The Dallas Mavericks need to upgrade at point guard. They have the No. 9 pick in this year’s draft. Ricky Rubio has been bandied about the trade rumor mill since the beginning of time—or at least since Tom Thibodeau took over as the Minnesota Timberwolves’ head coach and president. Eric Bledsoe’s timeline looks to run counter to the Phoenix Suns’ long game.
You do the math.
Mike Fisher over at Scout.com already has, and while it seems the Mavericks might have interest in a Rubio- or Bledsoe-type player, they don’t want to fork over market value for their services:
*The Mavericks’ opinion of Ricky Rubio (and of Bledsoe) have long been in a sort of flux. With Bledsoe, it’s about his injury history. With Rubio, it’s about an in-house debate over his value, analytics-related and otherwise. Analytics, depending on how one plugs numbers into the Big Calculator, don’t love non-shooters and non-scorers. But Rubio is the sort of pass-first point guard that coach Rick Carlisle covets in this draft … so why not take a look at Rubio? . . .
*Another reason why not to trade for a vet PG? Other teams will begin the bidding at Dallas’ No. 9 pick. Sources tell me everyone in the organization is on the same page here: As tempting as it is to hire another Band-Aid to help the Dirk Nowitzki Era, Dallas doesn’t want to sacrifice No. 9 for a Bledsoe or a Rubio.
If the Suns come asking for the No. 9 pick and something/someone else within reason as compensation for Bledsoe, the Mavericks absolutely will, and should, consider it. Rubio is a different story. He’s harder to fit in schematically. He is one of the best passers in the game, in addition to a pesky defender, but he cannot play off Dirk Nowitzki and Harrison Barnes as a spot-up shooter. Even Bledsoe would have to recalibrate his scope in that role.
It makes sense that the Mavericks don’t want to deal the No. 9 pick. There is a chance Dennis Smith Jr. falls to them, and they’ll have cap space to address the point guard situation if they decline Nowitzki’s team option and hammer out a new deal with him at a discount (as almost everyone expects them to do).
Still, the Mavericks aren’t exactly armed with young players. Nowitzki, Harrison Barnes, Wesley Matthews—they’re all being paid to win now. Nerlens Noel is about to enter his fifth year. Dallas doesn’t necessarily have time to wait on a rookie floor general.
Overpaying for a Bledsoe or Rubio would of course be shortsighted and, thus, irresponsible, but if either one is being shopped, they’re worth more than cursory glance for a team that, as currently concocted, projects to hover somewhere between seventh and 12th place in the Western Conference.
