<< MavKiki and Drbio,
I know what you all mean, it doesn't make sense. Did he have some sort of roster bonus in his contract? Was the last year not guaranteed? Those are the only ideas I have come up with. >>
His salary for next year would have been guaranteed had he been on the roster July 1.
My guess is that it doesn't really hurt their trading prospects, because the only players with non-negligible salaries that would be included in most plausible trades are just NVE and Bradley, who if he's actually playing 25 minutes a game, is a considerable bargain at $4 mil for a center (and whose salary actually is quite lower this year and next than it was last year... less than $4 mil). I think that although having Manning as trade filler would have given the Mavs increased flexibility, his $1.5 mil price tag is less than the maximum cash considerations allowable, and most teams would rather take the cash than Manning at this point. In the current scenario Cuban does not have to pay the $3.1 mil in salary over the next two years, only the potential cash in a trade.
So there's my theory.
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