Trade & FA 2024-25:

[F Gump]

As everyone knows, I am big on the idea of prioritizing contracts that work within a bigger salary model -- which means that random wildly big numbers paid to a player who becomes the flavor of the day are avoided, in favor of the player who is about the same but will come for way less.

So my dream scenario is to see BOTH Klay and DJJ signed, and fit together in the THJ+Green salary space that would be created if Green went back to GS in a SNT scenario for Klay. That's about 26M combined.

That would look something like DJJ at 9.5-10M and Klay at 16.0-16.5MM. I don't know if that would be enough for Klay to trump an MLE offer from LA of 12.9, but I think it might. At those numbers, I jump all the way in and offer 4 years to each with full raises each year (DJJ starting at 10M would total 43M over 4 years, and Klay starting at 16.5M would total 71M.)

Bigger numbers are possible if Maxi is added to the outgoing, but I think he's worth way more to the Mavs than if added to a trade. And it feels like chasing a potentially bloated number if I try to increase Klay's 1st year salary to 25M by adding Kleber.