John Collins...Our Third Star

[F Gump]

I think this ship has sailed and sunk at the trade-deadline.

With his caphold instead of his salary, we could have addressed the other issues of our roster.

At this point shuffling our bigs is a luxury we can't afford.
We need to keep THJ or have a replacement.
And we need to add a playmaker. If we dip into cap for anything else we failed.

"I think this ship has sailed and sunk at the trade-deadline."

I think that's way more likely than not. It's too easy to put blinders on and think that a Mavs attempt to obtain a player under one set of circumstances means they will chase that player when things change. We fail to see that the circumstances themselves may have been the main factor driving the original pursuit.

With Collins, as you noted, getting him at the deadline would have allowed the Mavs to keep everyone else in the summer, staying over the cap. The filler salary of Johnson was a potential part of the equation to allow taking back undesirable salary. In contrast, a summer pursuit would require the Mavs to pick between him and Mavs players for salary, which completely changes the equation.

As you note, now there may be way higher priorities elsewhere on this roster.