Is Mavericks guard Wesley Matthews worth a trade?
Wesley Matthews just opted in to sign with the Dallas Mavericks for the coming season and while things may be fine and dandy the tables may turn.
Around the NBA off-season many players have ambitions of opting out of their contract, but Dallas Mavericks guard Wesley Matthews had a different mindset as he opted into the final year of his current contract.
By opting into his contract Matthews will be guaranteed 18.6 million dollars. This is all part of the four year 70,000 dollar deal he signed with the Mavericks back in 2015.
The 18.6 million dollars will be the most money Matthews will get during his tenure with the Mavericks organization.
With the Dallas Mavericks getting younger and the team trying to clear cap space it would be a no brainier to trade away Matthews. But would the team really consider trading their third leading scorer?
Lets talk deals
At 31 years old Wesley Matthews is the third oldest player on the Mavs roster. While age speaks volume in the league, if the team does intend to trade their guard it will be because of other matters and not just his age.
When the Dallas Mavericks signed their guard four years ago, the team had high hopes for a player who was overcoming a gruesome Achilles injury.
Before singing with Dallas, Matthews had some of his best seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers. During the 2013-2014 season Matthews averaged 16.4 points per game and had a .393 three-point shooting percentage.
The year after that, the Mavericks guard averaged 15.9 points per game to go with a .389 three-point percentage. Contrast that with the guards first year in Dallas and he took a small drop.
In his first season with the organization, he averaged 12.5 points per game and had a .360 three point percentage.
This past season, Matthews failed to improve from his first year with the Mavs as he averaged 12.7 points per game. His three-point percentage has stayed the same during his three year time span in Dallas, but his point averaged has failed to reach above 15 points.
Matthews has yet to improve from his statistical performance with Portland and has even seen a significant drop in his major numbers.
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Why not keep Matthews
As mentioned before, Matthews is in the last year of his contract he signed four years ago. So lets just keep him one more year and see how the season plays out.
As mentioned before he was the third leading scorer on the team last season. Give Matthews another season to go grow with rookie guard Dennis Smith Jr and who knows what could happen.
Since coming to Dallas, Matthews has been an asset Dallas has never really had before.
He is a true wing guard who can shot from the red line and play dominant defense when needed. It has been seven years since the Mavs had a true wing guard.
DeShawn Stevenson was the last guard who could shot from the three and play dominant defense, but lets face it Matthews is an upgrade from seven years ago.
The upcoming free agency class does not have many guards that can do what Matthews can and many of them are going to come at a heavy price.
Next: How quickly do the Mavericks really want to rebuild?
I guess you could say trading Matthews away would not be the worse thing, but keeping him on the roster could have its benefits as well.