Dallas Mavericks

There are some valid questions that come into play when evaluating whether the Dallas Mavericks should pursue a potential sign-and-trade deal to bring in Lauri Markkanen.

The Mavericks already have made key moves on the perimeter this offseason by bringing back Tim Hardaway Jr. and signing Reggie Bullock and Sterling Brown in free agency. While the team did not land a secondary ball-handler, at least yet, it never hurts to add more highly efficient shooters.

There is a thought with a Markkanen trade for the Mavericks that with Kristaps Porzingis consistently struggling to stay healthy and also needing his playing time to be ‘load managed’ that a relatively similar style talent in Markkanen could help. There wouldn’t be a major void in the shooting department essentially.

There is an even further thought that perhaps Markkanen were to handle the role so well that Porzingis became all the more expendable in a potential future NBA trade scenario? That would eliminate the Mavericks’ questions about his happiness and injury history.

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There would clearly not be improvement defensively by adding Markkanen into the mix and there certainly would be overlap with Porzingis, but would he have to start? The Mavericks could have similar approaches within their half-court offense for all 48 minutes of a typical game by having one of them on the floor at all times.