2021-2022 MAVS NEWS: 4th in West | WCF loss [ARCHIVED]

[Mavs2021]

Chi wants a FRP and to take on no money, but where are they if LM signs the QO? If they take back Maxi and Brown ($10.4M) it’s not much different than the $9M QO, except they get 2 players in positions of current need for 1.

Exactly. Maybe that´s where Nico is thinking a little further than Cuban/Donnie. There is no reasonable explanation why the Bulls would turn down Kleber + WCS or Brown for Markkanen. Certainly not this whole "take on no money due to tax threat this year".

UNLESS the Bulls have already promised Millsap the full MLE and Biyombo the BAE (for example), which takes them to $136M right under the luxury tax already. Guess who really really does NOT want Markkanen at $10M on the QO now, cause it comes with another $13M costs in luxury tax this year and after the possible Lavine max extension kicks in and they would fall into the repeater tax category next year. We all know the Bulls owner is notoriously cheap, too.

So with all this information sure the Bulls can pretend that they are happy paying $23M for a season of disgruntled Markkanen and more importantly pay repeater tax for Lavine next year (all while currently being projected to win 39 games by Vegas), because they didn´t get a 1st round pick.

Maybe Nico ain´t buying it. Maybe Nico is stone cold saying: TPE and 2nd round pick. Or have fun explaining to two agents why you are backing out of deals with them for Markkanen, who you dislike. Or go ahead pay $23M for Markkanen this year and another eight figure tax bill next year.