2020-2021 ROSTER TALK: Archived

[DanSchwartzgan]

So Dan I can imagine why Chicago would do this altho Young is an important rotation player for them. I just don't think Young at 15 mil for J Rich is a great move for the Mavs. Mavs could do much better than that and I don't picture them wanting to spend even more big money in their frontcourt rotation.

Right now Mavs have 50 mil committed to KP, Maxi and Powell next season. That's around 45% of the salary cap. Unless you can unload Powell somewhere I don't think Mavs want to up that number to 65 mil or 58% of the cap. And we would be losing a guard/wing defender in the process.

Unless Mavs can land a budding star player like Collins, I don't think they are going to spend much money on the front-court unless and until Powell's money is dumped. Also with Powell playing better there is less urgency to do much. They might be able to bring back Melli on a vet min and feel okay about their big rotation.

In terms of agent management with J Rich I think he could just opt-in and there's no big issue really. It kicks the can down the road. Mavs could keep him or trade him. And opt-in and extend is interesting. I think J Rich is a flawed but useful player. If you move him to the bench and keep him on a value contract (because you couldn't find something better) that is not the worst thing in the world.

Circling back to the Young thing I haven't done the math but if they need to free up cap space wouldn't they just not guaranteed his contract? They could then negotiate a new contract or find a cheaper player.

Chicago won't have a way to bring back Young if they go with the non-guarantee.  He will get more than the Room MLE from all sorts of teams.  He can't be an "important rotation player" and also be someone they can just dump.  BTW, they have too many bigs now.  Vuc/Williams backed by Theis/Aminu and a cheap fifth big is just fine.  The risk they have is being able to keep Theis at the Room MLE.  I think he's worth more, but his market may be held down by supply at the position.

I think we get way too caught up on how much we are paying this or that.  There is a chance we are paying our SF rotation $7 million next season.  Our superstar and his backup are making a fraction of their worth.  Powell will take care of himself soon enough.  He's actually pretty good at his role if they could have just negotiated an Achilles discount clause in his deal.  But they didn't.  Some day we will have too much invested in our back court and Powell will be gone.  The question for today is what do we need and the answer is better than Melli.  If Melli were the answer, why are any of us pining for Collins?

JRich won't opt in just to stay here.  It will be opt out (even if he has to take a MLE deal) or opt-in and extend here or elsewhere.  I sometimes feel I'm a little unfair to JRich.  He got traded, didn't get a training camp with his new team and then got Covid.  How is he supposed to look after all of that?  The point I wanted to make in this scenario is the opt-in has to be done pre-moratorium and Dallas has tried getting something out of situations like this in the past.  Unless they are going for max-room, trading him after an opt-in is good asset management.  To the right team at the right price, he has value.  But, JRich won't play along unless he knows the where and the how much in advance.

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Classic Knicks targets seem like:
- Schroder big deal
- Drummond on a short deal
- Dipo maybe on a short deal?
- At least one RFA overpay to try to steal someone away (ie Lonzo)

I just threw up in my mouth a little.  And people think Lonzo would pick that cesspool over Dallas?