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Originally Posted by chumdawg
There's actually one avenue here that you guys have not fully explored yet.
Let's say that Milwaukee--or whoever else...I've just heard Milwaukee mentioned in this thread--offers Billups a max, or "near max" deal.
Let's say that Detroit would love to keep Billups, but decides that they can't afford that "near max" deal. (Just like the Mavs with Nash in '04.)
But let's say that the Pistons would be interested in a sign-and-trade. It's not necessarily the dollars that the Pistons balk at, it's the dollars for that specific single player. (Again, just like the Mavericks in '04).
So let's say the Pistons ask the Bucks if they will do a sign-and-trade, and the Bucks say no. It's take it or leave it. (Like the Suns did in '04.)
At this point the Pistons can pay the freight--which they don't want to pay--or they can watch Billups walk for nothing. Not a good situation to be in. (Like the Mavs were in back in '04.)
But then Cuban calls and says, we'll do a sign-and-trade with you.
A-ha! Now we have the groundwork for a deal. The Pistons don't want to give a max contract to one single player, but they may have interest in acquiring assets at a matching salary--several assets, which can be handled separately and perhaps parlayed to the Pistons' good.
In this scenario, the Mavs step in and replace the Bucks' "we won't sign and trade" with a "we will sign and trade." If the Mavs have enough to offer, they can conceivably make it happen.
On that basis, it's not "entirely impossible" that the Mavs could "break the bank" for Billups. They could very well end up with Billups at a max contract if they so desired and if they could offer Detroit what they wanted to make it happen.
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If you'll read up in the thread, I stated that it was not completely out of the question that we could aquire Billups by a sign and trade.
But a sign and trade is not really, "breaking the bank", as Smoove stated he thought would happen. Based on Smoove's opening post, it's obvious he thought we could just go give Billups a max contract, or something close to it. He never mentioned a trade.
That what all this is about. I don't think anyone has said it's completely impossible that the Mavs could get Billups. As I said, I laid out the possibility of a sign and trade earlier in the thread.