DAL OFFSEASON: Trade & FA | Mavs "mostly done...but you never know."

[SleepingHero]

Doing some digging on the right now cause stuff isn't adding up. Currently the estimated salaries for the Mavs roster is 

James Johnson-16 
JRich-10.9
THJ-19
Maxi-8.25
Luka -8.1
Kristaps 29.5
Powell-11
DFS-4
Boban-3.5
Burke~3.1
WCS~4.1
JJ-1.8
Iwundu-1.8
Terry/Bey- Whatever is left of the MLE (which I believe is around 3 mil). 

Going into next summer, if the Mavs waive WCS, Richardson declines his player option, the Mavs total team salary will be just a hair under 80 million. Essentially giving them 33 mill in cap space. Basically right at Giannis' max. 

But the Mavs have a quirky thing going on where they have 1 too many players, with Townsend's sources hinting that they the Mavs still have a roster spot despite having none. Puzzling. 

Well after cjeter brought up DLord and the Buddy situation (where apparently there are zero suitors for him), I did some digging on Buddy's contract.  According to Spotrac, here are Buddy's numbers: 20-21: 24,931,818, 21-22: 18,568,183(500K incentive), 22-23: 18,568,183 (500K incentive), 23-24: 20,522,728(500K) incentive. 

I was so confused because I could've sworn that Buddy was being paid 22 mil the summer of Giannis, and then 20 mill the next year. But Spotrac lists those numbers as his dead money numbers. Divac structured Buddy's contract with a crap ton of incentives. 8 mil in likely incentives, and nearly 12 mil of unlikely incentives. These unlikely incentives include making the WCF or the Finals, being an all-star, etc. Consequently, Spotrac only lists Buddy's cap hit as 19,068,183. 

So lets say hypothetically the Mavs trade for Buddy, and give up THJ+Brunson+someone else (DFS? Kleber? Powell?). 

The Mavs would only be a single trade away from Giannis' max. If it was Powell, the Mavs would be a smidge under 8 mill from Giannis' max (1 Kleber trade or Green and DFS). If they traded Kleber then Mavs will need to clear about 10 mil, which could be done by trading Powell, or S/W him and trading another piece. 

In any case, Buddy may just be much more affordable than we all thought. And since the market is relatively shallow for him, perhaps the Mavs could convince the Kings to trade for Powell. I'd be more than willing to throw multiple picks in a trade like that. Because then the Mavs would just need to clear Kleber from the roster and could go to Giannis with Luka/Buddy/KP core with DFS/Green/Terry. Mavs could also get even more creative because some of our trades are not finalized yet. Just some food for thought.

TlR: Buddy is way cheaper than I thought. Perhaps the Mavs could be suitors for Buddy given the Kings predicament.