2019-2020 Mavs Trade Discussion + Salary Chart

[michaeltex]

After the report today on Aaron Gordon I have a strong suspicion the mavs may have been close to trading for him. 

First off Gordon isn’t in the magic long term plans. 
AG has been pretty awful this year. His trade value has cratered. And from the sounds of it magic couldn’t get much at all for him. 

I think they decided to pull the plug on a deal to try and get some actual value out of him this summer if he turns it around. 

Why the mavs tho? Ag is a Duffy guy. Luka and Ag could possibly be a fantastic combo together if AG pnr game holds up under large volume. AG can potentially provide the Dwight Powell role with good 3 pt shooting when he’s going. 

   IMHO, Gordon is the perfect 4 to pair with Luka and KP.     To me he's very much like Shawn Marion before he came to the Mavs.    You narrow down the scope of what he's previously been asked to do as a marquee player on his previous teams, and let get him focus on what he can do extremely well as a supporting role player.    In this case, he can be a guy who can switch defend 1-5 and provide Powell caliber rim running on offense.    Zach Lowe when talking about Gordon always mentions that there are several teams always working to get him off the Magic because they see that in him.   I suspect it's all the strong analytic driven teams, including the Mavs.  

I tend to agree that Gordon was probably the target where the third team was unwilling to give up a key piece.  In other words, Orlando wasn't buying our package, but expiring Lee (and possibly our 2nd) to a third team would have provided another bit of value to go with our other outgoing salary (probably Wright).  

The good news is this is an easy deal in July.  Wright and Jackson are a salary match once AG drops to $18mm and Jackson bumps up to $5mm.  It can be announced at the draft and we can even pick for Orlando assuming our first rounder is needed.  We just can't finalize until after the moratorium unless we add a third player to make the 19/20 salaries match.

I haven't paid as much attention to the Magic this year, but is AG worth all that? I'm not opposed to the concept, I'm just asking if he's really a contributor or more of a role player. Some of the comments earlier in the discussion seem to indicate that he's not as central to the Magic success as everyone thought he would be. Wright should be a stronger contributor than he is and Jackson is spotty in his performance, but I see some potential in both given some time to grow within a stable group. 

BTW, who is our "core" group now? Those guys that, if not untouchable, would take a big pry bar to get them to another team.

Luka, KP for sure.
DFS, THJ, Powell, Maxi, Seth - Probably?
Brunson, Wright, JJ, Boban, JJacks - Outer Edge?
MKG, WCS - too early to tell?