Why Mavs Should Be Focused On A Zach LaVine Trade Instead Of Damian Lillard

On this episode of the Mavs Step Back Podcast, Dalton Trigg and Matt Galatzan are joined by Mavs Moneyball Editor-in-Chief Kirk Henderson to discuss the Dallas Mavericks hiring Nico Harrison and Jason Kidd, whether the Mavs should take on negative assets in return for NBA Draft capital, and why Dallas should be focused on a potential Zach LaVine trade instead of a Damian Lillard trade.

Dalton Trigg | Jun 29, 2021

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.

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.

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'

Published Jun 29, 2021

DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.