@HouseMavericks
Marc Stein on
@SpotifyGrnroom “Dallas will not jump into a trade. They are hoping Dragic makes his way into the free agent. They don’t want his $19 million. That could change… no guarantee Dragic ends up in Dallas.”
All Things SLOVENIA
@All_Things_Mavs
Marc Stein does not expect Dallas to jump into the Goran Dragic race as a third team. He says it’s “an open secret” that they would love to add him, but Stein believes it will only happen if it’s via free agency.
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1 I believe M Stein has a good read on what's happening from the Mavs end (ie, he has been told x, y, and z and is sharing the gist of it).
2 I don't believe that ends the story, however, as there are two ways to look at this info.
The pessimistic take:
The trade talks are basically dead, and negotiations have ended. Either TOR will waive Dragic, or they won't, after which he might sign with the Mavs using the minimum salary they can offer. He will want his full salary, or almost all of it, if they waive him.
The optimistic take:
Negotiations with Dallas/TOR/Dragic are still very much alive. They have discarded the trade idea, and are now focused on the "buyout" possibility. Cuban won't bail out Duffy/Dragic, MIA, and TOR for that very bloated $19M salary that all of them manufactured to enable a trade. No interest in them getting the benefits, while he ends up being the one to choke that down.
But --- maybe after the others scrape off the excess salary via buyout at a discount, the Mavs are ready to pick up a certain amount of the difference. (I notice that Stein says they don't like Dragic at $19M, but there are many smaller numbers than that to pick from that he might not dislike.)
That's still a 3-sided negotiation, over who gives up how much. Maybe all 3 have to contribute to some degree. And it does have a deadline, if it's to be done, because the Mavs will have to manufacture a way to spend.
EXAMPLE
Maybe Duffy can get TOR to agree to pay GD $10M in the buyout. Then Duffy works the Mavs for how much of the difference they will pay him in salary. And then he is waived for $10M, and Dallas signs Dragic for some agreed amount.
In that example, instead of 1 year at $9.5M, maybe it ends up as a 1+1 deal at something like $6M per. It's not the minimum from Dallas, but it's not paying him $19M either. He ends up with 1 year at $16M or 2 years at $22M, which is closer to his worth, and it provides avenues to having him for multiple years rather than just one-and-done.
To get the ability to pay him, Mavs do the Bullock deal as a SNT by sending a small tip to NY, as the first transaction at 11 am FRI. NY uses cap room to sign him, which they immediately get back when they trade him, it costs NY nothing, they get a little something for their help, and the rest of their deals are all intact.
For TOR, they have improved on the alternatives. Waiting to find someone who will trade for him at $19M as an expiring rental is not likely o go anywhere. Then at the deadline, having already paid him about $13M, they will be entertaining a buyout where he gets some or all of the rest and goes elsewhere to a team in contention. And with this buyout now, they have locked in a lowered "cost" for Precious and a pick down to (in our example) only $10M.
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I don't know that this is what's happening right now in Mavs HQ. But it's what I would be trying to do.
![[Image: IllTanIndri-max-1mb.gif]](https://thumbs.gfycat.com/IllTanIndri-max-1mb.gif)
