Trade & FA 2023-24: Stein-Ingram Trade Inevitable| LAL Want Lebron Back On Any Terms

[KillerLeft]

One potential issue with PJW would be the contract it would take. Or maybe not, depending on your view of his worth.

Let's work with the THJ + 2nd concept to see what it looks like.

If CHA intends to keep Oubre or his rights (and they seemed to like what he gave them last season), the snt match for PJW gets tricky because of Base Year issues. The smallest number you could pay him in that swap would be a starting salary of $20,795,456. If you're keeping score, that does land the Mavs under the tax line by almost $2M.

If you did max-declining salaries, the deal is either 3 yrs/$59,267,050 or 4 yrs/$76,943,187.

Is he worth that sort of number, in this NBA economy? With a hard cap world, that question really matters, if you don't want to kill your roster-building options ahead. And if you're keeping Green, he's going to have a sizable salary jump next season that has to be part of that equation.

The question to ask is how much of an improvement would he offer, at a position that seems to be fairly well stocked already for both now and the future (Maxi, GWill, Prosper). And he's neither the C nor the wing that the Mavs are looking for, so now how do you navigate those waters?

This is part of my thinking as well. 

I think he’s worth the $18-20M he’s seeking, but admit it’s matter of the beholder and far from a given. And, I would’ve been much more ready to bite before I got Williams locked in at MLE money, personally. Whether we want to admit it or not, their positional overlap saps SOME (not all) of the on court value PJW brings to the table.

Still, I get why people are reluctant to let it go and wouldn’t hate it.

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Hard pass on that. And I have to think, that if that's an accurate read on CHA's demands, it clearly explains why the Mavs are so dismissive of the idea of a pursuit of PJW.

And why they were willing to put up that ‘30 swap (not an insignificant asset) to land Williams.