Trade & FA 2025-26: Free Agency Starts 5pm CST/6pm EST

[SleepingHero]

Browsing Hawks reddit and someone posted this graphic in a discussion about Gafford.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AtlantaHawks/co...urce=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Gafford is a great player. So good that I'd rather keep him and Lively and just move AD. ATL doesn't really have the ammo for Gafford unless they want to throw in that NOP pick plus Asa.

[Mavs2021]

[Rich Paul] says the Lakers should trade Austin Reaves for Jaren Jackson Jr.  (video in link)

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1q...de_austin/

He´s Bron´s childhood friend, right? I had never seen him or heard him talk, until I saw him on a Kellerman YT short. Seemed as likeable and bright as Nico.

[F Gump]

That's a theoretical trade from an Instagram story, Stein said no real offer was made, but they had been talking. I'm sure it was going to come closer to deadline day.

Looking at the trade particulars, maybe it was something RP liked, but it doesn't really work to satisfy what either team needed. It makes ATL pay tax (a non-starter) and forces DAL to waive multiple players before doing the trade (another deal-killer).

[mvossman]

Gafford is a great player. So good that I'd rather keep him and Lively and just move AD. ATL doesn't really have the ammo for Gafford unless they want to throw in that NOP pick plus Asa.

Gafford has been a fish out of water without an elite PG.  He has been terrible this season.  I'm sure some of it has been dealing with injury, but he is not worth near that package.  I don't think there is any chance they move AD either, unless its a Trae Young like deal.  I don't think it makes sense to keep all three even with the massive injury concerns and Gafford is the only reasonable option right now.

[FireNicoHarrison]

Rich Paul on the Pros and Cons of the Mavericks after Anthony Davis gets injured during trade talks ?

“I do think when you have that trade speculation out there you have to make your mind up because sometimes when you play in traffic you get hit by a car. If you plan on trading somebody, there’s a time. It’s almost a gamesmanship to it. Your trying to go a little longer, a little longer and see the most you can get out of somebody. When you do that you run a risk — There is a world you come out of this draft with a great pick, that the following year and saying ‘wait a minute, we got these two young guys on rookie contracts that are good, you have Kyrie and AD, two top 15 players… it’s not totally negative”

(Via Game Over podcast)

Language - KL

[HoosierDaddyKid]

Gafford is a great player. So good that I'd rather keep him and Lively and just move AD. ATL doesn't really have the ammo for Gafford unless they want to throw in that NOP pick plus Asa.

I can't decide if this is sarcasm or hyperbole?

[HoosierDaddyKid]

https://basketnews.com/news-238664-miami...xpert.html


Zach Lowe says watch Miami for a potential Ja Morant trade.

[Smitty]

@ShamsCharania
Dallas Mavericks' Anthony Davis is likely to undergo surgery to repair ligament damage in his left hand and miss several months, sources tell ESPN. His Dallas season is essentially over, given the prognosis and the Mavs' direction.

@ShamsCharania
Fascinating development: The Mavericks are having renewed Davis trade talks with multiple interested teams, sources said. If moved to a playoff contender, the return timeline could allow Davis to return during the postseason while establishing himself for the long-term elsewhere.

[RoyTarpleysGhost]

It's F5 season. Beat me to it Smitty

Sounds like the Mavs are ready to just get rid of him and his salary.

[Dirknows]

It's F5 season.  Beat me to it Smitty

Sounds like the Mavs are ready to just get rid of him and his salary.

So depressing to think ultimately what trading Luka resulted in.

[mvossman]

@ShamsCharania
Dallas Mavericks' Anthony Davis is likely to undergo surgery to repair ligament damage in his left hand and miss several months, sources tell ESPN. His Dallas season is essentially over, given the prognosis and the Mavs' direction.

@ShamsCharania
Fascinating development: The Mavericks are having renewed Davis trade talks with multiple interested teams, sources said. If moved to a playoff contender, the return timeline could allow Davis to return during the postseason while establishing himself for the long-term elsewhere.

I am very curious what kind of return that could be.  Stein didn't seem to think it would be anything more than salary dump.  I can't imagine Mavs would do that.

[Dirknows]

I am very curious what kind of return that could be.  Stein didn't seem to think it would be anything more than salary dump.  I can't imagine Mavs would do that.

I mean seems like a salary dump, but if multiple teams actually are interested maybe they can salvage a young player or a pick. Nothing like packages we were previously dreaming of.

[Chicagojk]

Needs to be coming from Klutch.  This stuck out to me from Shams quote:

His Dallas season is essentially over, given the prognosis and the Mavs' direction.


Makes me think Dallas has told him they don't want him back this year as they are focusing on the draft and Klutch needs him on the court to get any kind of extension.   I would think any deal would just be clearing some/all of the money with no assets returning.  I would just keep him.  Although i know the cap situation is not pretty next year.  I can't think the potential deals were good prior to his injury. Can't be much there now. I think things could have gotten more interesting if he stayed healthy until Feb.

[Chicagojk]

https://x.com/AntDavis23/status/2011146094458388947

[FireNicoHarrison]

I'm sorry for Rich Paul.

[mvossman]

It's F5 season.  Beat me to it Smitty

Sounds like the Mavs are ready to just get rid of him and his salary.

If this is true, then it was next level dumb to be playing him 35+ minutes a game during trade talks.

[Smitty]

This is where we need Rich Paul telling Bryson Graham that this is his chance to get a Top-15 player at a discount! That KP+Kennard+Okongwu package is looking better each day

[KillerLeft]

I am very curious what kind of return that could be.  Stein didn't seem to think it would be anything more than salary dump.  I can't imagine Mavs would do that.

Reading between the lines, I'd say that's almost exactly what those two reports are suggesting when combined. Maybe not just a total salary dump, but a lot closer to it than we've been hoping. In particular, the "renewed...with multiple teams" part caught my attention, because I have read in a couple of places that Dallas's original high asking price had turned a lot of teams off. Towards the end of the initial shopping, it seemed to me like the market had settled on ATL and TOR only. Renewed talks with multiple teams, combined with the news that he's going to miss the rest of the season almost, implies to me that the asking price has come down significantly. 

While I agree that kind of move would be disappointing, I also kind of get it. I think this might be a case of everyone involved just needing this saga to be over. We're the biggest Mavs fans on the planet around here and it's obvious that we're becoming more apathetic daily. The Davis thing, combined with the first ever tank that lasts over half the season during my fandom...it's just a bummer of a place to be. I still think there's a world in which the team can be good while Davis and Kyrie are on it, but so many variables would have to break right for us to live in that world it's getting hard to hope we find it. 

Plus, I just don't see how ANY ownership group wouldn't want to lower salary right about now, even the most free spending ones in the league, and we really don't know where the Adelsons fit on that spectrum just yet. At least an AD salary dump might allow the front office to seek VALUE for guys like Gafford, Marshall, Thompson now and PJW over the summer instead of using THEM to get off of salary. 

If this happens, I'll be disappointed, but also a little relieved, frankly.

[Smitty]

@TheSteinLine
There is some optimism in Dallas that Anthony Davis could return at some point in March even if he is forced to undergo surgery on his left hand, league sources tell @TheSteinLine and @DLLS_Sports.

[FireNicoHarrison]

@TheSteinLine
There is some optimism in Dallas that Anthony Davis could return at some point in March even if he is forced to undergo surgery on his left hand, league sources tell @TheSteinLine and @DLLS_Sports.

Why? Destroy the tanking? Hahahahahah 

NBA leakers are insane.