01-06-2026, 08:08 AM
(01-06-2026, 05:20 AM)F Gump Wrote: I think you're right in pointing out this is more layered than ATL being desperate to dump Trae.
Yet I have to think they do want to deal him somehow, and don't want to have to pay him $50M next season. Desperate? No. But I think "eager" might be a good word. Very eager, even. His future is not in ATL. Probably not even his present.
A second layer is WAS. The Wiz are willing to talk extension, but at what terms? I don't assume max, not at all. Although I suspect that's what Trae wants to hear. So Trae himself, and "what would Trae agree to," is a third layer. In fact, Trae and his team have been brought into the mix, probably to answer this very question so that WAS can get a better idea of what they would be getting in trade.
Objectively, I don't think Trae is anywhere close to a 50M-and-up player. But there is a number where he would be good value (and it could be locked in by an extend-and-trade deal). I think that number can impact a deal to WAS or elsewhere, and alter what ATL gets or what they might have to pay to make a deal happen. Because I think they are eager to get out from under paying him.
Maybe all of this is easily resolved, but I think it's more likely to be a set of tough negotiations that could go any number of ways (including "nowhere").
Just out of curiosity - at which number would you like him on the Mavs for the next years?
I mean it would mean flipping Kyrie as soon as he’s proven he’s healthy, but Trae at least isn’t 15 years older than Cooper.