Why Mavs Should Be Focused On A Zach LaVine Trade Instead Of Damian Lillard
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban knows what we've all known for a while now -- Luka Doncic needs a lot more help going forward than he's received to this point in his stellar three-year-old NBA career.
"Trust me, nobody wants to get Luka more help than I do," said Cuban recently at a Texas Alumni event. "What do we need is really the question, and we need a second scorer. There's no question about it. I think people were unfairly giving KP a hard time. KP is who he is. We didn't think our need for a secondary scorer would be as great as it was honestly. We thought we needed more defense and that would balance out things. Now Timmy Hardaway did a great job emerging as a catch-and-shoot guy and even improved his off-the-dribble game, but we do have to improve there. And that's what we're going to look for this summer. How do you get a star who can create his own shot so the responsibility isn't completely on Luka?"
Although disgruntled Portland Trail Blazers superstar Damian Lillard fits that exact description of what Cuban claims is the team's biggest need, the length of his contract makes a Mavs trade for him very unlikely, given their current assets. It's not impossible, as we wrote about the other day in this three-team pipe-dream trade piece, but it's not something we'd put any money on at this point.
READ MORE: Damian Lillard Trade To Mavs That Fits: Porzingis, Blazers, Portland 3-Way
However, another star player who fits that exact description is Chicago Bulls shooting guard Zach LaVine. Here at DallasBasketball.com, we have been pining for a LaVine-to-Dallas trade for nearly two years now, and the Mavs themselves reportedly registered interest in trading for LaVine before the 2020 NBA Draft. He is on the final year of his contract with the Bulls, he shares the same agent as Doncic in Billy Duffy, and the Bulls' big trade for Nikola Vucevic still wasn't enough to even get Chicago into the play-in tournament. With LaVine set to hit the 2022 unrestricted free agency market next year, it could be a perfect storm for new Mavs GM Nico Harrison to make his first big splash.
READ MORE: A New Mavs Era: Will Harrison & Kidd Attract Star Talent to Dallas? - Podcast
On this episode of the Mavs Step Back Podcast, Dalton Trigg (@dalton_trigg) and Matt Galatzan (@Matt_galatzan) are joined by return guest and Mavs Moneyball Editor-in-Chief Kirk Henderson (@kirkseriousface) to talk about the Harrison and Kidd hires, whether Dallas should take on some negative assets in order to obtain some draft capital, why the Mavs should be more focused on a Zach LaVine trade rather than a Dame Lillard trade, and much, much more!
When you're finished listening to this episode, head on over to MavsMoneyball.com to listen to the latest episode of 'Kirk Your Enthusiasm', where we discuss the infamous fake Nico Harrison Twitter account that everyone fell for, our biggest Mavs' free agency wants, and more. Hit that subscribe button for both podcasts to have even more weekly Mavs content for the rest of this offseason and beyond.
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CONTINUE READING: New Coach Jason Kidd: Mavs 'Hungry & Incredibly Talented'
