(05-28-2025, 11:07 PM)F Gump Wrote: 1 No. On paper they have one, but only a sliver of it can ever be used, far less than DG salary.
2 It doesn't take giving away Gaff to be able to sign CP3 or someone else to TxpMLE. There are worse players that can be given away to get the job done with room to spare.
3 Those T1 "perks" aren't useable simply by getting your gold star for being below A1. To use any of those, you get hard capped at A1 and can't go over it to use any of those, which means you have to go even farther below, so that you have a spread before getting back up to A1, before they come into play. Not very practical to shed good talent for benefits you can't really use. Item 1 above is a good example of that at play.
1.) Gafford for Pick 22 isn't my idea, just one I've seen. When I looked into the legality of it, there was nothing that stood out to me that made it impossible. It looked like ATL is hard capped at A2 this season and has $18.5M of room, a Murray TE of $25.2M, meaning they could absorb all of Gafford's $14.3M. I'm not going to act like I'm an expert on Atlanta's salary situation, but it seems like there's a path there, even if ATL has to send something back to the Mavs to make it work.
2) You continue to call it "giving away Gafford" when really you are getting a FRP for Gafford, in this made-up scenario that will never happen anyway... You don't value the first-round pick, I get it.
3) The perks of being below A1 are just that, perks. An additional benefit to my original offseason preference. Not the reason for making those particular moves.
I think we're closer to being on the same page about this team, especially Gafford, than you think. It's just that I've come to terms with the inevitability that he won't be in a Mavs uniform next season. If you start with that assumption, it makes what I've been saying more palatable. No need to continue down this path or get into the weeds further. Gafford is valuable to the Mavs, we'll soon see how they value him (extension, trade, starter, etc.)