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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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It's plausible, but if Billups decides he wants to be a Buck he can just go there and that's that. The Bucks don't need the Pistons assistance in offering Billups big money like the Mavs do.
But lets assume that Billups is just using the Bucks for leverage into getting a bigger deal out of Detroit or Dallas. If Detroit balks at the price to keep Billups, they'd still have to accept taking on salary close to that amount in order to sign and trade him because both Detroit and Dallas are over the cap and need to match salaries. So if Detroit doesn't want to pay near max money to keep Billups, what player, or combination of players on the Mavs' roster is Detroit going to be okay with paying similar money too? There really isn't anyone.