Mavericks Roundtable: Best/Worst Moves of the Offseason

The Dallas Mavericks have had an offseason to remember, and will enter the 2015-16 season with a much different look from the 50-win team of last year.

There have been good moves, bad moves, and everything in between. Our staff at The Smoking Cuban takes a look at the best, and worst, this summer had to offer.

Mar 7, 2014; Dallas, TX, USA; Portland Trail Blazers shooting guard

Wesley Matthews

(2) and Dallas Mavericks shooting guard

Monta Ellis

(11) fight for the ball during the second half at the American Airlines Center. The Mavericks defeated the Trail Blazers 103-98. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

What was the best, and worst, move the Mavericks made this summer?

Andrew Tobolowsky: The Mavs saved their chance at respectability by magically swinging a trade of Zaza Pachulia for nothing. He’s not going to make the Mavs forget about Tyson Chandler, but he is solid and without him the Mavs might very well have had a front court depth chart of Sam Dalembert, Dirk Nowitzki, Dwight Powell, and somebody like Ryan Hollins. Given how many minutes Dirk should be playing at his age that would have been horrific.

Charles Herbert: Leaving aside the DJ fiasco, re-signing J.J Barea to a 4-year roughly $16 million dollar deal doesn’t seem to make much sense on an number of levels. He was originally slated to get a 2-year deal earining less than $3 million per year, which seems more in line with what the market would bear out.

He’s already on the wrong side of 30 and depends on his quickness for so much of his game. His size already means he’ll struggle defensively and he’s not a consistent threat from deep. All the more baffling given the Mavericks already had three point guards on the roster, including their new starting PG in Deron Williams.

Maybe in the dark aftermath of the DJ saga, they wanted some measure of continuity, or to just let Dirk at least play with one of his friends. If it makes Dirk happy, it’s well worth it after all he’s given to this franchise, but from a basketball product standpoint, not so much.

In terms of best, I’ll go with the series of partially guaranteed contracts Cuban and co. have been pursuing to fill out the training camp roster. It gives them some options and more of a chance to find a diamond in the rough on an affordable multi-year deal and I like the innovation. Who knows, if they hit on one or two of those that could make up for the last half decade of disappointing drafts and bolster their stable of young projects.

Aaron Clements: The Mavs made plenty of great moves this summer. Drafting Justin Anderson disappointed some fans at first, but I highly doubt any fans who watched him in the Summer League are still disappointed. Trading a second-rounder for Zaza Pachulia, an excellent passing and shooting big who hustles on the court, is another candidate for the Mavs’ best move this summer. Finally, paying $5M per to sign a former superstar/one of the best sharpshooters in the game/a legitimate starting point guard in Deron Williams could also be the most savy move the Mavs’ front office made this offseason.

I’m not going to include anything about DeAndre Jordan in the Mavs’ list of worst moves, because none of that disaster was a direct result of decisions the Mavs made. That being said, his decision caused the Mavs to make some of their “most questionable” moves this offseason. For example, giving 4-years, $70M to a player coming off of an Achilles rupture, one of the worst injuries in sports, is certainly a risky move. Also, 4 years and $16M for JJ? He’s a vet min player on any other team, providing he makes the roster. Hopefully these head-scratcher contracts don’t come back to bite Dallas in the future.

Kohl Rast: Despite the large contract, I have a hard time going anywhere further than Wes Matthews as our best pickup this summer. His style of play and recent improvements in scoring ability make him a dynamic player but what really won me over on him is the work ethic and attitude that he brings everywhere he goes. That is the type of player any organization would love to have but the Mavs went and outbid people for him.

I also believe that the price we paid for him isn’t that absurd with the cap numbers preparing to skyrocket. I also think that getting rid of Ellis and Rondo is going to help the Mavs more than it will hurt them.

The worst move in my eyes has nothing to do with that Clippers player but rather the loss of our entire defensive identity. I was a believer from the start that re-signing Chandler was going to be a better move than chasing Jordan in the offseason so we could focus on fixing our major backcourt issues. Losing out on Aminu just added a little more salt to the wound in my eyes. I can’t imagine everyone counting the Mavericks out of the playoffs if we had kept Chandler and still made all the moves for D-Will, Matthews, and Zaza. That being said, I still feel like we won more than we lost this offseason as long as we can stay healthy.

Isaac Harris: I got two best moves. Drafting Justin Anderson was a heck of a move. We could have very well moved down or traded the pick to save money for the offseason. Instead we draft a player who can be apart of the rotation and give us Mavs fans a good young player we can see grow. The other is bringing back Sammy for $1.49 million. I’m in no way saying Sammy is some elite center, but for the price, i would take that any day.

Although we know the reasons and situation, I hated letting Aminu walk. Tyson hurt too, but for the price he received; I’m glad we didn’t do that. But letting Aminu walk to make $7.5 million a year hurt the most. He was our go-to wing defender, and a fairly young player too. Now we go against the Harden, Thompson, KD’s with Anderson and CP as our primary wing defenders. But its over and I wish Aminu the best.

Daniel Devine: Best move: I think Wes was the “best” move but relative to cost I think the chance at D-Will is intriguing (in August.)

Worst: the DeAndre thing (last time mentioning him hopefully.)

Jason Lee: Drafting Justin Anderson was the best moment the Mavericks had this summer.

The worst? DeAndre Jordan disrespecting Mark Cuban. You know, like a child.

Next: Over/Under? Dirk's 17.3 PPG

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