CAULIFLOWER: All Willie Things

[KillerLeft]

Hey @"Benskix2" I was eating earlier, and couldn't really spare the time to reply in more detail. Since the bubble, everyone in the entire Mavs/NBA community (like 100 people, fans, superfans, local and national media members) believes WCS intends to opt in...that is, everyone except @"omahen" and John Hollinger. 

Here are the details:

• We've learned that the reason he skipped the bubble was to attend the birth of his daughter, and had absolutely nothing to do with any angst towards Carlisle or the Mavs that fan haters made up so they'd have something about which to complain.
  
• In a recent interview on a podcast, he said he low-key regretted his decision to stay out of the playoffs, reflecting that in hindsight, it was probably only necessary for him to attend the actual birth and a few days after, and that he wish he'd have joined the team a little bit late. He chalked this up to this being his first child, and he didn't know what to expect.
  
• In that same interview, he gave Carlisle lots of credit for helping him "fall in love with the work." This was in response to questions about the constant barrage of social media videos he has been posting of himself working on basketball skills, most of which feature him wearing Mavericks gear.
  
• Also in that interview, when asked about his option, he said "I just bought a house here, if that helps."
  
• The big "oh no, he's changing agents" crisis? Turns out he was hiring a local agent, and some feel like this move was intended to make dealing specifically with the Mavericks easier (this part is speculation, tbh)
  
• There isn't a lot of cap room out there, so there's almost no chance for him to get a better offer financially for this season than what he's owed. The BAC is slightly more, but it doesn't seem likely that any team will offer that. Alternatively, I'm sure he's well aware that many key decisions about what to do with that Mavericks cap money will be made over the next 12 months. I don't think it's blind luck he ended up here at the deadline. 
  
• It's really easy to find speculation for free agents who would need to opt out in order to hit the market. There are rumors about a ton of them. I might have missed it, but I haven't read WCS's name in even once such instance. It appears that the entire NBA has concluded he's going to opt in, or, possibly more likely, nobody gives a damn whether he does or not, because there aren't really any teams interested.
  

Hopefully, I didn't leave anything out. That's the cliffs notes for about two months of discussions we've had about this.