Max Christie’s role on a contending Mavs team

First let's define a contender in this era of the nba:

• 1 consistent 1st/2nd team all nba player (basically top 10)

• 1 all star / 3rd team all nba player (top 30)

• 2-3 elite role players (anunoby, amen, ausar, gordon)

• 2-3 starter level players (vassell, cam johnson, josh hart)

Now lets project what prime christie will look like when he's 26-27 on a realistic career trajectory and see which catergory he fits above.

Currently:

He's currently averaging 13 pts, 3 rbs, 2 asts on starter minutes while having a very efficient 46, 42, 87 season. His defense is very middling with him being an above average shot contester while being a below par poa defender specifically on play stopping, stls, blks, and deflections. Overall ws/48 has him 0.098 with 0.1 being average, vorp at 0.7 and bpm of 0.1 which essentially means he's a very slightly above average player for an average team.

He's also just turned 23 which means he has 3-4 years of 'development' left.

Projection during prime on a contender level team:

Offense:

He's an efficient 14-17 ppg scorer taking 12-14 shots taking mostly 3s (7-8-9) and hitting them at around 40%. He'll have a pg / point forward coop getting him open looks while his self creation and handling makes him playoff viable. He has the potential to become a 20 ppg scorer but that's only probable on a bad team with no scorers. Realistically he's the 3rd option behind 2 high usage players or the 4th option on a more balanced side.

This part of his game is basically guranteed if he has a normal growth path. He's averaging 13 ppg in his 4th season with no real point guard to get him looks and kidd is determined to experiment this season giving no one consistency.

Defense:

His defense has a floor and an ideal scenario 'ceiling'. The floor is a more mature version of his current self where he is a skinny guard who is good at contesting shots using length to disrupt but isnt good enough to be a poa defender because of a lack of weight to bully the ball handler.

His ceiling is to become that poa defender that would make him all the more valuable. To be more specific there are two types of poa defenders in the league currently:

1. the 6'6-6'8 oversized guard that has a 7'0 wingspan who just uses god given length to fuck with you. These guys arent the heaviest, usually around 210 lbs, but have a lot of deflections, stls, blks, and other play stopping stats. Think of amen, ausar, anunoby, peyton watson, herb jones, dyson daniels

2. the 6'3-6'5 guard that weighs 220+ lbs who uses that low center of gravity to physically bother the ball handler. They dont get the same numbers as the previous category but are more effective making the ball handler take a bad shot due to bad positioning. Think of caruso, wallace, dort, jrue, derrick white, jalen suggs.

Max christie is 6'5.75 and has a 6'9 wingspan. He's clearly in the second category but doesnt have their weight. If he can become ~220 lbs and use it to improve his defense, that will make him a valuable poa defender and change his outlook.

Overall

His offense is very easy to predict, he'll be a great 3 pt shooter and can handle and self create a bit. His defense is the question.

• If he becomes a poa defender like mentioned above that makes him easily an elite role player that makes him the 1st or 2nd best guard defender on the team with a contract worth ~25-30 million aav.

• If he stays kinda skinny and only a plus team defender that struggles at the poa, then he's a starter level player that might come off the bench. He becomes a 6moy candidate and provides offensive relief with a contract worth 15-20 million aav.