Hey Guys. I couldn't agree more with most of your analysis. It's pretty clear to me that all your team needs is a low post presence and someone that can anchor your D in the paint. You already have a dangerous and highly explosive team. While you could certainly go after veteran free agents like Karl Malone or P.J. Brown to help your team. I think going after veteran players that only have a few years left in them or trading one of your big four won't do anything to help your team in the long run. I think your much better off keeping your young nucleus together and allowing time for their chemistry to improve. If I were your team's GM, I would try to keep Dirk, Fin, Nash, Van Exel, Bell, and Najera together for many years to come. Raef can be a great player as well. Someone on your coaching staff just needs to spend some time with him in the summer teaching him a post game. He has good footwork, size, athleticism, and a nice looking jumpshot. All he needs is post moves.
When I saw him at Kansas, he scored easily in the paint because he was usually bigger than everyone else he faced. For some reason that I still don't understand, Roy Williams only taught him a basic drop step, turnaround jumper, and baby hook as means to score in the paint besides offensive rebounds. In his senior season he went from posting up in the paint and using these basic moves to being able to step out to the college three point line and knock down jumpers. For some reason, his learning stopped there and his ability to knock down jumpers gave him the reputation of a jumpshooter as he extended his range out to the NBA three point line.
I'm serious guys. If you were to work with Raef and get him reacquainted with the left block, there's no reason to believe he couldn't at least give you more points in the paint and open up more things for your other players. He doesn't need to become another Duncan to be effective, just be good enough to force other teams to respect him as a viable low post threat at the power forward position.
Next, you draft a guy like Kendrick Perkins, James Lang, or Jerome Beasley that could be a bull in the middle and block shots while giving you some offense. This would allow Dirk to slide over to the small forward spot and your team can use him like Sacramento uses their 6'10" Peja Stojocovic. Dirk is a better ballhandler than Peja and his shot is just as pure so there's no reason to believe that this couldn't be a good fit for him. All he would have to do is force the quicker small forwards he faces to drive baseline so Raef can slide over easily and contest shots while cutting off the baseline. And if they get by Raef you still have another shotblocker at the rim in Perkins, Lang, or Beasley. This is exactly the way the Spurs play D right now. They channel guys towards Robinson and Duncan for shot blocks near the rim. Your team can do the same thing.
Your team really isn't as far off from being dominant in the paint as some Mavs fans may think.
Just my two cents. I may be way off here, but something tells me I'm not.
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