MAVS NEWS:

[F Gump]

That's not how it works.  If Dumont does not want to pay the tax, he wont pay the tax.  He will send out assets to shed cap if he has to. 

Its not just the tax either.  We can't trade for players like Coby White or Mathurin who are expecting bigger contracts.  We won't have the room.

There are significant negatives to being over the aprons, its not just about the tax.

The goal is not to have cap space (they would have to shed a ton for that), but it would be nice to use the full MLE exception.  You can find quality in that range if you do it right (like Naji last offseason).

I have not seen anything that says Dumont is refusing to pay tax. Or that he will be forcing a sell-off. 

I think the issue with him will be "what is the fastest and best path to winning" way more than the tax. That family is swimming in money, way more than they know what to do with. And if he was obsessed about avoiding tax-paying, it seems to me he would have killed the Grimes/Martin deal, which was the dumb and utterly needless move that forced lots of needless tax to be paid starting the day the deal was done.

"We can't trade for players like Coby White or Mathurin who are expecting bigger contracts.  We won't have the room" -- Not true. It doesn't take room. There is no limit on resigning a player with Bird rights other than your willingness to pay. They CAN trade for them, and CAN pay them all the way up to the max. Subject to "if they want to," of course. Not that I am wishing for White. It's not some sort of unsignability that makes me uninterested in White, but rather that I think he'll be chasing (and it may take) way more salary than what he offers on the court. 

"it would be nice to use the full MLE exception" -- True. But what people aren't thinking about is what that MLE is likely to cost to obtain. it's not a productive exercise if you chase cap room to get that MLE, and in the process you have to give away 2-3 players who are already giving you good MLE-value production, and in return you get back the opportunity to add 1 MLE player (who may or may not pan out). DAR is a great example. 

What the Mavs really need is an expert GM to navigate all this stuff at an elite level.