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Originally Posted by jthig32
I'm not sure why it's different if he's alone or mentioned with other people. I don't think anyone has said "Martin is the primary target". All that's really been written is that the Mavs are interested. Or even that they have been in the past.
If someone other than Marc Stein was reporting that the Mavs were actively pursuing Martin, then I agree that I would be skeptical.
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I'm not "skeptical" that they like him, but I'm definitely skeptical that they'll get him, for several reasons.
And I think there's absolutely a distinction between the media singling out a guy as a target versus mentioning him in a group of potential candidates. Early in the process before the teams are anywhere near an agreement in principle, it hurts Team A's bargaining power if there are media reports talking specifically about their interest in Team B's player. It obviously becomes way less of an issue as you get closer to an agreement, but early on it can be pretty hindering.
If you're trying to acquire something of this value in an arms-length negotiation, you never want the other party reading/hearing third-party sources that say how interested you are. And you seem a lot more interested (even if that's not actually the case) if there are media stories specifically talking about your interest in that player, rather than that player as one of many. I think that's one of the reasons (surely not the only one) why you rarely see trades completed when there were early reports of the team's interest. Those types of reports have a chilling effect on the deal actually getting done.