MAVS NEWS:

[Tyler]

If Ayton made 20-25 per year, I'd be all over this by the way.

How much would you expect to pay for a good backup big man? MLE money ($12mm)? So if you'd happily pay Ayton $25mm and sign a good backup, you're looking at paying $37mm for the center rotation. What if I told you that Ayton + Lively would cost control your center position in that range for the next 4 years? 

Nico said he wanted to completely remake the Mavs frontcourt. Drafting Lively and OMax while trading vets for Ayton would certainly accomplish that. Ayton would start, Lively would be an A+ backup and have the space to develop. And if you hopefully reach a point where you have to pick one or the other either because Lively is so damn good that he's gonna get paid, then you pick your favorite and trade the other. You can't go wrong with accumulating talent and dealing from a position of strength.

So if Dallas can get Ayton for THJ and Maxi alone, I'd do it in a heartbeat. The next immediate steps would be to dump Holmes and McGee for more useful players, but that seems reasonably doable. And BTW, if THJ/Maxi is real then I would expect Dallas to include McGee in the deal to keep it salary-neutral and preserve their MLE options.

Luka/Hardy/Green/OMax/Ayton/Lively -- Even before thinking about Kyrie, that's the type of exciting young core (all under 25) we've been wanting for ages.