07-09-2022, 10:58 PM
(07-09-2022, 10:15 PM)Branduil Wrote: S&T ideas never made sense to me once NY had enough space to sign him outright. What's in it for them? Mavs would have to tip them for the honor of losing their second-best player, and it's unlikely they would use a TPE anyway.
Obviously they entertained the idea at length. I think the Gibson and Archidiacono moves have signaled that NY decided to not do it.
NY had an an angle to make it a plus, which is that it would have allowed them to stay an over-cap team and have big MLE plus BAE plus a big TPE. Could have kept Gibson and Archidiacono too with no hassle. But if there aren't players important to you that you would get as result ...
DAL had an angle to make it a plus, which is that (if they found the right higher-salary player) they could have used Brunson's salary as part of the trade match, making it easier to facilitate. It was combinable via the SNT being tied to another deal. But if you don't have that player you want to trade for ...
Both teams could also have banked a decent-sized TPE for use in free agency next summer, which can be very helpful if you don't have cap room and there's a medium-salaried player available to such a team. But if you don't see how, and the other team doesn't want to bother ...
It's possible both teams thought they were helping the other more than themselves, and wanted to be compensated by the other. Maybe both wanted a big win from a SNT, and didn't see a big win. And it doesn't make sense to PAY for a TPE to have for later that you may never use, but at no cost to either, it's hard to see why they wouldn't just cooperate and do it that way.
To me, this is a BAD sign -- not that a TPE is a major deal, but that the Mavs still appear to lack the negotiating skills to close a deal that should have been really easy.