Trade & FA 2025-26: Free Agency Starts 5pm CST/6pm EST

[KillerLeft]

You [the reader, not specifically O] are the Mavs. BKN says: "We will take anyone you want to give. We can find a way to take all the salaries. We are open to taking them all, for various reasons, although on some we might want you to pay the salary for this season (or a portion, in light of the limits of cash). No pick is required." So it only (at most) costs you sending all your allowable cash or less (~8M iirc). My question: who would you (the Mavs) want to send, out of Martin, Hardy, OMax, Powell? Are there any (or a few) who have actual value to the team and its future at their salary and you would prefer to keep? Or do you gladly send all 4?

It would have to be Hardy. 

I'd trade any of them, and I'm not as "the door to any hope of Hardy being good is shut, nailed to the frame and the couch is wedged against it" as the rest of this board, but his contract is certainly looking rough at the moment. 

2nd out to me would be O-Max, who I also haven't given up on yet, but I can't imagine what chaos would have to ensue on this team for him to get another chance here, the rotation being almost all centers and forwards now. 

Martin might still make the rotation, especially if there are any moves to come, and if not he's probably the most reliably useful in terms of injury insurance. I get that some might have him a spot higher due to his larger salary, but I have a feeling he's going to play more than some believe. 

Powell would be 2nd on that "useful insurance" list, and his deal is expiring, anyway. Worst case scenario he sits all year and then vanishes off the books (that alone would be a good thing), but he could also play for you if you need him, and his expiring could be a useful throw-in for a bigger deal at the deadline. In the meantime, he's not hurting anyone, and probably helps the team in practice more than we realize. He's the one I'd look to trade the least (if it's just a salary dump), but he's probably the 2nd easiest salary to dump, so I'd say it's possible.