I was so fucking desperate for a center this offseason that I was begging for them to just take Lively at 10 and call it a day. We all know now the Mavs have this tendency to get cute with their moves instead of just taking the carrot in front of their faces, and there were rumors floating around that they would trade the pick just to dump salary, or for some old over the hill vet.

Well hey, Nico really pulled out a masterclass and showed why he’s GM and we’re not. He shed Bertans’ salary, got Dereck and OMax out of the draft, traded peanuts for Grant, re-signed Curry for a bag of Doritos, then reached into the darkness like the hand of God and plucked Exum and DJJ out of the void. That’s SIX absolutely solid players, all for a 10th pick, a godawful (not even expiring yet) salary and a couple of seconds. And he didn’t even have to trade pieces like Timmy or Josh away to accomplish all this.

Dat boy good. Can’t wait to see what he does before the trade deadline. If he can somehow snag another backup big, another big wing or even both, they’ll really be in business.