Dejaun Blair signs 1-year deal! - Page 3 - Dallas-Mavs.com Forums

tap2390 · 08-09-2013, 08:04 AM

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Originally Posted by markus1234

Let's hope we can ship Blair, Dalembert or Wright to PHX or SAC. Gortat or Cousins would make us a really strong playoff team.

I think Gortat & Varejo (if Bynum pans out) are more likely than not to be moved by the trade deadline, but all indications are Cousins is staying in Sacramento. Even if they decided to move him I can think of 10 teams off the top of my head that can offer a better package with youth & picks. Not to be a debbie downer, it's more indicative of a teams willingness to take on a headcase when he's extremely talented AND also happens to play the 5, a rarity nowadays.

spreedom · 08-10-2013, 02:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by markus1234

Let's hope we can ship Blair, Dalembert or Wright to PHX or SAC. Gortat or Cousins would make us a really strong playoff team.

I don't see how we'd be able to get even Gortat without sending Larkin. We don't currently have the ability to trade first-round picks, and there's basically no incentive for the Suns to trade Gortat without getting pretty solid picks/prospects in return.

And I think we can totally forget about Cousins with the new ownership in place in Sacramento.

grndmstr_c · 08-10-2013, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spreedom

I don't see how we'd be able to get even Gortat without sending Larkin. We don't currently have the ability to trade first-round picks, and there's basically no incentive for the Suns to trade Gortat without getting pretty solid picks/prospects in return.

And I think we can totally forget about Cousins with the new ownership in place in Sacramento.

I don't doubt the new Sac ownership will operate differently than the old Sac ownership, but I don't see how the change takes Cousins off the table. The ticking clock on his rookie contract should be more than sufficient to motivate them to keep an open mind about what to do with him.

Gortat...I though he made sense this summer as a target, but at this point I think you can draw a parallel between his situation and Calderon's last year, at least with respect to the Mavs' interest in him: Dallas would almost certainly take him, but as long as they're on track to have cap space and he's on track to be a UFA, there really isn't much of a reason that I can see for them to offer much for him. Phoenix, to my mind, has more incentive to be a seller than the Mavs have to be a buyer, given how questionable it appears to be right now that he'd want to re-sign with them.

spreedom · 08-10-2013, 04:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grndmstr_c

I don't doubt the new Sac ownership will operate differently than the old Sac ownership, but I don't see how the change takes Cousins off the table. The ticking clock on his rookie contract should be more than sufficient to motivate them to keep an open mind about what to do with him.

The new Kings owner loves DMC. Says he's going to build around him and consulted him/used him as a recruiter/etc during free agency this summer. Older ownership just seemed, to me, to be putting up with him because they knew how good he could be. I don't think it's the new Cuban/Dirk relationship, but it sounds like Ranadivé loves the kid. Plus, as I mentioned, we don't have any real assets to offer a young, rebuilding team.

Quote:

Originally Posted by grndmstr_c

Gortat...I though he made sense this summer as a target, but at this point I think you can draw a parallel between his situation and Calderon's last year, at least with respect to the Mavs' interest in him: Dallas would almost certainly take him, but as long as they're on track to have cap space and he's on track to be a UFA, there really isn't much of a reason that I can see for them to offer much for him. Phoenix, to my mind, has more incentive to be a seller than the Mavs have to be a buyer, given how questionable it appears to be right now that he'd want to re-sign with them.

If I was the Suns, I'd rather hang onto Gortat and try to re-sign him as opposed to trading him for Larkin and/or some pretty lame assets (like we have to offer).

grndmstr_c · 08-10-2013, 05:01 PM

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Originally Posted by spreedom

The new Kings owner loves DMC. Says he's going to build around him and consulted him/used him as a recruiter/etc during free agency this summer.

Admittedly, I haven't been following things there closely, but as a general rule I think it's naive to put much stock in that kind of thing at this stage. Their front office has every reason in the world to be putting out those kinds of signals, and as a consequence the signals are almost completely uninformative.

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Plus, as I mentioned, we don't have any real assets to offer a young, rebuilding team.

Remains to be seen what assets Dallas will have, and what teams those assets might be appealing to. As of right now there's plausible interest on Dallas' part, plausible motivation to deal on Sac's part, and the potential for some of Dallas' players to play up their value on the trade market through the first half of the season. Completely discounting the possibility of something happening there just doesn't make any sense to me at this stage.

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If I was the Suns, I'd rather hang onto Gortat and try to re-sign him as opposed to trading him for Larkin and/or some pretty lame assets (like we have to offer).

I'll reference my comment above regarding Dallas' assets. Beyond that, I don't disagree that the Suns would probably rather wait it out than take what Dallas would offer, but again, a big part of the reason that I think that is that I don't think Dallas would offer much.

spreedom · 08-10-2013, 06:28 PM

Plausible motivation to deal on Sac's part, if they're trading with another team. Tell me, as a Kings owner, what would the Mavs have to offer that you'd possibly be interested in? Zero offense intended, but to speculate that the Mavs could actually trade for Cousins with pieces on this roster is absurd. I think it's far-fetched to say that we could even make a real offer to the Suns.

I think the Kings' owner is totally committed to Cousins unless they're getting something along the lines of a top-15 player in his prime in return.

marc9211 · 08-10-2013, 06:35 PM

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Originally Posted by spreedom

Plausible motivation to deal on Sac's part, if they're trading with another team. Tell me, as a Kings owner, what would the Mavs have to offer that you'd possibly be interested in? Zero offense intended, but to speculate that the Mavs could actually trade for Cousins with pieces on this roster is absurd. I think it's far-fetched to say that we could even make a real offer to the Suns.

I think the Kings' owner is totally committed to Cousins unless they're getting something along the lines of a top-15 player in his prime in return.

What if Cousins just doesn't want to play for the Kings anymore? He's giving hints and with his attitude we know he would much rather be with a winning franchise. Now don't get me wrong I agree we don't have the assets, but SAC may fear after his contract he leaves for nothing in return. Now with the new owner I also have not kept up with there relationship so he may love SAC now, who knows.

spreedom · 08-10-2013, 06:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by marc9211

What if Cousins just doesn't want to play for the Kings anymore? He's giving hints and with his attitude we know he would much rather be with a winning franchise. Now don't get me wrong I agree we don't have the assets, but SAC may fear after his contract he leaves for nothing in return. Now with the new owner I also have not kept up with there relationship so he may love SAC now, who knows.

Only way that would happen without SAC having a say in it would be if he took his qualifying offer a year from now and played the 14-15 season for that amount. Then, if he left the Kings, he'd lose the chance to get a 5-year deal AND his bird rights raises. All of that to get out of Sacramento? That's a lot of sacrifice and risk. Our best/only shot at getting him before next season would be to throw a max offer at him next summer and hope that the Kings won't match. But unless something dramatically changes, I think they're going to commit to him as their long-term building block. Whether that's smart or not is another issue altogether.

I'd love to trade for him this year, but that's just not possible. I would also be very happy just making him a max offer outright this summer so we can pair him with Dirk for the next couple of years.

grndmstr_c · 08-10-2013, 08:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spreedom

Plausible motivation to deal on Sac's part, if they're trading with another team. Tell me, as a Kings owner, what would the Mavs have to offer that you'd possibly be interested in?

Ask me again when we're closer to the trade deadline.

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I think the Kings' owner is totally committed to Cousins unless they're getting something along the lines of a top-15 player in his prime in return.

I have as much evidence to counter the argument that that's how he'll feel when the trade deadline gets here as you have to support it.

spreedom · 08-10-2013, 08:12 PM

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Originally Posted by grndmstr_c

Ask me again when we're closer to the trade deadline.

What's your scenario for that? That DMC's value drops significantly? Or that one of our assets' value increases to that degree?

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Originally Posted by grndmstr_c

I have as much evidence to counter that argument as you have to support it.

I'd say the burden of proof in this discussion would be on the person that says the Kings would trade their best player. That's all.

Token of peace:

grndmstr_c · 08-10-2013, 10:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spreedom

What's your scenario for that? That DMC's value drops significantly? Or that one of our assets' value increases to that degree?

My view is this. For Sac to trade Cousins (to anyone), they'd have to get to a point where they feel that they'd rather have what they can get in trade at the deadline than give him a max deal next summer (which is a somewhat different criteria than needing to feel like the main piece they'd be getting in return is a comparable player). As for Dallas, I expect their best chance at getting in on the action would probably be if they saw several of their younger assets solidly outperform expectations through the start of the season up to the all-star break. Of course, as with almost any trade we could possibly think of, the smart money is pretty much always on nothing getting done. Whatever the range of hypotheticals and their individual (im)plausibility, I certainly don't mean to imply that I think otherwise in this case.

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I'd say the burden of proof in this discussion would be on the person that says the Kings would trade their best player.

Ah, but I haven't said "would". I've only been arguing that "definitely won't" is going too far. A position carefully chosen to insure that the burden of proof is in step with the obvious lack of any real evidence to go on.

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Token of peace:

Accepted!

spreedom · 08-10-2013, 10:48 PM

Fair enough!

marc9211 · 08-10-2013, 10:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spreedom

Only way that would happen without SAC having a say in it would be if he took his qualifying offer a year from now and played the 14-15 season for that amount. Then, if he left the Kings, he'd lose the chance to get a 5-year deal AND his bird rights raises. All of that to get out of Sacramento? That's a lot of sacrifice and risk. Our best/only shot at getting him before next season would be to throw a max offer at him next summer and hope that the Kings won't match. But unless something dramatically changes, I think they're going to commit to him as their long-term building block. Whether that's smart or not is another issue altogether.

I'd love to trade for him this year, but that's just not possible. I would also be very happy just making him a max offer outright this summer so we can pair him with Dirk for the next couple of years.

Nice good info.. wasn't sure on what was going on with him... In today's NBA though if a star wants out he's getting out. Players have all the power.

DevinHarriswillstart · 08-21-2013, 10:24 AM

Look at Blair eat Kaman for breakfast in this video. My gosh Kaman was a terrible defender. And he was terrible because he didn't put in any effort.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbTKxQJ2sh0

EricaLubarsky · 08-21-2013, 06:05 PM

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Originally Posted by DevinHarriswillstart

Look at Blair eat Kaman for breakfast in this video. My gosh Kaman was a terrible defender. And he was terrible because he didn't put in any effort.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbTKxQJ2sh0

It's fun to watch now that Kaman is gone. Kaman's effort was definitely questionable at times, but sometimes I wonder if he was just pre-occupied. I know Cubes or Nelson came out recently and basically said that they hoped to shape him into a better player, but he just didn't listen to coach advice because he was on his own wave length.

Hopefully Blair comes here focused and never gets angry about play time. He's a heck of a competitor, but he's shown that he can go sour fast if he is put on the pine.

Dirk's Knee · 08-22-2013, 10:06 AM

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Originally Posted by EricaLubarsky

It's fun to watch now that Kaman is gone. Kaman's effort was definitely questionable at times, but sometimes I wonder if he was just pre-occupied. I know Cubes or Nelson came out recently and basically said that they hoped to shape him into a better player, but he just didn't listen to coach advice because he was on his own wave length.

Hopefully Blair comes here focused and never gets angry about play time. He's a heck of a competitor, but he's shown that he can go sour fast if he is put on the pine.

Kaman did a weekly show on The Ticket and he unknowingly revealed his "problem" once in a very telling segment. It's not a necessarily a lack of effort (though likely an issue as well) but completely overthinking things. If his response was true to what's going on in his head, he's got a rather complex decision tree which he runs down to decide if he's going to try and block a shot or not. My bet is by the time he comes to a decision the ball is already in the basket. Either way, glad he's gone...

EricaLubarsky · 11-15-2013, 05:52 PM

Blair is now 3rd in rebound rate among centers (which is a measure of percentage of available boards, rebounded) and 5th among all active players

He's also the best offensive rebounder by that measure among all active players in the NBA so far.

Also, those rebounds have propelled him to 5th among centers in PER and 20th among all players.

Dirk's Knee · 11-16-2013, 11:41 PM

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Originally Posted by EricaLubarsky

Blair is now 3rd in rebound rate among centers (which is a measure of percentage of available boards, rebounded) and 5th among all active players

He's also the best offensive rebounder by that measure among all active players in the NBA so far.

Also, those rebounds have propelled him to 5th among centers in PER and 20th among all players.

Yep. The only reason Dalembert is starting is for the tip. Blair is leading is almost every statistical category (even advanced stats) over Blair. What an incredible pick up. Far exceeded my expectations...

EricaLubarsky · 11-17-2013, 12:35 AM

Well he can't hit FT, so he's suceptible to hack-a-Blair and at times his defense was spotty against the Vuj, but he did balance his inability to contest shots with brute strength to keep guys from getting good position and has incredible hands for stripping players and deflecting passes down low.

oilfieldtrash · 11-17-2013, 06:41 AM

I give this guy credit but he is benefiting greatly from this teams basketball iq. Heck Daly has been the recipient of some great passes down there and couldn't cash in. I wouldn't overspend for Blair imo next year. I think any high basketball iq guy could fit in there and be in the right spots to receive those passes.

markus1234 · 11-17-2013, 12:40 PM

It's really a joke how open he is. His shots (floaters) are easier than layups during practice, lol.

Dirk's Knee · 11-18-2013, 10:14 AM

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Originally Posted by EricaLubarsky

Well he can't hit FT, so he's suceptible to hack-a-Blair and at times his defense was spotty against the Vuj, but he did balance his inability to contest shots with brute strength to keep guys from getting good position and has incredible hands for stripping players and deflecting passes down low.

Yep. He gets dinged by folks for not being tall enough to block shots, but his defense is all about stopping the ball from ever getting into the hands of a shooter down low. He's shooting an uncharacteristically low FT% compared to his career, hopefully he'll get out of that funk soon.

Quote:

Originally Posted by oilfieldtrash

I give this guy credit but he is benefiting greatly from this teams basketball iq. Heck Daly has been the recipient of some great passes down there and couldn't cash in. I wouldn't overspend for Blair imo next year. I think any high basketball iq guy could fit in there and be in the right spots to receive those passes.

True, but I think a big part of that is his positioning on the floor too.