Could we somehow fleece Vlade again?

[Thukydides]

When did we fleece him the first time?

I´d consider the Barnes/JJ swap a huge fleece. At the time you couldn´t expect HB to waive his player option and he surely wouldn´t have done that with the Mavs, as they wouldn´t have offered him a crazy contract like Vlade did. Getting JJ and the opportunity of capspace - which granted we didn´t use - for HB and not having to give up anything else was a fleece IMO.

Man, I hope I don't have to compare the two players to make the point. There really is little comparison at the time of the trade (and even now, but the trade isn't happening now, it happened when HB showed he was a decent starting quality player, which there is no proof that JJ will be at the very least that). 

We have no clue what HB would have done with the crazy money that was available in the offseason, and that might be the reason Sac reupped him for the amount they did cause HB and his agent showed what other teams were willing to offer.

I said at the time of the trade that the even trade would have been with the addition of Harry Giles. We see with the commitment they made to HB how desperate they were to get him from us. The trade IMO was lopsided, but in the direction of Sac.

Very interesting, how much we disagree on this point.

So there are three cases:

No1: HB stays on his PO: HE´d still be on the books, we´d have no Trade exception and no JJ (who in my eyes plays way to little right now). To me HB would be very detrimental to this No1 offense we´re running right now, as he showed throughout his time here that he is not capable of making quick decisions after receiving the ball. Even if he just stood in the corner being a shooting threat (even though his numbers this year don´t suggest, he´d be one, but granted he would be), him being fully incapable of making the second pass would be a huge, huge negative. This aside, even if he seems like a good dude, I wouldn´t have expected him to commit to this role being paid almost 17 millions per year: And that would mean more ISO-Barnes and I don´t have to explain to anyone around here, what that would mean for the offense we´re currently running.

No2: HB stays and commits to a longterm deal. This would mean he either left shitloads of money on the table to go elsewhere or we overpaid him for his service. As the former seems highly unlikely. Super meh to that option.

No3: HB walks in FA last summer after not opting into his PO. That´s the only case, in which the Mavs are anywhere close to the position they are in now. But this seems to me highly unlikely. Regardless we wouldn´t have JJ in this case. And as I write this, I realize that our disagreement is more about JJ than HB. I see him as a great, cheap, young piece, who understands his role and has tremendous room for improvement.

To me none of these cases is in any form better than our outcome. How the trade should be lopsided in direction of the Kings, as you said, is beyond me.