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Upfront disclaimer, the deal requires DAL to work out a deal with Kyrie to opt out and sign a new long term (probably 3 years) deal that gives them wiggle room below the 2nd apron. But I think that's pretty realistic considering his age and incentive to lock in a multi year deal ahead of his injury recovery and on the DAL side the 3 year term aligns him with their other older players (AD, Jrue after this deal) to make for a smooth transition to a younger core around Flagg down the line).

BOS gives: Jrue, Hauser
BOS gets: Klay

Why? Save money. This is the millionth thread with BOS saving money, doesn't really need to be discussed further.

SAC gives: Monk
SAC gets: Washington, Martin, Hardy
[mechanically they'd use Huerter TPE for Washington and then MLE for Martin/Hardy, that way they generate a TPE for Monk)

Why? Monk for Washington addresses their need for forwards next to Sabonis. That's a great fit and then Murray can play the 3. Martin adds more forward depth and Hardy replaces Monk's bench scorer role. They're $19M below the tax with 10 players signed and this adds $10M while filling two roster spots. Moving DeRozen for a point guard would be the natural follow up, and if they could pull that off they'd go from a sort of misaligned roster to a fairly cohesive one:

(PG from DeRozen trade) / Devin Carter
LaVine / Keon Ellis
Murray
Washington / Martin
Sabonis / JVal

DAL gives: Washington, Klay, Gafford, Martin, Hardy, Prosper
DAL gets: Jrue, Monk, Hauser

Why? They're very heavy on forwards and centers now with AD, Flagg, Lively, Washington, Marshall, Martin and Gafford. This redistributes their roster depth to add more shot creation (Monk), shooting (Hauser) and guard defense (Jrue). They take back less than they send out so avoid hard cap at 1st apron. As mentioned in intro, a new Kyrie deal has to offer some breathing room below the 2nd apron. When Kyrie is back, this sets them up with a very well fitting and complimentary roster for the playoffs:

Jrue
Kyrie / Monk
Flagg / Marshall / Hauser
AD
Lively

It's kind of a weird roster to list out in the depth chart because AD would play a lot of 5 and Flagg play a lot of 4 and it's 3 guards for 2 spots, etc. But the skill sets of those 9 players are all extremely complimentary. The one thing they're missing is that you'd like more wing creation because they're guard (Kyrie, Monk) and big (AD) heavy on scoring but this is a good roster to build without having to give up any actual assets for the future. The contacts line up well to rebuild around Flagg on a 2nd timeline later.

ATL gives: nothing
ATL gets: Gafford, Prosper
(use Murray TPE for Gafford and AJ Griffin TPE for Prosper)

Why? They're $41M below the tax before picks and filling out the roster. Gafford is a great fit with Trae and taking on the relatively small deal of Prosper is doable for them as the "cost".

SAC is eating too mich salary that BOS should eat, Hardy should go to BOS.
Mavs give up on Hauser, hard to fit under the Apron, he can be dumped on lots of teams for free.
Gafford into TPE should yield 2 2nds...

no idea about the Kyrie stuff. He's already on less money. Not sure he's going to take a big cut especially since he knows he has Dallas over a barrel if they want to win with AD, and while we can and have argued about if that's smart, we all know thats what they are going to do because Harrison/Vegas can't admit mistakes.

But if you are correct and Kyrie comes at a number that allows for this and allows Dallas the ability to backfill roster spots, I'd gamble on some min bigs I guess and do this. And I'd want to keep Hauser if at all possible. Dallas would be desperate for his shooting.

Mavrelous wrote:SAC is eating too mich salary that BOS should eat, Hardy should go to BOS.
Mavs give up on Hauser, hard to fit under the Apron, he can be dumped on lots of teams for free.
Gafford into TPE should yield 2 2nds...

Fair on Hardy, at first I thought he would ne a decent flyer to take replacing Monk's role. But seeing as how I forgot to even list him in my SAC depth chart, probably not needed lol. Send him to BOS here and then they flip him somewhere else with future 2nds attached for the salary.

For DAL, it kind of depends on what Kyrie signs for. If Kyrie opts in and Flagg signs rookie scale, I have DAL at $1.2M over the 2nd apron with 14 players signed. This deal saves $2.5M so they go to $1.3M under the 2nd apron, but with only 11 players signed. So they'd have to sign 3 vet min deals with would be about $6.6M total. So they'd be about $5.3M over the 2nd apron. My guess is they can work out a deal with Kyrie to opt out of $44M for that much less (at least) in exchange for a longer deal. Still though, maybe it does make sense to send Hauser somewhere else if DAL just wants more wiggle room.

Maybe ATL owes some 2nds, I'm sure that can be sorted out.

Texas Chuck wrote:no idea about the Kyrie stuff. He's already on less money. Not sure he's going to take a big cut especially since he knows he has Dallas over a barrel if they want to win with AD, and while we can and have argued about if that's smart, we all know thats what they are going to do because Harrison/Vegas can't admit mistakes.

But if you are correct and Kyrie comes at a number that allows for this and allows Dallas the ability to backfill roster spots, I'd gamble on some min bigs I guess and do this. And I'd want to keep Hauser if at all possible. Dallas would be desperate for his shooting.

Broke the math down and he's need to take $5.3M less than his $44M player option to make the math work. Athlete pride is a tricky thing, but going into his age 33 season that he'll miss a huge chunk of coming off an ACL injury, I'd think it makes more sense for him to opt out and take a 3 year deal starting at call it $38M with annual raises from there just to lock in that security post injury. The fact that his $44M option is less than the max shouldn't really factor in because it's not rally relevant on a go forward basis from what the situation is now, but that's where athlete pride can come in.

Boston needs to take on more salary. Send Hardy or Martin to Boston. I like the bones of this. Here are my alterations.

hugepatsfan wrote: Flagg signs rookie scale.

Did you do this at 120%? Because if not that makes things even tighter for Dallas. Because he is getting 120%.

Texas Chuck wrote:

hugepatsfan wrote: Flagg signs rookie scale.

Did you do this at 120%? Because if not that makes things even tighter for Dallas. Because he is getting 120%.

Yup, I used 120%

https://www.spotrac.com/nba/dallas-mavericks/tax/_/year/2025/sort/tax_total

Per spotrac, active salaries = $190.1M, dead money = $2.2M, Flagg 120% of cap hold = $16.6M. Total = $208.9M which $1.1M above the $207.825M 2nd apron. They have 13 players signed so Flagg would be the 14th. I did all of my math from there. This deal saved $2.5M but created 3 open roster spots (I assumed $2.2M each for vet min) so actually takes them further into the 2nd apron, but I thought within a realistic enough range to make up on a Kyrie opt out.

hugepatsfan wrote:

Mavrelous wrote:SAC is eating too mich salary that BOS should eat, Hardy should go to BOS.
Mavs give up on Hauser, hard to fit under the Apron, he can be dumped on lots of teams for free.
Gafford into TPE should yield 2 2nds...

Fair on Hardy, at first I thought he would ne a decent flyer to take replacing Monk's role. But seeing as how I forgot to even list him in my SAC depth chart, probably not needed lol. Send him to BOS here and then they flip him somewhere else with future 2nds attached for the salary.

For DAL, it kind of depends on what Kyrie signs for. If Kyrie opts in and Flagg signs rookie scale, I have DAL at $1.2M over the 2nd apron with 14 players signed. This deal saves $2.5M so they go to $1.3M under the 2nd apron, but with only 11 players signed. So they'd have to sign 3 vet min deals with would be about $6.6M total. So they'd be about $5.3M over the 2nd apron. My guess is they can work out a deal with Kyrie to opt out of $44M for that much less (at least) in exchange for a longer deal. Still though, maybe it does make sense to send Hauser somewhere else if DAL just wants more wiggle room.

Maybe ATL owes some 2nds, I'm sure that can be sorted out.

Hard to see Kyrie taking a paycut, he alreay took one 2 years ago, opt in and extend gives him the option of 40% increase, that's the most Mavs can expect.
I like Hauser, but as it stands, hard to see Mavs fitting him under 2nd Apron.