Mavs Positioning for Major Moves...

The Mavericks are positioning for huge moves this fall, and Messiah Jury pulling off a masterclass of a trade by acquiring Zachary Richerchet. More reports continue to swirl, this time surrounding a very interesting name. While the regular season inches closer and closer, the Mavericks have a lot of work to do to continue opening up roster spots for their new acquisitions. We're going to break down the new report, discuss what it means going forward, but not only that, we have a ton of other updates, including the Mavericks getting even more back from the Zachary Richerchet trade than we initially thought, as they have actually gotten a pick back in that deal that is heavily protected. There is a lot to discuss today, but before we get into it, a very quick reminder to hit that subscribe button. We're on the road to 30,000 subscribers. You guys have been a piece of the support, and the regular season is just around the corner. Let's dive right into it. So obviously, we know the Mavericks acquired Zachary Richerchet. That was a couple of days ago. The trade is a, I think a lot of fans like it. I personally like it, but I want to dive into a report. Now, I covered this one yesterday, but I want to start with this, and this is from Brett Siegel talking about how Dallas, of course, absorbed Richerchet's contract using the full trade exception from the Anthony Davis trade. They're $2 million below the luxury tax, and Siegel confirms that they will be moving Gafford and or Thompson before the start of the season. Now, check out my video from yesterday night, if you haven't already. That is a very interesting report, obviously confirming that they're going to be trading one of the two, if not both, but I want to dive into a report that started to fly in rumors surrounding PJ Washington, because Jake Weinbach, and again, he's not the most reputable reporter, but he's started some interesting talks about PJ Washington. So, according to him, PJ Washington's future in Dallas remains uncertain. Following the Mavericks' notable frontcourt additions of Merez Johnson Jr., Santi Aldama, and Zachary Richerchet, I would expect the Mavericks to continue fielding trade calls for Washington, as well as other veterans on the roster. So this one is a, and again, PJ Washington hasn't really been talked about in a while because of the fact that we're all looking at Daniel Gafford. For PJ Washington, his future definitely is up in the air now. There's been a lot of rumblings about the Lakers being interested, pairing him back up with Luca Dante from the time in Dallas. I mean, it's the same thing with Daniel Gafford. There's been a lot of talks with Luca's team, the Lakers, but you can see here, the Lakers are among teams that can register interest in PJ Washington with the Mavericks reportedly entertaining offers. If the Lakers are unable to sign Kaminga, Washington would be a logical trade target to fill the starting power forward role. So it does make some sense, obviously the Lakers lost to Rehash Mora, and if you go out and you make a trade like this, it would be quite the interesting one. Now, there has been some ridiculous rumblings, and let's bring up the report from Evan Sidery who, I mean, I disagree with this, but it's PJ Washington for Brani James, Jared Vanderbilt, Jake Moravia, and a pick swap. I don't think there is any world the Mavericks make that trade that is an insanely low amount of value. You're basically getting, I mean, Jake Moravia is pretty good, right, but I think you have to at least be searching, and we know Messiah is searching for draft capital, first round pick in this trade, so I'll probably have a full video covering that ridiculous trade tomorrow, but again, the Lakers are a logical target at this juncture for PJ Washington. At the same time, you look at the way the team is currently constructed, I'm not entirely sure they're going to trade PJ Washington. Now, we've heard a lot of reports from Jake Fisher, from Mark Stein, talking about how they're currently fielding trade offers for Daniel Gafford. I think Gafford's a much more likely candidate to get traded if you're kind of comparing the three, and, excuse me again, they don't really have a starting center at this point if they get rid of Daniel Gafford again. Sure, Derrick Lively, you have some interesting names out there, Dwight Powell is not re-signed, Musa Cisse, who they brought back, but Daniel Gafford last year, 10.6 rebounds, let's not forget, he is one year removed from having a really good season. Now, if you look at the way that this team is currently constructed, Irving Christie flagged Washington Gafford, and there's been a lot of talks about trading two of those starters, PJ or Daniel Gafford, I can't imagine a world where they trade both PJ and Gafford and Clay, like that would just be a little bit ridiculous, but that bench is looking pretty loaded. I mean, you have Santeel Dahme, you have Tarek Pobrovich, you still have Caleb Martin, but Derrick Lively, I mean, Marcus Sasser, Sergio Delaria, there's so many players on the team. I do think there is going to be a world here very, very soon where they make a move specifically to get rid of some of their forwards, which is why PJ Washington makes a lot of sense, because you have Merez Johnson Jr. who's going to need minutes, you have Santeel Dahme who's going to need minutes, you have Najee Marshall who's going to want minutes, you have Caleb Martin who, who knows what's going to happen with him at this point, but there's a clear logjam there, and that's why the Lakers might make some sense. Is it for this? Absolutely not. I'm not taking this trade any day of the, any day of the week here. Jake Laravia is a fine player, Jared Vandenbilt's a good defensive player. You're still stuck with a ton of forwards, like it doesn't fix anything. You're just going to be adding them behind other players on the depth chart. I think you need to start cutting down a little bit if you're going to do that. Now, Brett Siegel also did mention that the trade with Zachary Richechet keeps on getting better, so in addition to acquiring former number one overall pick Zachary Richechet, the Mavericks also received a top 55 protected 2027 second round picks from the Hawks. So you know, they're probably not going to get this, this pick is probably not going to convert as a top 55 protected, but in the off chance that it does and the Hawks are extremely good in 2027, like one of the five best teams in the league, then sure, the Mavericks will get another second round pick even though it is a late, late second, but comment down below what your thoughts are on all this and the Mavericks at this point, they have, they're close to the first apron, they're still under it. You have a lot of guys on the right there as well, which you can see are extension eligible, like I mean, will Derek Lively get an extension? Probably not, but if they trade Daniel Gafford, who is their starting center? If they trade P.J. Washington, you can slide in a lot of the Fords in there, maybe they trade P.J. Washington and Sly Mraz-Johnson Jr. to start at the four to open up the season. I think that wouldn't be a bad scenario at all, just given the fact that he has upside, but is that something that, Masai's clearly trying to win to a degree, and obviously you have to be realistic with the way this team is currently constructed, but I don't know, I don't know how I feel about trading P.J. Washington, which is a little bit crazy, because I'd be fine with it as long as you obviously get a decent player back, but it's just, you're loaded on the forward groups, you are absolutely loaded, and I think it's at a point now where there's not much else for you to, you need a backup point guard, and as much as we talk about, I mean, you can look at it here, like their backup point guard, in theory, is, I mean, you have Marcus Sasser, you got Ritter Ryan Nemhardt, that would be a trade that makes sense, you know, trading one of your excess assets in P.J. Washington, Daniel Gafford, whoever it ends up being, and then getting a guard back. You cannot be trading them for forwards, and when I'm talking about a guard, I don't mean Bronny James. P.J. Washington is still good, 14.7 rebounds a game last year, had a really good year the year before, and a lot of Mavericks are at their lowest trade value, in theory, because of last season, but they need to get some guards, and they need to get them fairly quickly, folks. So, it is going to be very interesting to see what happens here going forward, and again, reports are flying about a Daniel Gafford trade being imminent, haven't heard anything yet today on, you know, who that could look like. There hasn't even been many teams linked to Daniel Gafford, the Raptors, lightly linked, I mean, the Lakers, again, even though they have Walker Kessler, maybe off of the bench or something like that, so comment down below, but let's dive into Dusty May a little bit. New head coach, he talked about the way he wants to play, and this kind of gives some insight into what players he might be looking for, or potentially shipping out. So, we obviously want to play with great pace, and get up and down the floor, and be exciting to watch, but also, to be the most unselfish team in the NBA, to be the best-passing team in the NBA, will be a goal of ours, which, you'll love to hear this from him, again, you have Kyrie Irving, a very good facilitator, they do need more point guards, you got rid of your best passer on the team, arguably, in Ryan Nemhart, probably not arguably, he probably was the best, depending, obviously, we'll see what Kyrie Irving can do. I'm curious if this means they're going to go out, and obviously I'm reading too much into it, probably, but go out and get a, you know, facilitating backup point guard, similar to the one they had in Ryan Nemhart, I don't think they wanted to get rid of Ryan Nemhart, I think he just couldn't pass up the opportunity for Zachary Richache, but, yeah, comment down below if you're excited to watch the Mavericks play this year, obviously, Merez Johnson Jr. could factor into a starting role if PJ Washington is traded, keep an eye out for the Lakers, potentially, some other teams as well, thank you guys for watching.