Ranking the Dallas Mavericks’ top 5 reported trade targets

The Dallas Mavericks have been in a perpetual state of mediocrity over the last 10 games as they’ve gone 5-5. Dallas is suffering injuries to key role players seemingly every week as of recently, so their hand could be forced to try and make a trade ahead of the February 8 deadline.

Kyrie Irving has been playing excellent recently, but Dallas is having a hard time generating offense outside of Irving with Luka Doncic currently out due to an ankle injury. This begs the question of whether or not Dallas should focus on adding someone who can provide some offense ahead of the deadline in case one of their stars unfortunately misses significant time due to injury.

Ranking the Dallas Mavericks’ top 5 reported trade targets by potential fit

Dallas’ defensive issues have been talked about enough, so we know they are seeking to add some length and size defensively, particularly at the three or four spot. Only time will tell what the Mavericks will do before the deadline, but we can speculate and rank their trade targets in the meantime.

Here we rank the Mavericks’ top five reported trade targets from worst to best on-court fit.

5. Buddy Hield

Buddy Hield has been on Dallas’ radar since before the season started, as it almost seemed inevitable that the Indiana Pacers were going to ship out the 31-year-old guard before the start of the season. Dallas’ interest in Hield came as a surprise to many given that they have a player of relatively similar skillset on their roster in Tim Hardaway Jr., so it seemed that Hardaway Jr. would definitely be going back to Indiana if the Mavs traded for Hield.

Hield is averaging 12.6 points and 3.2 rebounds per game for Indiana this year and is still staying true to the hallmark of his game by shooting 38.1 percent from downtown on 7.3 attempts per game. Hield is a dynamic movement shooter and is arguably better at working off the catch than even Hardaway Jr., as he’s shooting 40.2 percent on catch-and-shoot 3-pointers compared to Hardaway Jr.’s 36.4 percent.

Dallas can never have enough shooting and adding Hield to this roster would epitomize that, but his deficiencies in other facets of the game wouldn’t make him worth trading for given the level Hardaway Jr. is playing at right now. It’s well documented that Hield isn’t the best defender, and Dallas is looking for defense in any trade they make so they’d likely try to expand the deal in a potential Hield trade if they even tried it.

Indiana is demanding a hefty asking price for Hield and they seem much more content on keeping him given their success up to this point in the season, so it seems like there probably won’t be any traction on a Hield-to-Dallas trade anymore. Hield isn’t a bad fit whatsoever as his shooting would be invaluable for any prospective playoff team, but Dallas has more pressing needs at the moment.