With the Kyrie Irving trade, the Dallas Mavericks are officially all in. Mark Cuban and company pushed their poker chips to the center of the table and are letting it all ride on one hand, the 2022-23 NBA season. As such, the Mavs can’t stop there. There is another last-minute Mavs trade deadline deal the team must do to get in another player to bolster the roster in order to make a run at the 2023 NBA title. At the NBA trade deadline, the Mavs must add San Antonio Spurs center Jakob Poeltl.
A Mavs trade deadline deal sends Dwight Powell to the Spurs for Jakob Poeltl
After making the Kyrie Irving trade, the Mavs sit in sixth place in the Western Conference but are tied in the loss column with the Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Clippers ahead of them. In front of those two teams, Dallas sits just three games back of the No. 3 seed Sacramento Kings and five games away from the No. 2 seed Memphis Grizzlies.
The Denver Nuggets, with a nine-game lead in the loss column, are probably too far ahead, but everyone else is in play if the Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic combo lives up to its potential.
The biggest issue with Irving joining a starting five of Doncic, Christian Wood, Tim Hardaway Jr., and Reggie Bullock is that there is no defense or rim protection anywhere. Even swapping Wood for Dwight Powell, the Mavs aren’t getting all that much in the way of defense.
That’s why, with on big NBA trade deadline deal already in the books, the Mavs have to keep going and get a rim protector to round out their lineup.
The easiest way to do this is to go after Spurs center Jakob Poeltl. The big man turned down a long-term extension with the club, so if the team doesn’t deal him on deadline day, they risk losing him for nothing this offseason.
Poeltl will have plenty of suitors as, by far, the best center on the market right now. However, the Mavs must do what it takes to bring him in.
The former Utah Utes big is averaging 12.1. points, 9.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists, and 1.2 blocks per game, and he’s doing it on one of the worst teams in the league. Poeltl is an above-average defender, most importantly, and contributes on offense with a relatively low 18.6% usage rate.
The defense is crucial because having Luka and Kyrie on the floor at the same time makes Wood nearly unplayable. And that last part is important as this Mavs trade deadline deal would put Poeltl on the same squad with the No. 2 (Doncic, 38.5%) and No. 15 (Irving, 29.8%) usage rate leaders in the NBA in 2023.
On the Spurs' side, they will surely have a few offers for Poeltl, as most teams in the league can use a jack-of-all-trades big who can run the pick-and-roll and defend the rim. However, the Mavs can put together a winning deal for the center.
The Mavs can offer Dwight Powell, who is an $11 million expiring contract this offseason along with a first-round pick. That should be similar to or better than what most teams are offering for Poeltl. However, if it is the same, the Mavs might have to up the ante at the 2023 NBA trade deadline and throw in two first-round picks.
That is, admittedly, a ton for Poeltl. But when you consider the massive pick haul the Utah jazz got for Rudy Gobert this offseason and the lack of quality, rim-protecting bigs on the market right now, it may be the going price for a player of Poeltl’s caliber.
And in the end, that’s what it comes down to. The Mavs need to make a deal for Poeltl at the deadline because of what they’ve already done for Irving. The franchise is all in now, and there is no turning back. Irving is a free agent at the end of the season, and it is on the Mavs to convince him to stay as much as it is on Irving to convince the Mavs he’s worth keeping.
None of this can happen if Dallas stays a team with massive flaws. It is time to turn their backs on future picks and try to make the team a championship contender right now.
In fact, not making this Mavs trade deadline deal for Jakob Poeltl will have much worse ramifications for Dallas than giving up anything that is perceived as “too much” by the NBA community. That's where the Mavs are at after the Kyrie Irving trade.
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