NBA TRADE TALK: TDL over

[mvossman]

With the KP-Bullock-Green for Hayward-Grant the Mavs get to 141 before DFS/Brunson. No realistic way to avoid tax other than letting Brunson/DFS walk. However, both Grant and Hayward (and Powell and Kleber) expire a season after, so Mavs could get out of tax if needed. I think there is very little possibility for Mavs to stay competitive and avoid paying tax. Cuban will have to open his pockets. At least this way they are competitive, imho.

If you spend all of your assets on Grant and Hayward, and then let them walk in a year to avoid the tax, you have obviously made a terrible mistake.  I think you need to temper your desire to be "competitive" next year with a need to look at long term future.  The goal is not to be competitive now as much as its to be competitive in 25 onward (when Luka starts thinking about staying or leaving).

I think you should probably brace yourself for the likelihood that Cuban is not going to pay the tax next year.  It might have been different if they had a more productive offseason and looked like they were one piece away, but that did not happen.  With a terrible free agent pool, limited access to picks and virtually no assets with Brunson/DFS being UFA, they are very likely going to do a small reset to stay under the tax and prepare for making bigger moves in 2023.