What should the mavericks do

AL Central. AL West. NL East. NL Central. NL West. West Ham United Wolves. Virginia Tech Washington Wisconsin. Purdue Syracuse Villanova Virginia Wisconsin. Redblacks Stampeders. Featured Teams. Home Odds. The Bucks needed to do this when they traded for Jrue Holiday last offseason, and the Cavaliers demanded a second-round pick as compensation, so Dallas would likely have to pay New York a similar price to unlock its picks.

If it went this route, it could put together a relatively interesting package of picks for a star trade: unprotected choices in and along with swap rights in , , and Brooklyn went a similar route in acquiring James Harden. Here's the difference: Kevin Durant and James Harden are both 32 years old. Houston wanted their picks deep into the future because eventually, those guys are going to age out of superstardom and the Nets will presumably struggle to replace them without their picks.

But in , Doncic will only be The picks that the Mavericks could therefore offer just aren't as valuable. How bad can a team with Luka really be? Not bad enough to be in the lottery, as this year's group proved. If Dallas had any players who were especially tradable right now, they likely would have been good enough to beat the Clippers, but in truth, none of their younger players hold too much appeal on the trade market.

Tim Hardaway Jr. Jalen Brunson is an interesting prospect at 24, but he's only one year away from being paid his market rate as well. Their draft picks, Tyrell Terry and Josh Green , are interesting second-draft candidates, but neither would be likely to net the picks it cost to take them a year ago in a trade.

Some contender might give up a late first-round pick for Maxi Kleber. But realistically, there just isn't enough here to trade fair value for a superstar. If the Mavericks were going to have to trade for someone, they'd likely have to do what they did to get Porzingis: accept distressed assets. If there was a star out there with a particularly serious injury problem, Dallas might be able to afford that player, or if a team was desperate to shed onerous contracts as the Knicks were, Dallas could accommodate.

But given how poorly the Porzingis trade went, would the Mavericks really want to go down this path again? Probably not. More likely, their path to a co-star probably lies through free agency. Dallas has spent the past two seasons planning specifically for the summer of The plan, ideally, was to lure Giannis Antetokounmpo away from the Bucks to create a trio of international superstars.

But Antetokounmpo re-signed. The vaunted class has only a single in-his-prime superstar left, and he's unlikely to join the Mavericks after what just happened: Kawhi Leonard.

Dallas might not have an obvious target for it, but they still have quite a bit of cap flexibility this offseason. Richardson opting out would essentially get them there. Finding trade takers for Richardson, Kleber or Dwight Powell would be simple enough with a second-round pick attached as well If worst came to worst, the Mavericks could use the stretch provision on one of them. That would allow them to pay out the total amount owed to that player over twice the number of years left on their contract, plus one.

This is usually a last resort, though, because it bogs down cap sheets well into the future. The Miami Heat are dealing with this now.

It should be noted, though, that if the Mavericks choose to create cap space this offseason, it would mean letting go of their own free agents. Most notably, it would mean renouncing their rights to Hardaway, who Dallas would likely prefer to re-sign.

In theory, they could still do so and create cap space by trading other veterans, but regardless, there is a price attached to generating space. Dallas won't be able to do so without sacrificing some of its own players. Things get significantly more complicated after the offseason, though, because Doncic officially becomes extension-eligible when free agency begins.

Barring something extremely unforeseen, the Mavericks are going to offer him a max deal. Normally, players with four years of experience can earn only 25 percent of the cap in the first year of their rookie extension. If a player makes an All- NBA team , wins Defensive Player of the Year or wins MVP in the season before the deal kicks in, or in two of the previous three seasons, that player is eligible to earn 30 percent of the cap in the first year of their deal.

It would rise by eight percent annually after that. With two max players on their books, it will be almost impossible for the Mavericks to clear max cap space in the summers of or If they do, it will be because the cap not only grew favorably in that time but because they managed to offload basically all of their role players.

They are interested in adding more talent. The rumors keep rolling out. When there is smoke, there is fire in the NBA. The Mavs want to upgrade their roster, but who could they acquire before training camp begins? Even more, Mavericks' third-best player last season, Tim Hardaway Jr. Playing all three together gives teams plenty of options to attack.

Dallas had to finish the playoffs playing zone defense for large parts of the last three games, because their man-to-man defense was so bad.

If we look at the teams that made it to the second round in the playoffs, most teams had game-changing players on defense. Dorian Finney-Smith and Maxi Kleber are useful defenders, but they are not even close to being mentioned for any All-Defense teams. The Mavericks need a defensive game-changer, a player that is at least a candidate for the first or second all-defense team.

Shot creation and defense are the two most glaring gaps Mavericks need to fill. Dallas could also use a veteran player who is a good passer and a quick decision maker capable of attacking the gaps. A high-energy player who is a good rebounder is another player archetype Mavericks missed the last two seasons.

Before they start filling the gaps, Dallas' new front office will have to figure out the short and long-term plan with players on the current roster. Porzingis of course is the elephant in the room. Jason Kidd was very positive about Porzingis and his ability to regain his form and be the second scoring option in his recent interviews.

Kawhi Leonard is the player on the market that would fill both shot creation and defense at an elite level. The other two players who could fill shot creation gaps are veteran point guards Kyle Lowry and Mike Conley. Both would help with playmaking, shot-making, veteran leadership, and not be a liability on defense. Lowry is 35 and Conley is almost 34 years old, so both would be pricy gambles. As per a recent Marc Stein report, the Mavericks will try to pursue Lowry as their main free-agent target.

The Mavs' post-draft focus, league sources say, will be the pursuit of Kyle Lowry and their bid to re-sign Tim Hardaway Jr. More soon today on Lowry, Thursday's draft, Detroit at No.

The other player most Mavericks fans see as the solution for the shot-making problem is DeMar DeRozan.