FA: D'Angelo Russell Comes to Dallas | 2yrs/12mil

[mvossman]

Grimes trade was awful negotiating, of course. But Grimes could not be kept. His demands were bigger and Mavs payroll was smaller - and this was before Mavs won #1 pick which added almost 9M more to the payroll (vs #11). 

Undo the swap and Grimes is gone anyhow, walking as a FA because Mavs would only have about 10M to offer him (hard capped @ A2). However, salary now going to CM likely could not have been spent elsewhere if Mavs had kept QG, as Mavs only have cap permission for MLE and minimums. 

So analysis is: do we prefer CM, or wish we had air + SRP? It's all about what value we see in CM. I would prob prefer air ie keep QG (who walks) + SRP pick (which I woulda swapped for a future pick), due to CM's ongoing salary.

As a restricted free agent, Philly has some control over the situation, especially given the lack of cap space out there.  They may get an asset in a S&T or they may sign him to roughly MLE because he can't get more elsewhere.  So it might have been Caleb vs air and a couple of seconds, or it may have been Caleb vs Grimes + using that second to get off some salary and trade for a PG.