Trade & Free Agency 2026/2027

[mvossman]

Kind of dead is kind of alive. With no good draft picks the Mavs aren't going to have many avenues to improve after this offseason. I don't think they should rule out a potential avenue just because it hasn't been used a lot recently. That could change, especially with some teams beginning to feel the impact of the luxury tax and 2nd apron. We may see some movement this offseason with RFA's like Watson and Eason. Those could end up being SnT's, but that would be made possible by cap space. 

The potential downside of the wait and see approach with PJ is that there's no guarantee he plays significantly better. He'll be in his 30's by the time this team is ready to contend. If he has a poor year again the Mavs will be stuck with a boat anchor contract. If he has a good year they're still not getting anything near a lottery pick in return.

I mean the reason free agency has not been used recently is because teams are not letting guys hit it very often.  There is rarely much there to choose from, and you never know who will be there until very late in the game.  I mean flexibility is always good, but it would require a lot of uncertainty to generate enough cap space to sign a massive contract like Luka.

I'm not against trading PJ in general, but I don't think I would do it for an older player that I hate with two years left on his contract and a crappy first round pick.