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

[KillerLeft]

I’ve been seeing reminders popping up in places (mostly Bobby Marks’ team trade videos) that young, cost-controlled players are kind of becoming the most important capital in the league.

Don’t know if they’re right, because we’ve heard this kind of doom and gloom before and the game’s economy has always adjusted, but people sure seem scared of that 2nd apron. Marks basically said trading Hardy, Lively and O-Max was unthinkable because the economics would soon dictate that they’d all be rotation players.

I found that point interesting, because as we all know, the Mavs’ approach to the draft this year came from left field, relative to their usual. Could the desire for cheaper, cost-controlled players have been the driver for the change? I mean we’ve always argued around here in favor of that kind of wisdom, but did the 2nd apron’s penalties inspire Cuban to start thinking 2-3 steps ahead about avoiding them?

If so, I’m not sure those players are as available as sweeteners as our ideas have assumed. And if they ARE available, I think they might have more trade value than we might be dreaming.