BRUNSON BURNER: to NYK for 4yrs/$104M (no SnT) | NYK docked 2025 2nd for tampering

[KillerLeft]

But then Cuban was just flat out lying when he told Stein that they could pay Brunson more so they were in a better position to keep him.  Yikes.

I think he wanted Brunson back (would be crazy not to) and had a number in mind that he was willing to reach (and pay the tax on) and was hoping Brunson wouldn't receive an offer higher than that number. 

If you believe McMahon, that number was "Fred Van Vleet" money, which seems about right. 

Everything he said was meant to scare the Knicks out of taking the steps necessary to offer Brunson a big contract. If NY thought he would offer as much as possible, they might not go through the pain of preparing to make the offer (and this week has been work for them, to be sure). But, NY called his bluff. My guess is that the Mavs knew they weren't going to have Brunson back right about the time NY did its thing on draft night.

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There will be time for scorched earth later when we see how this all plays out.

Fair. 

I, personally, am worried that there might not be adequate time for scorched earth later, so I'm getting a jump start now.