Do you think we'll make a major trade before the deadline?

[grndmstr_c]

Originally Posted by jthig32

He means that he's not sure that the Mavs will be interested in bringing him back at an elevated salary.

I'm been pondering it a bit myself. It's fairly useless speculating about it before the new CBA is in place, but in a hypothetical world where the current rules are still in place, I think it's very likely that someone would offer JJ more money than the Mavs want to pay.

Okay, that's what I thought, but wanted to be sure. I guess it's possible, though I'd be surprised to see that come to pass.

The obvious point of reference is the contract Dallas passed on in letting Brandon go to the Magic, but it does seem to me like those situations are pretty different when you look closely enough, which is to say, dig a bit deeper than the 'undersized backup' characterization; the big point being the fact that Dallas would appear to need a proven NBA point guard, even a smallish one, much more than they needed a proven NBA PF back when Brandon was a free agent. Taking your cue and assuming the current rules, I think Dallas goes farther to keep JJB than they were willing to go to re-sign Brandon.

[jthig32]

Originally Posted by grndmstr_c

Okay, that's what I thought, but wanted to be sure. I guess it's possible, though I'd be surprised to see that come to pass.

The obvious point of reference is the contract Dallas passed on in letting Brandon go to the Magic, but it does seem to me like those situations are pretty different when you look closely enough, which is to say, dig a bit deeper than the 'undersized backup' characterization; the big point being the fact that Dallas would appear to need a proven NBA point guard, even a smallish one, much more than they needed a proven NBA PF back when Brandon was a free agent. Taking your cue and assuming the current rules, I think Dallas goes farther to keep JJB than they were willing to go to re-sign Brandon.

I think it depends on how they view Roddy, and how much longer they think Kidd will play. If Roddy isn't a PG, and Kidd's about to retire, do you really want to commit a decent chunk of money to player that, honestly, can't ever start for you?

If the Mavs had a starting PG that was going to be around a while, then I could see them committing to JJ as the backup PG/sparkplug SG. But given their current roster, I could see them passing on spending money on JJ so they can focus on finding an eventual successor to Kidd.

[grndmstr_c]

Originally Posted by jthig32

I think it depends on how they view Roddy, and how much longer they think Kidd will play. If Roddy isn't a PG, and Kidd's about to retire, do you really want to commit a decent chunk of money to player that, honestly, can't ever start for you?

If the Mavs had a starting PG that was going to be around a while, then I could see them committing to JJ as the backup PG/sparkplug SG. But given their current roster, I could see them passing on spending money on JJ so they can focus on finding an eventual successor to Kidd.

I guess we'll see. I'd sure be sorry to see him go. One thing that occurs to me is that it may depend to some extent on how widespread the interest in JJB is. If the Mavs feel like they're only in competition with one or two teams at his eventual price point, and it's more than they want to commit to him, I can see them letting him walk. On the other hand, if the market settles in on the high side but there are a number of willing buyers, Dallas might be more likely to pony up the dough, reasoning that his trade-value would be intact (the same argument Stein's reported they had about Devin).