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

[DanSchwartzgan]

To make that work for both teams, the Mavs need to have >4.36M in under-tax-line cap savings to offer, and if we count Morris at $0 cap, they have that much available and a slice more. Holmes inclusion would require it to be done after 9/6, but waiting past 12/15 offers better flexibility in getting PHX under Apron 2.

So, you are thinking Phoenix sends out a minimum wage guy with Ayton.  That takes the savings from $2.5mm to $4.5mm (meeting your objective).  It also keeps Dallas at 15 players since THJ/Holmes for Ayton is a two-for-one and we'd be down to 13 once Morris is cut.  

That might explain why Morris was signed in the first place.  It provides flexibility in case we do end up doing a 2-1 (not necessarily Ayton).  It would also infer such a deal isn't locked down yet and they are just positioning themselves for flexibility.  They can let the clock run on Morris until they find a deal and then adjust accordingly.  In the case of the Ayton deal above, if they do the deal on 12/15 as a 2-for-2, Morris will have eaten up about $550k playing 27% of the season. Hopefully, we have a better idea once we see what they actually do with McGee on or after 9/1.