MAVS NEWS:

[F Gump]

Oh, and now we're pissing off Kyrie.

To be fair to Nico (which is far more than he deserves), Kai is nuts if he thinks he's worth that much at his age coming off of that injury.

We don't know that the 2 sides are in conflict. I don't really trust Shams on this sort of stuff. If Stein says there's an issue, well, then I would have some concern.

If Nico has any intelligence at all, he's playing real nice, and doing everything he can to make Kyrie happy, and this report is much ado about nothing. Because the reality for the Mavs is that they ALREADY have committed to paying Kyrie $43M this year (with a cap hit of $45M) and it's a great favor and a huge help to the team if he declines that deal so they can do have a different (lower) cap number for this season.

If the Mavs aren't careful, they COULD end up paying him $43M and being stuck with the $45M cap hit for an injury-plagued year, killing their payroll and probably making them suffer all the A2 penalties, then see him as a UFA and looking for a place to walk next summer. And he has to TRUST them, to decline a sure thing and then sign a new deal in July that isn't a deal until it's signed.

From prior whispers, I had penciled in a total guesstimate around 123M in which he gets the 43M he already had plus adds on 2 x 40, and then the payout by year gets revised. He was REALLY good last year until he got hurt, with 40M for that being a major bargain. Frankly, Kyrie may be the best asset Nico has, whether he realizes it or not, and he would be an idiot to mess that up.

Will we see NTI ride again?