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

[surfpuckmd]

...unless there's a reason the extra room (under the tax line) is needed. 

As cheap as I sometimes think Cuban is becoming, I can't imagine he'd put the team through this hardship for two extra years just to save a few million dollars immediately. I can see him making that choice if it's the difference between paying the tax and not paying it, but that isn't the case here. I think the obvious conclusion to draw is that either they have another move in mind for the near future that will bring in more money than they send out, or at the very least they're hoping to find such a move and wanted to give themselves the option. And honestly, I think it's kind of most likely that it's the former, not the latter.

Maybe so.

I think it's more likely though that someone on the Mavericks just insisted that Javale no longer be a Maverick.  I think the Mavs have a history of breaking up badly with players and I don't think that is typical in the NBA.  I am concerned that they tend to scapegoat certain players publicly.  This off-season it's been Christian Wood and Javale McGee.   It didn't work out with Javale but he was a useful rotation player on multiple winning teams prior to coming here as a free agent.  I don't see the advantage of the Mavericks publicly shaming him all summer.   Even more concerning, I don't like how they released to the media that they wanted to trade Tim Hardaway Jr.  That guy has certainly not been the problem with the Mavericks over the past few years.  Mark Cuban has aimed to be a player-friendly owner throughout his reign.   However, the Mavs often don't treat their players with much respect.

I think the other reason they're stretch-waiving McGee is because they wanted a tough guy on the team.  I think Cuban likes the idea of having a player on the Mavericks who is reckless with a history of violence.  Markieff Morris has that reputation and I think Mark wants him on the bench as a threat to retaliate for anyone taking cheap shots at Luka.  Markieff Morris the basketball player has declined but his reputation as a brawler remains.  

I think these moves are pure Mark Cuban because these are the kind of moves that we were making prior to Nico and Dennis Lindsay.  

These moves probably won't have much effect on our team this season but they were unnecessary and overall a small step backward.  It's just discouraging because this off-season was the best we have had in a long time.