Mavs Trade Targets REVEALED! Going All-IN With Cooper Flagg!

Mavs Trade Targets REVEALED! Going All-IN With Cooper Flagg!

The basketball gods smiled upon the Dallas Mavericks in the draft lottery. And now they’ve got Cooper Flag on the way, but that doesn’t mean that Dallas is done. No, no, no. With Kyrie Irving out due to an ACL injury until probably January at the earliest, they need to go find a guard. And now we’ve got some very specific names that have been revealed as trade targets for the Dallas Mavericks. I’m Trevor Lane. This is the Basketball Bulletin. Today I’m going to take a look at those trade targets and how the Dallas Mavericks can potentially land them and what it would mean for the NBA in the trade market as a whole. Make sure you do subscribe right here to the channel right now. About 70% of you watching this channel are not subscribed. Let’s fix that. Hit that subscribe button for us. Great way to help us out and keep us growing. All right, let’s get into it here. This is the latest on the Dallas Maverick situation. We’ve got an update from Mark Stein. First quick note though, the Mavs are actually in a little bit of a sticky spot here in that right now they sit without Cooper flag, they sit just uh $12.7 million below the second apron. Now most teams are going to treat the second apron as a de facto hard cap. whether they actually turn it into a hard cap, which you could do by doing something like aggregating salaries in a trade. If you were to trade away multiple players in a deal, let’s say, I mean, pick any two Mavs, PJ Washington and Daniel Gaford get combined together to go get like a $29 million player or something like that. That would trigger a hard cap at the second apron. Let’s also remember that if you take back more salary than you send out in a trade, that triggers a hard cap at the first apron. and the Mavs dealt with a lot of issues with the first apron last year where they were hardcapped. Right now, they are just $819,000 below that first apron uh level. So, they certainly are not going to want to do that. And they’re also not going to want to trigger a hard cap at the second apron. But, I don’t think they’re even going to want to cross the second apron period. And Cooper Flag is projected to make just over $13 million as a rookie. So, just adding him to this roster puts you into the second apron. So, what the Mavs are going to need to do is they’re going to need to shed a little bit of salary this summer. Just something to keep in mind as we’re looking at the moves the Mavs could potentially make. But here is Mark Stein about the Dallas Mavericks. Very clearly the Mavs. They need to add a point guard to this roster. And what they want, what we’ve heard reported over the last few days is that the Mavs want to get a guard that can be that guy for them while Kyrie is out and then play alongside Kyrie. So, you want somebody that’s got some versatility to play on or off ball. So, if Kyrie comes back in January, maybe it’s February, who knows at this point, then he can slide right back in and the guy who’s been running the show can become more of a secondary player and they want somebody who can make that transition easily. With that said, I think these targets make a lot of sense. Number one, Lonzo Ball with the Chicago Bulls. Number two is Drew Holiday. I flipped the order there, but Drew Holiday with the Boston Celtics. And then free agent Chris Paul. So, let’s talk about those three options. Drew Holiday, let’s go with him first. You know, he’s a really intriguing one because he is such a good defensive player. He helped bring a championship to the Boston Celtics. But if I’m the Dallas Mavericks, yikes. I’m looking at that salary and I’m a little bit concerned, I’ll admit. And I love Drew Holiday. He’s great. But 34 years old, guess what happens to go first when players start to age? It’s their defense because the lateral quickness drops out, drops off. The athleticism, the burst, the quick twitch, it starts to drop off. Now, Drew Holiday is a strong physical defender, so maybe he will still be just fine, but he’s getting paid like a top-notch defensive guard. 32.4 million next season, 34.8 million after that, and then 37.2 million on a player option after that. Ouch. Then we got to talk about how can the Mavs even stack up the salaries in order to get that done. This is where it gets really tough. I mean, to get the $32 million in salary, you’re looking at stacking up guys like PJ Washington, Daniel Gaford, and maybe Klay Thompson. Some of these guys would almost certainly have to be involved. Could you get into Caleb Martin, Naji Marshall, and do you get to a point where you’re stacking up so many important guys? PJ Washington, Daniel Gaffford, certainly important players. Same with Klay Thompson, where next thing you know, you’re not improving your team. even if you are checking that box of getting the guard that you need, you may not actually be improving your team depending on which pieces are going out. So that’s where the fit I think of Drew Holiday makes a lot of sense. But at 32.4 million and knowing the Mavs have to send out more salary than they take back in a trade, that’s where to me this gets very difficult for the Mavs to do and be able to say yes, this significantly makes our team better. So, I love Drew Holiday as a target, but trying to make the numbers work very, very difficult for the Dallas Mavericks, and that’s going to be the challenge for the Boston Celtics, who need to shed salaries themselves as they look to go into what’s going to be probably a down year for them without Jason Tatum. The Boston Celtics are going to be trying to get off of some of these contracts so that they can drop below the second tier apron as well. They’re not going to want to pay the penalties. In fact, they’re a half a billion dollar team next season as presently constructed if they don’t shed some salaries and they’re not going to want to do that for a team that probably doesn’t have a title shot without Jason Tatum. So, they’re going to need to move some of their deals. Tatum, of course, dealing with that unfortunate Achilles injury. So, the Celtics are going to be a motivated seller, but getting their moneywise is going to be difficult for the Dallas Mavericks. Not impossible, but maybe a bit of a challenge. However, let’s talk about the Chicago Bulls. Lonzo Ball, very, very interesting guy for the Mavs to target. I think he makes maybe even more sense than Drew Holiday because look at the financial commitment. 10 million bucks, easy. We can get there. No problem. 10 million bucks next season and then a $10 million deal for the season after. But guess what? It’s a team option. Beauty. You love that. That means future flexibility. If you get Lonzo and it doesn’t work out, oh well, you move on after a year. Now, Lonzo Ball is somebody who’s dealt with a significant injury history. Didn’t play basketball for over two years. I mean, this is there’s a lot of risk here. Much more risk certainly than with Drew Holiday, but also much easier to get there in terms of making the math work. So, $10 million, that’s no problem. You want to talk about PJ, you want to talk Daniel Gaffford, easy peasy. You can get there moneywise. Now, does that fit a need for Chicago? Yeah. I mean, either one of those guys, I think, could be an interesting fit for them. But even if they’re not, those are guys that would be easy to flip to a third team and off you go. Could you do something around Caleb Martin? He’s almost there at 9.5 million and then just throw in a small contract somewhere else. Maybe there’s something you could do there if you’re the Dallas Mavericks as well. But Lonzo Ball, if the Mavs buy that Lonzo’s going to have a healthy season, and once again, Lonzo has not been the example of health over the course of his career. Certainly not. But if they buy that he’s going to be healthy next season, that he if he’s 100% that those knee issues that were plaguing him last season are a thing of the past, he could be a really good fit. I mean, look, did not play for two full NBA seasons. Only played 35 games last year. Uh the shooting percentages, you would have to believe that they will go back up to what they were before he was injured, but 37% from the field, 35%, we’re rounding up 34% really from three. That’s not good enough. But he’s a guy who can play on or off ball. He can rebound, he can defend at a high level, can get you some steals, occasionally block some shots, and as he gets his legs back under, if the Mavs feel like he’s going to go back to being who he was before the injury, well then then he makes a lot of sense as a target. But there was that other guy that was mentioned and that is the veteran Chris Paul. Chris Paul now already has experience playing off ball a bit. is in San Antonio right now with the Spurs who went and picked up De’Arren Fox who already have Stefan Castle. Now they’ve got the number two overall pick which they may be using. We’ll see. They could wind up using that in a trade. There’s already Giannis trade rumors potentially going there, but they could also get Dylan Harper if they decide to keep the pick, which means their backcourt could be very, very crowded. So, if that’s the case, then Chris Paul could be an interesting stop gap for the Dallas Mavericks to target. And you wouldn’t even have to give up anything to get him. you could just sign him on a veteran minimum or something like that in free agency. Now again, if they were to use a taxpayer mid-level exception, that would trigger a hard cap at that second apron, which again could be a little bit challenging for the Dallas Mavericks. But if they are able to shed some salary, maybe something like that could work for them. Or perhaps they can get Chris Paul on a veteran minimum now that he is 40 years old. He’s not the Chris Paul of old. He is now old Chris Paul, but he can still get the job done for you. 7.4 four assists per game last season, 28 minutes, played in all 82. At 39 years old, he played all 82. That is remarkable. I mean, talk about the anti-Lonzo ball. Lonzo Ball dealing with injuries and all these things. Chris Paul 82 games played. Is he great? Is he what he once was? No. But could he hold down the fort for a few months while Kyrie is out and then play a complimentary role after that? Sure. He’s not the defensive player certainly that Drew Holiday is or Lonzo Ball, but much much easier to acquire, especially if you can get him on a minimum contract, then you can do it without necessarily having to give up any assets in order to get him. So, I do think these options all make a lot of sense for the Dallas Mavericks. It’s very clear that they need a point guard. There will be other options out there on the market. guys like Dennis Shruder, Malcolm Brogden potentially available depending on how much the Mavs want to spend, if they have any spending power in free agency. They do have to make some kind of move. They’re going to have to open up some salary some way because right now they are way too close for comfort with that second tier apron and with Cooper flag on the way. But that shouldn’t be too big of a problem for them to shed some salary right now. Again, they they’re just under $13 million clear of that second apron, especially assuming that Dwight Powell will probably pick up that player option at $4 million, but that’s not it. It won’t be too prohibitive to shed some salary if you’re the Dallas Mavericks. The question is, can you shed salary and land that guard that you need? The cleanest path is probably Chris Paul if you can get him on a better minimum. But Lonzo Ball, Drew Holidayiday certainly offer a lot more defensive upside. And I think the Mavs will explore those options and maybe we’ll see if they can get into the mix for some other guys like Malcolm Brogden, perhaps Dennis Shruder, some of the other players that are out there in free agency. They they could also bring back their own free agent which is Dante Exom. Perhaps there’s some interest there. But the bottom line, we’re already getting trade rumors coming out here. Targets are being identified because right now 26 NBA teams, as much as the playoffs are still raging, we’re in the conference finals, 26 teams have already moved on to the offseason. A lot of stuff going on around the NBA already, which brings me right back to hit that subscribe button, turn on notifications. We’re going to keep you in the know all summer long. Till next time, everybody. See you and stay safe.

In this video Trevor Lane takes a look at the rumored targets on the trade market for the Dallas Mavericks…

#NBA #TheBasketballBulletin