Dallas Mavericks: Derrick White trade, new Kyrie contract, & more | 2025 Mock Offseason | Salarycast

Dallas Mavericks: Derrick White trade, new Kyrie contract, & more | 2025 Mock Offseason | Salarycast

Hey everyone, welcome to the show. I’m Yosi Goslin, NBA salary cap analyst, and this is a salary cast on the Dallas Mavericks. I’m going to do a mock off season for them and show how they could accomplish their the uh their goals within the rules of the salary cap, uh all that stuff. Make sure you follow me on Twitter, Blue Sky, my name, also YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcast, where you can see all my previous content. And make sure you subscribe to Third Apron. I already have uh an offseason preview on the Mavs there, and I already did a podcast on them with Grant Ath. Make sure you check the description. I’ve got links to both of those. Uh, and as you could see in the bottom, I’m going to do a couple things. The Mavs mainly need guards. They’re going to have to figure out a new contract for Kyrie Irving. He’s got a player option, and they could probably use some more. So, I’m going to have them trade for a guy I think would be a pretty good fit, Derek White. So, let’s get into it. So, things have not gone as expected from for the Mavs over the past few months. uh when they made the Luca trade and the Quentyn Grimes trade, they were probably hoping that they were going to have their work pretty much set up for the next year and a half going forward because as you can see, here’s their payroll heading into the off season, they already have a full roster. So, assuming everything went well, they were pretty competitive and they were healthy, they would have just run it back. And unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case. They suffered a bunch of injuries and now they have uh they they missed the playoffs. So, they’re gonna have some work especially because the complicating factor of Kyrie Irving’s ACL injury. We don’t know when he’s going to come back. They’re hoping he’ll be back in like January. It’s not even guaranteed he’s going to play next year, but he’s got that $43 million player option. So, there’s some optionality there. I’m going to get into what they he can do there. He could sign an extension or maybe he’ll decline it. to sign a new amount. Uh so when the Mavs did all this, they pretty much set themselves up for a two-year window. Uh I maybe they’re thinking more, but pretty much last year and this year, and now, despite everything just not working out, they got lucky. They got the number one pick. And that really saves them because, as I’m going to get to a little later, they don’t have control of their draft picks between 2027 and 2030. And so now that they’ve got the opportunity to draft Cooper Flag, they’re going to be a much better position by then, uh, which when they made this trade, the the Anthony Davis trade, uh, when they gave away Luca, it’s like, why are you giving up your high upside guy when you’re going to be in this uh, draft pick hole, you’re going to want to stay good by then. So, they lucked out there. Now, if I was running the Mavs, I wouldn’t have done the Luca trade in the first place. But, if I just got control of them now, I would just blow it I would trade Anthony Davis. I would try to trade Kyrie Irving and fully build around Cooper Flag. I don’t think the Mavericks are gonna quite do that just yet. I think they’re going to try to see out whatever they started and try to win a championship this upcoming season or the next. But they’re going to have some work to do because right now they lack uh point they lack guards. They don’t have Kyrie for the foreseeable future. Uh really their only point guard is Brandon Williams and then a little bit of Jaden Hardy who’s more of a combo guard. So they’re going to have to get a couple guards I think two. So what is required of the Mavs and are there any restrictions that they’re going to have to adhere to? Yes. As of now because they got the number one pick instead of the 12th the they got a much higher salary for that pick and that took them way over the first apron and now they’re slightly over the second apron. So right now they can’t really do that much. They don’t have any mid-level exception to sign anybody. Uh they can’t even combine players uh to get a more expensive player in a trade. They’re basically uh all they could really do is reassign players to the veteran minimum. Uh you know, they already have Spencer Denwy. They could bring him back, but I think they’re going to aim a little higher than that. So, they’re going to have to save money somehow. They’re going to have to reduce their payroll. There’s a couple different options they can go about it. I’m looking at the front court now that they bring in Cooper who I think in the long run projects as a four. Maybe there’s a big man they could move. Also, there’s a possibility maybe the Mavs don’t want Anthony Davis to play exclusively at the four. They might want him to play a good amount of five, which kind of makes having both Gaffford and Lively redundant. Maybe they move one of those guys. So, I’m going to be moving a couple front court players for them to get a guard and probably moving some other expensive player just to save money, try to get below the second apron and maybe even below the first apron. And the reason I say that is because last year the Mavericks, they were comfortable paying some tax and they ended up staying right below the first apron. And when they do that, they have a little bit more optionality. They can actually increase their payroll through a trade. They get access to the full mid-level exception and they can also sign any player who’s bought out mid-season. So, they get a little more flexibility, but also more probably a little more significant to them. It lowers their tax bill. They don’t have to pay quite that much. So, I’m going to get them below the first apron as well. That’s going to be another goal. It might not open the full mid level. I don’t think it will, but also they might not need the whole thing to get an additional guard. So, let’s make a couple moves. And the first one I want to do is renegotiate Kyrie Irving’s contract. He’s got that $43 million player option. And the Luca trade gave him a lot of leverage. I think he was looking at a long-term deal with them. Maybe something into like the mid-40s and above because the Mavs are over the cap. If Kyrie were to leave, they’re going to have no means to replace him. Uh but the injury might change that a little bit. I still think both sides are motivated to get something done. And I’m just looking at ways that they can replace that player option amount, start him out at something a little smaller, and in the end gets his salary back up to the current level it’s in. Maybe he gets more than that. I don’t know. We’ll see. But here’s one structure I could see on the higher end. Gets roughly 25% of the cap with a maximum raises. Tops out at three years,$125 million. So he nets roughly $80 million over the next three years. I feel like a three-year deal is also pretty realistic because then it aligns him with the remaining contract of Anthony Davis. And then you got a much smaller one here where Kyrie Irving takes roughly a 25% pay cut. This is probably the lowest end scenario I could see him going in terms of lowering his salary. Gets it a little closer to what James Harden’s got going on with the Clippers right now. The Mavs could try to push for something like this with the uncertainty of his post ACL injury. Who knows exactly what kind of player he’ll be when he comes back. But it’s also worth noting Kyrie could still resign with the Mavs for up to five years. So if he were to get closer to the 20% range, maybe there’s something where he’s going to push for more years and the Mavs could protect themselves by making it uh partially or non-G guaranteed on the back end. It’d be similar to what the Suns did with Chris Paul four years ago. They signed him to that fouryear $120 million deal. The last two years were non-g guaranteed, but for Chris Paul, he ended up making up a lot of that just by getting traded. So Kyrie would still have a chance on the later years to make up some of that money even if he falls off just by getting traded. They need to increase his partial guarantees. So this could be something that I could potentially see Kyrie getting, but it would probably have to be a much longer deal. My feeling is that Kyrie probably gets something closer to the first extension I laid out. And also it’s worth noting that his current deal has $2 million in unlikely incentive. So one of the benefits of renegotiating his deal is to get rid of those. that gives the Mavericks a little bit more apron space. So, when I get to the final product, I’m going to wipe those out. Now, I want to show the Mavericks draft pick situation over the next eight drafts. So, as you know, they got Cooper flag presumably uh with the number one pick this year. They could technically trade him once the selection is made, but I don’t think they will. They already went out and said that they’re not going to. I know that might be hard to believe until it actually the selection is made, but I believe them. Uh because they owe first round picks to the Hornets in 2027 and uh one to the Nets in 2029, they essentially could only trade up to two first this year, the 2029 that they got from the Lakers in the Luca trade and their own in 2031. Uh or they could alter alternatively do 2030 and 2032. However, they already owe a swap to the Spurs in 2030. So team if teams are looking to get the maximum amount from the Mavs, the odd numbered years are looking a little better because the 2031’s already a little devalued. So the Mavs, they don’t really have control of their draft between this time period. What I’m trying to figure out is is there something that the Mavs might be interested in in just punting it anyways, just going all out to win a championship this year and move these remaining picks. Uh, personally I wouldn’t do it, but just for the sake of chaos and fun, I kind of get the idea that they’re going to have to move these selections if they’re going to pry Derek White from the Celtics. So, let’s take a look at the trade package. So, here’s what I came up with. Now, I do want to stress like I do in all my other videos when I do this type of thing. I’m not saying that this is what the rece other team would be receiving. I’m not saying this is what the Celtics would get back exactly. I’m just trying to show what’s required from the Mavericks on their end to make everything work in terms of the salary matching, but also, you know, the value in some sense. Uh, now I I kind of feel as I think about who the Mavericks could go after if they’re going to make another like win now addition, I just think he’s the type of player that would really fit what they’ve got going on right now. And especially with the injury to Kyrie Irving, they could bring him in to start and by the time he returns, they could just slide him to the two and uh just defense championship. This is uh a big reason why they brought in Anthony Davis. Just go all in, keep uh keep going on that mantra. So I would expect that these selections are necessary to even convince Boston to uh do this to trade Derrick White. Now, as you know, they’re going to be they’re going through like somewhat they’ll be in somewhat of a gap year next year. They’re going to trade a lot of their guys, probably Drew and Porzingis. So, maybe if there’s a possibility where they get an offer they cannot refuse for Derek White, they could consider it. As far as Gaffford and Martin, I could see them wanting to bring in Martin just to bring in some more wing help. He’s also a Celtics killer. But, uh, in case they don’t really want these guys, they can reroute them to other teams, get some more draft picks, and save even more money for the Celtics. There’s a lot of opport a lot of different uh variation in terms of how this deal can shape up in the end. Uh Mavs only need to get to about 19 million to match for Derrick White. So that means that they’re going to have to save money somehow. So separately, I’ve got them dumping Klay Thompson. That sounds easier. That might sound easier than it would be in real life. So the Mavs just save money. So that’s going to be the way they get below the First Apron. And then by increasing their payroll in this trade, they’re now going to be hard caps of the first apron. And so here’s the final product. So first, let’s start with Kyrie. I gave him the same exact contract that he signed with the Mavericks in 2023. It starts him at 37 million. Uh comes out to three for 120. I could see that being the middle ground both sides make. Again, maybe Kyrie even gets more than this. I don’t know. Uh so as I mentioned, I removed Kyrie’s $2 million in incentives and that reduces uh so that gives the Mavs a total savings of 7 million because you’re going from uh his 42 million to 37 minus those 2 million incentives. So you get a little more apron space that well. As you can see, no Klay Thompson. I already have got they’ve already dumped them. Now I added Derek White’s $27.8 $.8 million salary in place of Daniel Gaffford and Caleb Martin. Also worth noting, Caleb Martin, same thing. He had some incentives, roughly 1.2 million. Those are gone now. So, they get a little more flexibility to fill out the rest of the roster. Another thing I did before I get into the mid level, I had Dwight Powell. He has a $4 million player option. I had him decline it and resign with the Mavs on a two-year minimum. Uh, so that would make his salary 3.6 6 million. So that saves him 350k uh give or take and he gets on the second year a partial guarantee that helps make up for the discount he took on year one. So just a little more flexibility there. Uh so then when you get to what they need to do uh to budget out the rest of the roster within the first apron, they have about like six million uh or so, maybe even more depending how close they want to get to the first apron to bring in a veteran point guard to round out their back court. Could they get a guy like a Chris Paul or a Malcolm Brogden type for that amount? Possibly. Uh we’ll see how the market shakes out. They need to make a little more flexibility, open up some more of the mid-level. Maybe they’re considering dumping one of their other guys down here, like I don’t know, Hardy or Omax. And they also need to get the 14 player, so one more veteran minimum player. Maybe they could get a second round pick instead. That would be an even smaller amount. Uh either way, we know last year the Mavs, they were dangerously close to the uh hard cap that they ended up getting so injured they couldn’t even add anyone and they were close to not being able to field the eight minimum required players to play a game. Thankfully, they got enough health in time to avoid whatever could have happened. But I would guess this time they’ll leave themselves just enough room below any hard cap that they subject themselves to to avoid any issue like that in the future. So then you know you look at the totality I think this is a pretty stacked one through 10 especially their top five and you see that in the end they top out at around $200 million with their payroll and luxury tax payments. So pretty reasonable amount considering the result that happened last year uh assuming that they do much better. And now let’s take a look at their projection for next season uh after having made these moves. So uh you got Anthony Davis, he’s still on that max contract. I got Kyrie Irving on the second year. Derek White’s here. Uh I’ll have them then extending PJ Washington to his max uh extension amount roughly four for 90 million. I get the feeling the Mavs are going to want to extend them to that and it will start him at roughly 19.8 million and then with the rest of the roster uh back running it back for the next season. I’ve also got them with their first round picks for next year assuming they’re halfway decent. They’re they should, you know, at least make the playoffs in which case they can have a pick in the middle of the first round and they would be in a position to be slight taxpayers again. Uh, keep in mind they would then enter the repeater tax, but then again they can still have like a similar payroll level as they did in the previous two seasons where if they want to stay below the first apron, that’s totally doable at that point. All they got to do is fill three more roster spots. They already have their rotation set. They’ll be in a pretty good spot. Now, I would say after this, there would probably be some type of retrenchment, especially if the Mavs haven’t uh at least met the goals, whatever lofty goals that they have. Especially got to consider that by next season at some point, very possible, Anthony Davis, likely Kyrie Irving with his injury, maybe Derek White, he’s will be 33 by then. Maybe they all take a step back. In which case, how good is this team going to be? And then you’re approaching that those years where you’re uh down in the draft picks. it’s going to be really time to start building around Cooper Flag. So, that’s when they’re probably going to start hopefully considering trading their top veterans, get some more draft picks, get some established young players that could fit well around Cooper Flag, and actually build around him, get ready for the next era of Mavs basketball. And they’re going to need to save some money anyways because after this season, uh Derek Lively is going to be uh due for a new contract. And if they’re already going to be pushing up against attacks, up against the apron levels, whatever, whatever it is, they’re going to need to save some money probably with their top players in order for them to fit a contract for Derek Lively. All right, thanks for watching everyone. That’s my Mavs mock offseason video. Let me know what you guys think. Do you think this is something both sides might actually entertain? Is it enough for the Celtics? Is it too much from the Mavs? Or maybe not enough from the Mavs? Personally, I doubt either team would do this. I think the Mavs don’t want to double down on their draft pick deficit going further. And I guess that the Celtics most likely will able to meet their financial uh goals, uh, you know, getting below the second apron, reducing their $500 million expense by trading just Drew and Porzingis, in which case they could probably keep Derek White. Once again, make sure you follow me on all the platforms listed below and check the description for the other maps content I’ve got out that uh is adjacent to this stuff. And check the description also to see about sports business classroom. I’m going to be an instructor there in summer league Las Vegas. Going to help with the cap major. If you’re interested in that program, check the link in the description to register. There’s a sign of cook.

The Dallas Mavericks sacrificed their future for a two-year title window when they traded Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis. That window may have already closed with Kyrie Irving tearing his ACL. But now they have a future by lucking out with the top selection in the upcoming draft. When you get a second chance at a generational player, the practical thing to do is trade your veterans now and build around him. But the Mavs seem unlikely to do that. They appear prepared to see things through with this group and worry about their future later.

In this video, I analyze the Mavericks’ salary cap situation for their upcoming offseason, re-sign Kyrie Irving to a new contract, and trade for Derrick White, a player I could see them targeting.

Mavericks offseason preview: https://www.thirdapron.com/p/dallas-mavericks-2025-offseason-preview
Mavericks offseason discussion: https://youtube.com/live/7J5o1tppGZw

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