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

[KillerLeft]

That is what PJ wants to STAY in Charlotte. Maybe he'll shave a couple million to play with Luka/Kyrie (not to mention the tax savings in Texas)

A) that’s your speculation. 

B) he’s RFA, and the Mavs can’t even offer the full MLE right now (which CHA’s front office types would high-five each other as they matched, anyway).

Basically, PJW and Charlotte reached an impasse on negotiations. It’s his right as RFA to go and try to drum up an offer he likes (so far, he hasn’t found it, which should tell us something) and from context it seems like the team was willing to play ball a little to extend that opportunity for him past the cap space teams. 

What they’re HOPING is that that he’ll come back from what’s out there willing to come down much closer to the offer they’ve already made. I haven’t seen any indication that it’s not working, have you? He’s now threatening to sign the QO and go into UFA next summer. This is always the last resort in these situations. It’s very likely a bluff, because other than Philly I doubt there will be much attractive cap space out there next summer. 

I doubt the Mavericks are even talking to PJW’s people at this point (wouldn’t hate it if they were, just connecting dots) but I feel pretty confident when I say there’s a 0% chance of him playing in Dallas next year for the contract people seem to want. The only path (and even this is a long shot) to acquiring PJW is to:

1) talk yourself into paying him much more than CHA is willing to offer, and enough to interest him in signing (second part might be even higher than the first part)

2) offer CHA something to facilitate losing a player that I’m not sure they are definitely going to lose. From where I’m sitting it seems like they played this one pretty well.