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

[KillerLeft]

I took a quick listen to the Locked On Hawks podcast about a potential AD trade. He was relatively okay with including Risacher in the deal, but pointed out that the Hawks have never paid the luxury tax. Looking at their cap sheet, if they trade for AD and Trae opts in they would already be well into the tax next year. They may need to find a taker for Trae before committing to any long term salary.

I suspect this would be a done deal already if the Mavs were willing to take on Trae Young. From this angle, it kind of seems like the Haynes thing was posturing from the Mavs. "We're not taking Young, so go ahead and figure that out somewhere else. We'll wait." Just speculation, obviously, but it seems to fit the info we have, imo.