D’Angelo Russell To The Dallas Mavericks Doesn’t Move The Needle
All right. Uh, I wanted to say this because there’s been a lot of conversation going on about it. I’m just not the biggest believer in what the Dallas Mavericks are building going into next season. Reason I’m thinking about this right now, there was some news that came out that D’Angelo Russell could end up signing a two-year deal with this Maverick squad. And on paper, it looks like a good pickup and a good move, especially while they’re waiting for Kyrie Irving to come back from his injury. And I think that may be around like the second part of next season. But again, just not really feeling what the Mavericks have right now and the direction they’re heading into. So, here’s what I do like about this team and what they’ve got on paper. And this is according to the roster they currently have right now. This is the first day of free agency. There could be a lot of moves made by the time this video is over with, but here’s what they have right now. Uh, here’s the depth chart for them. Got Kyrie Irving potentially returning in the second half of the season. Klay Thompson, D’Angelo Russell if he does end up officially signing Cooper Flag, Anthony Davis, Derek Lively, and some bench pieces include Naji Marshall, Brandon Williams, who had a decent season last year, especially in the second half of last season. PJ Washington, Daniel Gaffford, and Max Christie is also Cayla Martin and Dante Exom and Spencer Denwitty. Both of those last two guys are going to be free agents this summer. So, I do like the depth that this roster currently has. On top of that, I do think that the upside and the idea of an attack of Cooper Flag, Kyrie Irving, and Anthony Davis, I do think that looks pretty appealing. But I said this on a video that I did a few days ago about another team. And I believe this was when I was doing a video and when I was talking about the Hawks when they went out and got Christophorzingis. There is a difference between the reality of something and the idea of something. And the reality is this, and these are some of my issues right now with this Mavericks group. You don’t trust and rely upon the health of Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving. If I was to name like the best players of the 2010s that are still playing right now, maybe of the 2020s, that would include Nicole Joic, Giannis, Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry. Uh maybe there are a few names that I’m missing there. But out of any of those names, the three guys that pop off on paper as the most consistently injured and the most consistently unavailable, Kevin Durant, Kyrie, and Anthony Davis. And two of those guys are on this Mavericks roster. And this is not an indictment on their production and their play because they are still stellar players when they’re on the court. But they’re so unhealthy to the point where it’s really tough to make a prediction or do any projections about their team performance during a season because how unreliable they are when it comes to availability and those sorts of things. And that’s just not getting any better. Kyrie’s going to be out for a significant period of time and Anthony Davis missed a significant period of time just last season for Dallas. So, you’re really worried about the injury issues with those guys. And then there’s not even that. There’s even some on the court stuff that you have a ton of questions about. And it’s weird. I said this about Dallas last season. They’ve had these moments during the Jason Kid era where one season they’re amazing defensively and then the next season there is this really massive fall off for their defense. So example 2022 when they made the West finals for the first time in the Luca era, they had an amazing team defense. Then the following season, everything just went to you know what on the defensive end. They were not a good defensive team at all. And I don’t know the reason behind that despite having a pretty similar roster than what they did the season before. So if you look at them making the finals in 2024, pretty good defense in the second half of that season, but just last season it all kind of fell apart and they were abysmal on that end. and I don’t think they got that much better defensively this off season, especially if they end up signing D’Angelo Russell. Now, there is hope in the idea that Cooper Flags defense can adjust on the NBA level and he’s really able to shut some guys down, but you tell me how you feel about D’Angelo Russell defensively at this point in his career or Klay Thompson defensively at this point in his career. Right. So, if the Mavericks were that subpar defensively last season, do you think Cooper Flag as a young prospect in his rookie year, and again, I think he’s going to be amazing in his rookie year, but do you think that’s going to be enough to totally uplift this Dallas Maverick’s defense as a whole, right? So, we have not only the injury issues to worry about, but there are some defensive concerns. They’ve had a solid on paper roster from a defensive standpoint, but the performance simply has not added up. So, can they actually bring it all together from a defensive perspective? But those are two massive question marks is you’re questioning the health of your team and you’re also questioning the consistency on the defensive end from your group as well. That’s really not a recipe for success. And then I have questions about what the level of impact D’Angelo Russell can really bring to And then I have questions about the level of impact that D’Angelo Russell can bring to a contender at this point in his career. Uh there was a point where I wanted to believe that D’Angelo Russell could contribute to winning at a very high level. And there was a point where I was actually on that train. 2023 the Lakers made the Western Conference Finals. He did have some solid moments through that series and also has pretty subpar moments as well. But during that playoff run generally, he was pretty good. And that’s when I was thinking D’Angelo Russell could end up being like a key guy on a championship team, especially in his early days with the Lakers, of course, during that LeBron era. But there were again these points in time where you questioned it again. And if you’re looking at his production last season with both the Lakers and the Nets after that trade, it just was not there. He was not efficient. The defense obviously wasn’t there. Nothing was clicking for D’Angelo Russell. So at this point in his career, we’ve seen him so much in so many different situations. Early on with the Lakers, then we saw him with the Nets and we saw him with the Timberwolves and we saw him with the Lakers again and again with the Nets and now potentially here with the Mavericks. There are so many questions about what he truly brings to a championship contending team or a team looking to make a really deep playoff run, right? Does he really solve some of your offensive issues and shot creation issues out on the perimeter during that span of time that Kyrie Irving is going to be out? Is he that sort of guy? Right? Can he be a consistent performer on the offensive end in Kyrie’s absence? So again, just a lot of questions with this group. way too many that are apparent and I’m not really sure why people would look at these things and realize these are massive question marks and still think right now this is a contending team. I just don’t really fully understand it. How can you have this many red flags early on and still think because they got Cooper flag they’re a contender because I hear people say that all the time and maybe I’ve been guilty of that. Maybe I said that a few times in my last couple of videos, but I’m kind of thinking about it and where they’re at right now. And maybe I’ve had a shift in perspective, but there are just too many red flags right now with with this particular group. Just just way too many at this particular point in time for me to look at these things they have going on and these question marks and still think they can contend with the rest of the West. Where you’re going to have a Thunder team that’s the defending Western Conference champion, right? Where you’re going to have the Nuggets back in action. you always have to put them in the conversation because they have Nicoolola Jokic and you have the Minnesota Timberwolves who I think haven’t had an amazing off seasonason yet. They did bring back some guys, but still they made the West finals last year. It’s a possibility they can do that once again. Maybe they rely a bit uh on the Western Conference getting a bit worse and maybe the Mavericks were able to have some come up in that area because of that. But still, I’m just not confident in this team’s ability right now to really make noise out west, especially the way that a lot of people have been talking about him after picking Cooper Flag number one overall. And again, Flag is my pick to win rookie of the year. I think if healthy, this team does have a ridiculous level of upside. But if health does end up being the issue, which is a very likely thing to happen, do they have enough outside of that to make some things happen? And my answer to that is no. I don’t think right now the strengths for the Mavericks overwhelm the question marks in the weaknesses headed into next
D’Angelo Russell is close to signing a two-year deal with the Dallas Mavericks once free agency officially kicks off in an attempt for Dallas to accelerate their path to championship contention. While this move looks solid on paper, will it truly be enough to push Dallas over the edge?
Time Stamps:
0:00 Intro
0:50 What I Like About The Mavericks Headed Into Next Season
1:50 Dallas’ Health Issues
3:00 Defensive Issues Could Hold This Team Back
#nba #dallasmavs #mavericks #nbafreeagency #nbanewstoday #nbanews #nbabasketball #basketball #anthonydavis #kyrieirving #nbahighlightstoday #nbahighlights #dallasmavericks
