TDL Archived: The 2nd Rnd Pick Yankee Swap

[Mavs2021]

I think the key to this is figuring out the true cost of John Collins minus the benefit of a LeVert rental.  Without the LeVert part, Atlanta would need to take back near-matching salary from Indy (like Theis and McConnell) to leave room for Indy to deal with Turner.  That salary may or may not be expiring and may or may not be attached to a useful player.  LeVert provides both and with more size than McConnell next to Trae.  

You read things about Atlanta wanting to be paid for Collins and you also read things about other teams expecting to be paid to take Collins.  So, it is really difficult to call.  All Dallas is doing here is inserting itself into the Indy-Atlanta deal with a useful but expiring contract.  The base of the deal is really between the two of them with something coming from someone to compensate Dallas for THJ.  So, what does the Collins deal look like without Dallas and how do you peel back some of that to Dallas.

I could see Theis being someone who helps here in Maxi's absence and only has a year guaranteed after that.  I could see Dallas wanting a younger guard with some distribution skills (so either Duarte or Nembhard).  That doesn't feel like enough for THJ, so maybe we swap the Cleveland 2nd for one of the late firsts Indy has.  Maybe Bitadze gets added too and we cut Pinson (mainly to make Killer happy).  It also wouldn't shock me to see a McGee stretch-waive if we did something that brought in another big.  Like I said before, too many moving parts to nail down a specific deal.  But it feels like there is something here that could satisfy all four teams.

Isn´t Theis out at least the whole year, which complicates the deal imho.

I think Atlanta wants cost-effective players, so I think Jalen Smith would be a natural trade candidate, if the Pacers rate John Collins much higher. They are more or less the same type of player, but Smith is much cheaper, which clearly is a huge factor for the Hawks. Smith has been in and out of the starting line-up in Indiana, so I think it´s fair to say, Carlisle is not that attached to him.

As FG said Turner is likely the first piece. If he commits to the Pacers, then getting Collins makes a lot of sense, cause you are really going to be good team short-termish. If you lose Turner, then trading Collins for Smith really leaves you pretty much nowhere. Then you might as well keep your massive capspace and Jalen Smith´s cheap contract.