ESPN on Mavs trade of Richardson to Celtics and where they stand for FAs
Dallas: A
The Mavericks would surely love a mulligan on the trade they agreed to at last year's draft sending Curry to the Sixers for Richardson. They had to watch Curry emerge as a key starter on the East's top seed, while Richardson fell to the fringes of Rick Carlisle's rotation in the playoffs.
Barring a time machine, wiping Richardson's salary off the books entirely was as well as Dallas was going to do here. Crucially, it brings the Mavericks to $34-plus million in potential cap room if they decline a team option on center
Willie Cauley-Stein and renounce their other free agents -- more than enough to get Dallas in a bidding war for Kyle Lowry if they wish. They'd still be north of $30 million with Cauley-Stein, whose team option the Mavericks are leaning toward picking up, according to my ESPN colleague Tim MacMahon
Nobody in the NBA has had a better week than Lowry, who now has two potential suitors sitting on $30-plus million in possible cap space after money-saving trades by Dallas and the
New Orleans Pelicans (up to nearly $37 million). It's not entirely clear those teams will use all that money to bid on Lowry, as both teams have their own free agents they might want to bring back (
Tim Hardaway Jr. for the Mavericks), but it certainly looks like Lowry is getting paid.
If Dallas does try to re-sign Hardaway first at a lower starting salary than his $28.5 million cap hold, the Mavericks could be looking at a situation in which they could bring back last year's core and still have $10 million to $15 million to spend improving their depth. No matter which direction Dallas takes, the extra $11 million in cap space will likely do more to help win in 2021-22 than Richardson would have done. As a result, the Mavericks look like winners here.
For a bonus, Dallas gets a free look at Brown, whose $1.7 million salary is just $500,000 guaranteed up through the season's midpoint where all contracts become guaranteed. Keeping Brown shaves less than a million off the Mavericks' cap space because he's replacing a cap hold for an empty roster spot.
After excelling in the G League bubble, Brown averaged 14.5 points and 15.0 rebounds per 36 minutes in 43 games for the Oklahoma City Thunder last season. Defensive limitations may prevent Brown from playing a large role on a contending team, but he could fit the kind of situational usage Dallas gave Boban Marjanovic the last two seasons at a bargain rate.
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