The author of that article shows a lack of awareness of the rules and how they totally impact the situation.
The Mavs, being 10M over the apron, are not allowed to sign-and-trade for Sexton. Without a massive off-loading of salary (and the talent attached), any talks couldn't get serious.
In addition, his note that this might drag into training camp is way off too. Sexton is in a corner, and has 3 options right now - take the QO, take whatever multi-year offer CLE is making, or go get a better offer from another team (and it appears others aren't interested). But once camp begins, the QO goes away, and Sexton can only take whatever CLE wants to offer over however long (no matter how lousy that is), or get an offer from another team that CLE can match.
With those being the choices, the only play is for the player to pick something BEFORE camp starts. Once camp starts without a deal, it's a disaster scenario for them. There is no QO to get them to free agency the next summer, and no workaround to bypass whatever CLE wants.
This feels to me like the same "overplay your hand" that Rich Paul did with Noel in Dallas. There's a reason teams aren't lining up to give you huge money, and it's not necessarily because you are RFA. Teams will chase RFAs if they are valued. Noel turned down the team's deal, stuck with QO, and teams who were barely interested the first time weren't any more excited the next summer.
The Mavs, being 10M over the apron, are not allowed to sign-and-trade for Sexton. Without a massive off-loading of salary (and the talent attached), any talks couldn't get serious.
In addition, his note that this might drag into training camp is way off too. Sexton is in a corner, and has 3 options right now - take the QO, take whatever multi-year offer CLE is making, or go get a better offer from another team (and it appears others aren't interested). But once camp begins, the QO goes away, and Sexton can only take whatever CLE wants to offer over however long (no matter how lousy that is), or get an offer from another team that CLE can match.
With those being the choices, the only play is for the player to pick something BEFORE camp starts. Once camp starts without a deal, it's a disaster scenario for them. There is no QO to get them to free agency the next summer, and no workaround to bypass whatever CLE wants.
This feels to me like the same "overplay your hand" that Rich Paul did with Noel in Dallas. There's a reason teams aren't lining up to give you huge money, and it's not necessarily because you are RFA. Teams will chase RFAs if they are valued. Noel turned down the team's deal, stuck with QO, and teams who were barely interested the first time weren't any more excited the next summer.
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