Trade & FA 2025-26: Free Agency Starts 5pm CST/6pm EST

[Mavsfan32]

1) This is making the poster's point for him, that Young will verrrry likely NOT opt out, unless I'm misunderstanding something in your post. There are like 1-2 teams, MAYBE, who'd even want him at this point - as a max player. If/when he realizes he's going to have to take a pay cut to continue as a pro, that number of teams will go up, and maybe significantly, but until then, my guess is that he's going to work to maneuver himself to one of the hard up, desperate franchises who need to sell tickets and might be willing to give him another max contract. SAC? Utah? WAS? Idk, but the list isn't long, and I'm pretty sure Dallas is on it (thank God). What that means in the context of the Mavs trade conversations we've been having is that no, he isn't an expiring contract. Assume whoever trades for him will be stuck with his horrible salary for another year. That's a problem in today's punitive CBA era. 

Again, my guess is that he'll be traded to a team who has deluded themselves into giving him another big deal, and in that case he'll opt out and sign that deal...but under no circumstances do I expect him to opt out in order to become a free agent. He'd have to have the worst agent in the business to do that. That would result in him relegated to MLE offers, most likely. 

2) The new type of "ball hog" is the kind who only passes the ball when they think it's likely to result in an assist. I'd say a good number of those on the assist leader board perennially (though not all) are basically the worst stat padders in the league. We can't really use that stat to gage a player's effectiveness at team ball anymore, other than just the general idea that they have the ball a lot and attract a lot of attention. The guy you want running your offense is the one willing to make the pass that creates the opportunity for the assist pass from someone else. Those players are becoming increasingly rare, and to be clear, many of them have high assist numbers, too, so I'm not suggesting that's a negative. But, it's not the smoking gun evidence in the case of "who's a ball hog" that some seem to believe.

Thats what I think is a possibility and Trae is #1 in shot quality in so many passing stats even over Luka/Jokic. Worst defense and gives it right back? Sure but all his passing analytics are elite. He's certainly not a ball hog.