheap backups to end the rotation, but it’s strange to sign a three-year deal with the 34-year-old Journeyman Center. This is the second biggest deal in McGee’s career! McGee helps with the vacation, but unless Mavericks does something else, the move in itself makes no sense. And that’s friction, right? Too many off-seasons have been given the qualifier “Wait, let’s see what Mavericks is cooking.” And in most cases, it ends in the same way.
In summary, Mavericks entered the off-season and needed to add one or two playoff floatation players. In previous free agents, they were net minus one, with McGee in and Branson out. It is tough.
Doyle: Mavericks is certainly not getting better. It seems much harder to expect a repeat after seeing their second best ball handler leave after an unexpected run to the Western Conference Finals last season. The Dallas front office was completely surprised by Jalen Brunson’s departure or mishandled it for months. Both can be true, but they go down as a failure of another free agent on the team just because there is no reward. The list is long.
Did you know about the addition of JaVale McGee? McGee has a career as a Journeyman, and this is his second stop in Dallas. His three-year contract is confusing because he’s not a spring chicken. And does he expect to get started? He shouldn’t start. But hey, I’m not a coach.
I like them bringing back Theo Pinson. Pinson didn’t see much play time last season, but he was the heart and soul of the bench. Now that Branson is gone, he was able to break the rotation, but he expects him to play a similar role this season.
All in all, the free agent may not belong to Nico Harrison. He couldn’t have entered this offseason hoping to sign the championship caliber player, but there are many reasons to get angry and frustrated that he and the front office look fooled by Branson. I have. At least they read some of the tea leaves and moved to the draft to catch Jaden Hardy.
Xavier: There are many disappointments surrounding JaVale McGee, the departure of Branson and the main target of the team of free agents. That’s understandable, but Mark Cuban and the Mavericks have a way forward. It’s time for the team to look in the mirror and press the reset button. The list is old. It lacks advantages and versatility. The team and its trajectory can look very different 18 months from now if the team is willing to take a temporary step towards building a sustainable winner who can compete for the title each year. I have.
