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

[F Gump]

I'd be shocked if Mobley is outgoing.  I think the presumption should be this is instead of Harden, not in addition to Harden.  The outgoing is probably Allen and Garland.  Making the money work isn't hard.  Working with the aggregation rules is more challenging.

Those rules look like a deal-killer to me. The Cavs are apparently over 13M above A2, and unless they end a trade UNDER that line, they can't combine salaries to take back a bigger one. But DAL can't take back more than they send.

MIL can do a deal w CLE, as they do have the ability to take back lots of extra salary (they are about 17M below A1 line). But do they have what MIL might want?

Is there any scenario in which AD/DAL is added to the mix and makes it more doable?

So here's the exercise for AD-to-CLE imo. Can someone create any version of DAL (AD), MIL (GA), and CLE (some package of really good players) doing a deal that includes those star players moving plus MIL absorbing a lot of added payroll that provides major salary reduction to CLE and maybe a bit to DAL?