The Mavs are optimistic that they’ll be on the list of teams that Carmelo Anthony plans to meet with this summer and that he’ll give them legitimate consideration, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Dallas will also try to acquire another Knick, with Stein asserting that they’ll be first in line should New York make Tyson Chandler available via trade. The Mavs will attempt to court LeBron James, too, though Stein suggests that’s a longshot effort.
Dallas only has about $28.2MM in commitments for next season, but that doesn’t include the roughly $2MM non-guaranteed portion of Samuel Dalembert‘s contract or new deals for Dirk Nowitzki, Shawn Marion, Vince Carter and Devin Harris. The team has expressed interest in keeping all of them, and the team’s “working assumption,” according to Stein, is that Nowitzki will sign for $10-12MM per year. That doesn’t leave much wiggle room for a max offer to Anthony, who can draw a starting salary of up to $22,458,401. Still, Tim McMahon of ESPNDallas.com wrote Monday that the Mavs wouldn’t have interest in ‘Melo if he demands his max.
While the Mavs could net Chandler as part of a sign-and-trade involving Anthony, that would be extremely difficult, given Chandler’s salary of nearly $14.6MM next season. The reacquisition of the center who was the defensive anchor of the Mavs’ 2011 title team would probably preclude Anthony from heading to Dallas, and it would make it difficult for the Mavs to accommodate any other marquee free agent this summer. Stein reiterates McMahon’s report from yesterday indicating that the Mavs will likely target Luol Deng but take a pass on any pursuit of Lance Stephenson.
The Mavs have some concern about their ability to keep a couple of their own free agents, too, according to Stein. They’re worried that they’d have to cut deeply into their cap flexibility to fend off suitors for Vince Carter and, in particular, Shawn Marion. Carter and Marion have expressed their preference to re-sign, though such statements are commonplace for soon-to-be free agents at this time of year, and they don’t always translate into a new deal that keeps them in place.
starting a nursing home?
I’m not sure if this is accurate, but don’t the Knicks have to be under the tax line to participate in a sign-and-trade with Melo? Or is that just receiving players in a sign and trade?
Melo seems like an odd fit for the Mavs…everything he brings to the table Dirk does too it seems.
No, the team signing the player in a S&T (Mavs in this case) have to be under the tax line…
Please, PLEASE, do NOT pursue Melo Cuban…….PLEASE! We don’t need Mr. Selfish in Dallas!
Letting Tyson Chandler leave the Mavs was Cuban’s 2nd biggest mistake. It would be awesome to get him back. FYI, his biggest mistake was not re-signing Steve Nash to a long term deal when he had the chance. The Mavs would have at least 3 titles by now if he had.
How soon you forget. Steve Nash was always hurt and sick when he was with the mavs. I’m not sure if he averaged over 12 points and over 5 assists. He was an average player, and he had no defense. He didn’t become s star until he went to the Suns.
I do not want Carmelo on this team. But if we could get Chandler back, that would make me happy again. We never should have let him go. I would love to see Luol Deng as a Maverick. He would be an upgrade over Marion. But I would love to see Marion back as well. We would be set at Small Foward. We can’t continue to have two guards that can’t defend well. One of them has to go. Though I like Calderon, I do believe we should use him as a trade piece. Dallas has a lot of work to do to build a team for the 2014-2015 season. I am excited to see what we do.
It would be awesome if we could get Chandler back!! But what it would take to get him here via trade might be a concern…and Chandler may have hard feeling after Cuban let him go..
please take tyson..we don’t want that bum anywhere near MSG
Time for the annual delusional Mark Cuban star chase first deron williams then Dwight Howard now Melo and Tyson the man never quits
At least hes persistent lol
he’s brought a winning culture and a title to a team that was a bottom feeder before he arrived so he deserves a lot of credit!!!
Totally with you on this one Zay. Cuban needs to stop thinking he can find the panacea with one free agent superstar. He’s delusional. It’s time to start thinking about getting young talent and letting them grow into champions.
Another awful defender for an already awful defnsive team?
Mavs should concentrate for the future. Hell no to Melo! Go for Deng but for me Lance Stephenson is much better.
NO to melo.YES to Deng.I like
Candler, but price is very high.
Do it for the team let go MAVS r Carmelo Anthony
Gideon, you should do your research. Nash’s first 2 years with Dallas he missed games. Over the last 4 years in Dallas he played in 70, 82, 82 and 78 games respectively. He averaged 16.5 points and nearly 8 assists per game over those same 4 years. He was clearly a budding star. He and Dirk were awesome together. I was at most of those games and saw them play first hand. Mark Cuban is a great owner but he missed the mark on that one.
Cuban was smart to let nash walk. With the money he wanted, we would have been so strapped for cash, we couldn’t sign anybody. Look what he did in phoenix, he won’t win you championships. The reason the nash/dirk mavs failed was the lack of defense. Dirk learned and nash didn’t. The addage says defense wins championships, not cool spinning, no-look, behind the back, bounce pass for the oop wins championships. I like nash and all, but he pursued money, the mavs wanted him and he walked for more green. Simple as that.