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

[Kammrath]

They had something going and the chance of that happening was more beneficial than the risk of losing Brunson was harmful.

This is the only thing that really makes sense IMO (the "total ineptitude" theory makes zero sense to me). We know the NBA is constantly in conversation about possible deals and frameworks and that when trade discussions get serious that there have almost always been previous conversations in the months and years previous. So it makes sense that the Mavs had exploratory conversations with some team(s) after Nico took the job and thought they had some possible deals lined up that they really liked for the TDL involving JB. Then those fell apart once things got closer. Sure, that is still a "fail" by the front office, but that kind of fail makes MUCH more sense than "total ineptitude."  

Side question for you @"DanSchwartzgan": Do you remember if there were any deals that happened at the TDL with teams that might have been interested in JB?

Dallas blew it by assuming they could do some kind of S&T with NY (which died when Detroit was willing to eat so much salary)

Yeah this also makes sense. I would never have thought DET would be willing to use up so much of their caproom to just eat salaries. Again, a "fail" by the FO, but not an unreasonable assumption on their part.