02-16-2022, 05:10 PM
(02-16-2022, 04:53 PM)Kammrath Wrote: Felt like he was lying a little bit there, but it also rang true. It was incredible that the first time KP's name came up was from Jake Fischer within hours of the trade deadline. Nico was clearly being very careful not to give other teams the impression they were shopping KP. He did a hell of a job with that.
KOC, Stein, Cato, and Fischer all had similar reports that came out after the fact that the Mavs started seriously discussing trading KP Wednesday night before the TDL. And that TOR was the main team.
Nico basically said they were having exploratory convos with teams as far back as a week before. So I think he isn't lying that they weren't outright shopping KP, but that they viewed by the end that moving him checked the most boxes that they identified of need. We did hear a bunch of THJ rumors, and even Brunson/DFS rumors as well.
Nico chose KP as the move. I think the return had Mark's fingerprints all over it though. Really seems like the WAS package (that was probably offered a week prior) was discussed by all parties (Mark, Nico, Fin), and they decided at the last moment to go with it.
14x All-Star, 12x all-NBA, 1x MVP, 1x Finals MVP, 1 NBA Championship: Dirk Nowitzki, the man, the myth, the legend.