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

[SleepingHero]

I'm in agreement about it being Holmes rather than THJ who is at the core of this.  THJ is a salary match for Capela, so there is no mandate for McGee to be included and you don't "overpay" for something that you don't have to do.  But, Holmes misses being a trade match for Capela by himself by about $1,070,000.  So another salary HAS to be added and Dallas rightfully wants it to be McGee.  That will cost something.  People can debate what that something is.

We covered this ground the other day, but if Dallas sends out two salaries, they have to get back to 14 players.  Holmes/McGee outgoing (no matter where McGee ends up) for Capela incoming is a $2.9mm bump to the Mav's payroll.  We only have $4.1mm of space under the tax and it will cost ~$2mm to add a 14th body.  My squeamishness with the idea that this is as simple as wait to September and pay cash or cash + a second to someone to take McGee is this will throw Dallas $800k into the tax.  How much does Dallas lose in tax distribution for that $800k?  Is it $20mm?  Whatever it is, that is too much for Capela.  

This alone makes me think there is no chance of a Holmes+McGee deal working and it'd have to be THJ+McGee. Mavs aren't going to give up 20mil of a tax paycheck for Capela. It pays his salary for the first year.

The only other avenue would be to trade THJ to someplace for someone making about 1 mil less than him and I'm struggling to see who fits that and makes sense. And it begs the question if the Mavs are going to end up trading THJ anyways, why not just send him in the deal for Capela instead of Holmes and just avoid this tax line issue in the first place.