Quote:
Originally Posted by MavzMan
I understand your reasoning for wanting to trade Barea, but I and probably most of the people on this forum would disagree. Rather than trade, it would be better to either have him nurse some "injury" or severly limit the remaining playing time. After this season, tanking will be much less prevalent in the league due to the new draft rules. And JJB will is a very valuable asset both coming off the bench and mentoring the young guys on how to play and prepare for games.
For what we would get in return which is at most a 2nd pick now, it's not worth literally dumping him.
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A couple of things here.
A) They could of kept him out of Sat night's game with SAC because of his oblique injury. That was his first game back. No one could of stopped them from being extra cautious & keeping him out one more game. They choose not to do that & he had the highest plus/minus of any Mav that night. When he & Powell were on the floor together the Mavs outscored the Kings 46-27 or something ungodly like that. If you're not going to keep him out vs SAC, then when are you going to do it? I don't trust the Mavs to do something like that. Maybe they'll limit his minutes. Maybe... Also, maybe he does just enough in those minutes to push the Mavs over the edge and into a win.
B) I fully expect this to be an extremely tight race for the worst record in the league. Just 1 or 2 wins could very well mean the difference between picking 2nd & picking 5th. See my post a few posts back where I projected win totals for the bottom 8 teams... If the Mavs wind up with Marvin Bagley III instead of DeAndre Ayton, we could look back at that 3-5 years later & see it as a TREMENDOUS difference. Something far more valuable than a solid veteran back up PG with 15 min per night & an extra vet in the room for guidance. That stuff is pretty overrated imo. Not to mention we have Dirk here, Harrison Barnes, Wes Matthews, Devin Harris and the staff Coach Carlisle, and guys like Darrell Armstrong, Michael Finley, etc. I don't think JJ makes the big difference there that we need to keep him around just for his leadership. If he's that valuable in that role, then cut him as a player & sign him as a coach. DSJ has already said that the guy who helps him the most is Wes Matthews, anyways.
Bottom line. We don't even have to get anything back. Just keeping Barea out of the lineup is valuable enough for me. We have a legit shot at the top pick. It'd behoove us not to dick around with this & actually tank the best we can. NO HALF MEASURES. Personally, I could give a rat's ass about JJ Barea, but that's just me.
C) I don't think it's true that Barea can only return us a 2nd round pick. You're right in that straight up that's all Barea's value is on the open market. However, a team like Indiana for example could look to dump some salary & upgrade for a playoff push this year. They really only have Darren Collison at the point. Imo, Barea is better than Cory Joseph as a back up. They already have Myles Turner, Thaddeus Young and Domantas Sabonis in the backcourt. Al Jefferson and his $10 mil per year for this year & next are expendable. He's only playing 13 mpg, anyways. If the Mavs offered Barea, Kleber, and maybe threw in their 2nd round pick this year, I could see Indiana giving up their 1st round pick this year if we also took Jefferson's salary back.
That's away to help the tank, and increase both of our draft picks this year to higher spots in the pecking order.
Edit: I could see a similar deal working with Denver. They're pushing for the playoffs, they don't have a true PG on their roster, they still have their 2018 first round pick, and they have a player like Al Jefferson whose skills are becoming obsolete in today's NBA in Kenneth Faried & he's making $12.9 mil this season and $13.7 mil next season. That exact same deal works for Denver too.