Trade & Free Agency 2026/2027

[DanSchwartzgan]

What is being traded (outgoing) here? Murray is the type of player the Mavs are missing, in theory, but at this point he's probably a shell of himself and definitely a negative value contract, no? He's getting $30m+ the next 2 years, a trade bonus, some other incentives. All while playing, 14 games last year and 31 the season before. Shooting 30% from 3 on 5 attempts per game. ROUGH! The positive is he'd be ~20 months removed from the achilles injury, which is more than enough time to get back to 'yourself' on the court...

Mathurin for half the cost is more desirable to me. Jrue Holiday as well. I'd have to do a lot of mental gymnastics to get excited about Murray, especially if they send anything of actual value. I bet if he were a Maverick instead of a Pelican the last two years, this board would be talking about having to attach assets to get off his contract…

Gafford and Martin.

Murray missed 18 games at the start of 24/25 with hand surgery.  Later that same season he tore his achilles which accounted for the bulk of the games missed in both seasons.  Prior to that, he had been relatively healthy for six of the last seven seasons (he missed 18/19 with a torn ACL).  He came back for 14 games at the end of 2026 and looked healthy to me before they shut him down for the final five games.

I'm not married to this idea, but I see him starting next to Kyrie much easier than I see it with Mathurin.  I see Mathurin as a sixth man gunner off the bench who is seeking out shots and drawing fouls (and converting those foul shots at a very high rate).  I also like that Murray expires after two seasons and would wipe Gafford and Martin's salaries off the books for the summer of 2028.  If Mathurin requires three full years guaranteed, then that takes away some flexibility (I really have no idea what it will take to sign Mathurin given what Simons got).

Portland players get a lot of discussion, but I don't see either Gafford or Washington fitting there.  So, I've tended to avoid the Sharpe, Scoot or Jrue discussions (thought I'd love to have Jrue here).