Mavericks Exploring Trade Possibilities

Appearing this week on Bill Simmons’ podcast at The Ringer, Marc Stein of The New York Times suggested that the Mavericks are keeping an eye on the trade market in the hopes of making a move to fortify their roster, as Bryan Kalbrosky of HoopsHype relays.

“They are looking and they want to do something,” Stein said of the Mavs. “There is no question about that. [General manager] Donnie Nelson is always active. And so they’ve got chips. I don’t think it has materialized [in terms of] what is out there yet. We’re not even at December 15. But they’re always on the lookout to do something.”

While the Mavs may be exploring the trade market, they seem unlikely to do anything too drastic during the 2018/19 season. Even if they’re able to add a starter or a solid rotation player, they don’t have championship upside yet, and they’re still assessing how their young players fit together, so a major shake-up probably wouldn’t make much sense.

Still, Wesley Matthews‘ expiring contract could serve as an interesting trade asset, particularly if the Mavs are willing to cut into their projected 2019 cap space by taking on some longer-term salary.

During his podcast, Simmons proposed a scenario that would see the Mavs sending Matthews to New York in a deal involving Tim Hardaway and Frank Ntilikina, allowing the Knicks to clear significant cap room next summer. However, Stein pushed back on that idea, suggesting that Dallas likely values its own 2019 cap space too much to make a deal like that.

Currently, the Mavs only have about $14MM in guaranteed salaries on their books for 2019/20, though Harrison Barnes ($25.1MM) and Dwight Powell ($10.26MM) will almost certainly increase that total by picking up their player options.