trading Tariq (his contract) for a 2nd rounder???

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all credit to dallasbasketball.com

Our Capologist David Lord Gives It A Shot

By David Lord – DallasBasketball.com

Has Tariq Become a Tradeable Asset?

To no one's surprise, word is the Mavs are looking to buy out Tariq Abdul-Wahad's contract and free up a roster spot this summer.

But there is also a very real chance something else could happen: Tariq – whose dispute with management makes him Dallas’ well-paid persona non grata -- might be used in a trade. Such an idea, which on the surface appears to be absurd when speaking of a player who hasn’t been healthy enough to play in two years, actually is more likely than it would seem.

The trade angle revolves around the nature of his contract, and what it might allow a team to do once they obtain him. Here is how it could work:

Reports say that TAW's contract is only 50% guaranteed next year, and 25% the following year. If the Mavs buy him out (or waive him), they would be obligated to pay him $5.625M ($3,656,250 + $1,968,750), or perhaps a bit less if a deal can be reached.

Lessening the cost of the buyout, and making for all kinds of intriguing options, is the existence of insurance, which reportedly would reimburse 80% of the buyout back to the team. Thus the Mavs’ net cost would be 20% of the $5.625M - which is only $1.125M. The amount of the total buyout itself would be apportioned to the Mavs cap total per year, so they would be charged with approx $3.66M in year 1 and $1.97M in year 2. If they want to, the Mavs can sit tight and get a moderate cap reduction and a bigger payroll savings.

But the Mavs, to avoid potential luxury tax on the buyout, might go a different route and choose to trade him to a team under the cap. If they offer him plus $2M cash to more than cover the $1.1M buyout cost, say for a 2nd round draft pick, would another team take on the hassle to net an easy $1M cash in their pocket? Would a budget-minded team like the Hornets, Clippers, or Hawks be interested in some easy cash this way? Probably so. Teams creatively sell their undesired draft picks at times (the going rate for a low 1st rounder has been about $3M, and 2nd's are far less), so such a money-making transaction might be chased by several willing teams if the Mavs offered it. The Mavs would also gain a sizable "trade exception" in such a deal, which they would be able to use at a later date if they so desired.

Another angle would involve a team looking for cap room or payroll reduction. In trading away TAW before the buyout, the Mavs could take back a contract as big as $8.5M first year salary (and even more if trade restrictions are lessened in the new CBA, as has been rumored). If there was a player the Mavs wanted and the other team was wanting quick payroll reduction, the Mavs could trade TAW for that player. The other team could get sizable cap relief in year 1 (as they reduced their cap number by around $4M immediately) plus they would reduce net payroll (after insurance reimbursement) by about an additional $3M. Because the Mavs would be helping the other team wash so much salary, the possibility would also exist for the Mavs to perhaps gain a draft pick in the deal from the other team, depending on the player and the salary the Mavs were willing to take.

The question in this case would become: who would another team be willing to part with if they could, that the Mavs would want and use? The options here may be extremely limited, but are certainly worth exploring. Keep in mind that teams in recent years have more or less been willing to give away players like Juwan Howard, Nick Van Exel, Raef LaFrentz, Antoine Walker, Jerry Stackhouse, Keith Van Horn, and so on, if someone would just find a way to take the contract off their hands.

In such a scenario, could Dallas gain a much needed backup big man? Just to toss out an example that works by the numbers, you could look at PJ Brown in New Orleans. He is a veteran big man who plays for a budget-minded Hornets team that is always looking for ways to save on payroll. Brown's contract is $8M per year for 2 years, which fits exactly into such a deal and isn’t a huge added expenditure for Cuban to assume. Note that there are limited contracts around the league in the $8M range, but keep in mind that this sort of angle could also be used as one part of a larger multi-player deal as well, where the Mavs add on talent to their side of the deal and get back a higher priced but even better player. In the big man category, would players like Jamaal Magloire or Theo Ratliff be obtainable in some sort of package combination that offers cap relief plus talent to the other team?

Or, perhaps the Mavs could make a TAW-for-player trade with a team near or under the cap who is looking to clear out cap space to acquire a free agent immediately. The other team could trade away an $8+M player (or players who add up to that), waive TAW immediately, and increase their spending limit by $4M or even more (depending on the exact size of the contract they traded away). And because of the insurance angle, the other team is only spending $1.1M to get that added flexibility, which would be a cheap price for such added opportunity.

The possibilities are intriguing and numerous, and this contract could even be a key tool in some sort of blockbuster deal, the kind that the Mavs have seemed to invent with regularity.

As to what the Mavs will actually be able to accomplish with this situation, we can only wait with anticipation and see. For Mavs fans, the fun part is knowing that something is going to happen in one way or another, because with this team the interesting deals always seem to keep on coming. <--back