Post by eric on Jan 31, 2020 15:45:42 GMT
The Mavericks of Dallas of THE Association of National Basketball currently employ a young phenom by the name of Luka Dončić, which is often a sign of a team on the rise in the boom and bust cycle of team building - veterans win the title, get old, retire, cap sheet empties, rookies show up, one is great, add other young and growing players, they become veterans, veterans win the title, repeat.
They also, however, employ a number of other players that don't quite fit this pattern, and as such currently sit at $108m in salary next year against a salary "cap" of $116m, with Luka only the seventh highest paid player on the roster. (By comparison, the 2005 Cavaliers paid only two players more than LeBron James, leaving them plenty of future cap room to waste on players like Larry Hughes and a senescent Shaquille O'Neal.) As things stand the Mavericks are going to have exactly one year with max cap room assuming Luka gets a max extension: the summer of 2021, and the class coming off their rookie deals that year does not inspire much confidence... Markelle Fultz? Lonzo Ball? Kyle Kuzma? There are also players like Jayson Tatum, Donovan Mitchell, and Bam Adebayo, but this reporter would be shocked if they don't receive extensions this summer.
Dwight Powell, Delon Wright, Maxi Kleber, and Seth Curry are all perfectly fine players on perfectly reasonable contracts (and frankly better than Tim Hardaway Jr.), but they'll also all be in their thirties when the prospective third max player walks into the Dallas locker room. If Kristaps Porzingis turns out to merely be an oft-injured Baltic big man with an enormous price tag, the Zydrunas Ilgauskas to Luka's LeBron James if you will, even a third max player might not be enough to push this Mavericks club into serious contention, and Luka (like LeBron) may have to go elsewhere to find a championship caliber supporting cast.
They also, however, employ a number of other players that don't quite fit this pattern, and as such currently sit at $108m in salary next year against a salary "cap" of $116m, with Luka only the seventh highest paid player on the roster. (By comparison, the 2005 Cavaliers paid only two players more than LeBron James, leaving them plenty of future cap room to waste on players like Larry Hughes and a senescent Shaquille O'Neal.) As things stand the Mavericks are going to have exactly one year with max cap room assuming Luka gets a max extension: the summer of 2021, and the class coming off their rookie deals that year does not inspire much confidence... Markelle Fultz? Lonzo Ball? Kyle Kuzma? There are also players like Jayson Tatum, Donovan Mitchell, and Bam Adebayo, but this reporter would be shocked if they don't receive extensions this summer.
Dwight Powell, Delon Wright, Maxi Kleber, and Seth Curry are all perfectly fine players on perfectly reasonable contracts (and frankly better than Tim Hardaway Jr.), but they'll also all be in their thirties when the prospective third max player walks into the Dallas locker room. If Kristaps Porzingis turns out to merely be an oft-injured Baltic big man with an enormous price tag, the Zydrunas Ilgauskas to Luka's LeBron James if you will, even a third max player might not be enough to push this Mavericks club into serious contention, and Luka (like LeBron) may have to go elsewhere to find a championship caliber supporting cast.
