Mavs NBA Rumor Donuts: 'Flood Of Deals Expected'

Dallas Mavs NBA Rumor Donuts: 'Flood Of Deals Expected' ... Like What? Like These

Mike Fisher | Nov 10, 2020

DALLAS - Dallas Mavericks NBA Rumor Donuts, where a 'flood of trades is expected' ... right around the corner ...

DONUT 1: 'FLOOD OF TRADES' The NBA season will begin on December 22. The NBA Draft is November 18. And in between those two dates? Free agency will apparently begin on November 20 with signings allowed at 11:01 p.m. CT on Nov. 22.

“People expect there will be a lifting of the moratorium some amount of days before the draft,” ESPN’s Zach Lowe said on the Lowe Post podcast Monday. “And get ready, because stuff is gonna start flying. It’s gonna be fun.”

We get the same vibe specific to the Dallas Mavericks. Mavs management is acutely aware that they are on the verge of something big, with Luka Doncic as the centerpiece ... and as the magnet to something even bigger: Talent acquisition.

DONUT 2: MAGNETIC LUKA Obviously, Doncic as a draw is more about future free-agent recruiting than it is now.

But future free-agent recruiting is something Dallas is mindful of now because of all the dominoes that are within inches of one another ... and could start falling in a positive direction for Dallas very quickly.

DONUT 3: GIANNIS AT THE TOP Is "The Greek Freak'' on the verge of joining the Mavs? No. But will Dallas have Giannis in the back of its mind when it engineers other deals?

Absolutely - and not because the other deals must include guys who "fit'' with Giannis, but rather, because other guys must be worthy of serving as "ammunition'' if and when it comes time to deal for Giannis, or any player like him.

DONUT 4: THE CUPBOARD AND BEAL Bradley Beal may be the most immediate example of a player on another team who embodies Mavs owner Mark Cuban's "Nuclear Winter'' philosophy. But if Beal ever asks the Wizards for a divorce, bidders will line up, with gigantic trade offers.

The Mavs are aware that they need to fill the cupboard with talent in order to be prepared for such an opportunity.

The good news? Dallas is far ahead of where it has been for the better part of the last decade, a time during which we've joked with Mavs officials that they can only trade, re-acquire and then trade again Devin Harris so many times.

DONUT 5: DEALS ALREADY IN PLACE? We don't think this is true in Dallas' case - because we have knowledge of what the scouting department has done with research into using picks Nos. 18 and 31 in the upcoming NBA Draft.

If those picks are already locked in to being traded, Dallas' personnel people wouldn't be working so feverishly to create a Big Board and to interview every single guy on that Board ranking between 11 and 40, as we've been told is the case.

But ... “I think there’s been dialogue with teams and agents, and there’s frameworks (of deals),” ESPN’s front office insider Bobby Marks said on a recent Hoop Collective podcast. “We’ve got about 140 free agents and then there’ll be a handful that will go into training camps still without a home, but there’ll be guys flying off the board here.''

So, potential deals in place? Yes. We will buy that.

DONUT 6: PICK/TRADE COMPETITION Dallas' best assets may be those picks. But other teams have multiple picks, too. And at the very top of the Draft, a few teams are trying to trade down.

In the end, there would be no disaster in Dallas using 18 and 31 - it just won't get the Mavs to where they want their roster to be as quickly as ...

DONUT 7: CHASING A BIG A Rudy Gobert trade seems like a bit of a fantasy, as much as Dallas likes him.

A Serge Ibaka chase does not seem like a fantasy. He also fits the "tough-guy'' mold, which is on Dallas' wish list.

Denver's Grant can do that. So can Clippers' friendly foe Montrezl Harrell.

DONUT 8: CHASING A SHOOTER Danilo Gallinari has been on Dallas' wish list for so long that it seems inevitable that he lands in a Mavs uniform ... someday.

Does he qualify as the coveted "third star''? We will argue "no.'' Does he fit now ... and serve as "cupboard ammunition'' later? Absolutely.

DONUT 9: 'LUKA-FRIENDLY' Some find it unsavory for an organization to bend to the desires of its top star. But if the top star is unselfish, and not the one making the demands? Nothing unsavory about that.

Every single move the Mavs make - and we certainly believe that the roster as presently constructed will not remain this way beyond the 2021 NBA Trade Deadline - must be and will be "Luka-friendly.''

People around the league talk a great deal of how much other guys want to play with Luka. But it's even more important that Luka wants to play with them. That, in fact, is the origin of Dallas' multiple efforts to pursue Goran Dragic, Luka's countryman and idol.

Dragic is yet another guy who seems like an inevitably "Some-Day Mav.''

DONUT 10: A STAR IS BORN We're not saying a Jrue Holliday trade will be easy; we are saying Holliday in a Luka backcourt is a fit, and that as good as Jrue is, he would figure to blossom even further in Dallas.

Of course, who wouldn't? Victor Oladipo in Dallas? Aaron Gordon in Dallas? DeMar DeRozen in Dallas? Buddy Hield in Dallas? (He already hangs out here in the offseason, so ...)

DONUT 11: PIPEDREAMS? The beauty of all of this conversation - this "flood'' of possibilities? Suddenly, these are not like the self-admitted "pipedreams'' of the past.

By the way, we're not copping to 20 years of those being "our pipedreams''; the grand ideas of talent acquisition were all created by Cuban-led Mavs management. So don't blame the piano player.

Well, except in the case of the James Harden idea. We'll take the blame for pipedreaming that one.

OK, maybe "suddenly'' is the wrong word, as it took Dallas a half-decade to get here. But ... here we indeed are.

DONUT 12: THE FINAL WORD "(We're) never patient," GM Donnie Nelson said in an exclusive DBcom visit. "Because we want to be as good as we can be ... yesterday. ... We're always looking for every angle. ... It's 'turn over every rock,' and then turn it over three more times just to make sure."

Published Nov 10, 2020

MIKE FISHER

Mike Fisher - as a newspaper beat writer and columnist and on radio and TV, where he is an Emmy winner - has covered the NBA and the Dallas Mavericks since 1990. He has for more than 20 years served as the overseer of DallasBasketball.com, the granddaddy of Mavs news websites.