NBA Trade Frenzy: Can Mavs Still Pursue LaVine, Hield or Oladipo?

There was a significant amount of activity on Monday after the NBA lifted its trade moratorium, although not from the Dallas Mavericks. However, Zach LaVine, Buddy Hield, and Victor Oladipo are still on the board.

Soon after our exclusive interview with Dallas Mavericks general manager Donnie Nelson on Monday, the NBA lifted its trade moratorium, which led to a flurry of activity throughout the rest of the day. The Phoenix Suns started things off by pulling off a trade for future Hall-of-Fame point guard, Chris Paul. Then, in a move that might be telling of what is to come for the Houston Rockets, the Portland Trail Blazers were able to acquire Robert Covington for Trevor Ariza and two first-round picks. Finally, the night ended with our Giannis-to-Dallas pipe dream taking a huge blow, as the Milwaukee Bucks were able to acquire both Jrue Holiday from the New Orleans Pelicans and Bogdan Bogdanovic from the Sacramento Kings.

Although the Dallas Mavericks were quiet on the first day of the NBA trade moratorium being lifted, there are still many ways the team can upgrade the roster this week through trades, the draft (which will commence Wednesday night on ESPN at 7:30 p.m. CT), and free agency. 

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If Dallas wants those upgrades to come via trades, we believe they should be aggressively pursuing Zach LaVine, Buddy Hield or Victor Oladipo. 

We discuss all of these possibilities on today's episode of the Mavs Step Back Podcast, and why Oladipo is the most likely of the three.

After the moves Milwaukee made on Monday, Marc Stein of the New York Times reported that there is 'chatter' around the league that Giannis Antetokounmpo will sign his five-year super-max extension with the Bucks before the December 21 deadline. If that is the case, the Mavs need to completely wipe out any plans for the 2021 offseason that they had in the back of their minds and attempt to go all-out now. 

The Bucks are just the latest example of why cap space is overrated. Despite being capped out and still owing Eric Bledsoe $54 million over the next three seasons, the Bucks were still able to flip him and draft capital (given A LOT of draft capital - three first-round picks and two future pick swaps) for Holiday... and again, they were still able to add Bogdanovic after that.

All of this and much much more is discussed in today's episode. As always, thanks for listening, and be sure to subscribe on your favorite platforms. Also, please leave us a nice review on Apple Podcasts if that's where you listen every week. That really helps us out!