- Mavericks star guard Luka Doncic flew home to Slovenia on a private jet shortly after the NBA suspended the season, Shelburne reveals in a separate story. Doncic will have to go into quarantine once he returns to the U.S., though domestic players who flew out of state during the shutdown will also have to quarantine.
- Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is holding off reopening the team’s practice facility for the time being, suggesting to Brian Dameris and Mark Followill on their 77 Minutes in Heaven podcast that an inability to test players and staffers for COVID-19 is a roadblock (Twitter link via Tim MacMahon of ESPN). “I just don’t think the risk is worth the reward,” Cuban said, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who tweets that other teams share the Mavs’ concerns about not being able to test asymptomatic players entering their gyms.
- Appearing recently on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas, Mavericks guard Jalen Brunson said his rehab from a shoulder injury is “definitely going well,” but that he’s still a ways off from being able to suit up and play. “As much as I would want to, as much as I would try my hardest to force them to let me play (if the season resumes in June), I don’t think it would be a possibility,” Brunson said, per The Dallas Morning News.
- Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is holding off reopening the team’s practice facility for the time being, suggesting to Brian Dameris and Mark Followill on their 77 Minutes in Heaven podcast that an inability to test players and staffers for COVID-19 is a roadblock (Twitter link via Tim MacMahon of ESPN). “I just don’t think the risk is worth the reward,” Cuban said, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who tweets that other teams share the Mavs’ concerns about not being able to test asymptomatic players entering their gyms.
- Mavericks big man Dwight Powell was well prepared to stay in shape during the suspension of play, according to Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca. After rupturing his right Achilles tendon in January, Powell was unable to drive to the Mavericks practice facility, so he invested in fitness equipment. One of those machines, a Concept 2 Skier, mimics the upper body motion of cross-country skiing while standing still. “Ten seconds on that at full bore will get you up to max heart rate,” Powell said. “I’m a push-up master and mixing in that cardio, so I’m actually in great shape, considering I’m not able to run right now.”
- The Spurs and Mavericks are among the NBA teams with interest in Real Madrid guard Facundo Campazzo, according to a report from Croatian outlet Crosarka (hat tip to Jeff Garcia of Spurs Zone). Campazzo, who is averaging 9.9 PPG and 7.1 APG in 28 EuroLeague games this season, spoke back in 2016 about wanting to play in the NBA, but said about a year ago that he’s no longer “obsessed” with that idea.
- Although the Mavericks reentered the playoff picture this season, they’re not yet a legit title contender. Callie Caplan of The Dallas Morning News examines how the club might try to ascend to that level during the 2020 and 2021 free agency periods.
The Bulls remain on the hunt for a new general manager, and Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times writes that the interview process may carry through next week.
A since-deleted report on Thursday suggested that CAA agent Austin Brown was in serious talks to become Chicago’s next GM, but a source tells Cowley there’s no frontrunner at this point. Brown’s name is in the mix, per Cowley. Still, there has been no confirmation that he has even interviewed for the job yet.
Although no one has emerged yet as an obvious favorite – as new executive VP of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas did during his own interview process with the Bulls – Cowley’s source says that Mavericks VP of basketball ops Michael Finley “made a great impression” on Karnisovas. Finley reportedly interviewed for the GM position last week.
Here’s more out of Chicago from Cowley:
- Since being hired by the Bulls, Karnisovas has spent plenty of time reaching out to as many of the club’s current players as possible, as well as meeting with “what’s left” of the scouting departments, says Cowley. Karnisovas is collecting information and opinions on what he has to work with in the front office and on the roster, a source tells The Sun-Times.
- While many Bulls fans are impatient to learn the fate of head coach Jim Boylen, a decision on Boylen’s future is further down on Karnisovas’ list of priorities, Cowley writes. As Cowley has previously reported, Boylen remains optimistic that he’ll retain the job. He has been staying in touch with his players for updates and to have them study film clips and has “regularly” met with Karnisovas this month.
- While letting go of Boylen and letting one of his assistants finish the season – if it resumes – could be one path Karnisovas considers, Cowley suggests it’s not likely. A source tells The Sun-Times there’s no obvious candidate to replace Boylen on an interim basis, since the assistants are “all viewed to have equal footing from an experience standpoint.”
Mavericks vice president of basketball operations Michael Finley has interviewed for the Bulls’ general manager job, Tim MacMahon of ESPN tweets.
Finley is a Chicago native who has spent the last seven seasons in the Dallas front office after a long playing career. Mavs owner Mark Cuban indicated in a radio interview this week he’d allow Finley to talk to the Bulls.
Chicago’s newly-hired head of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas has promised an “extensive and diverse search” for a GM. Chicago had already been granted permission to speak to Sixers senior VP of player personnel Marc Eversley, Clippers assistant GM Mark Hughes, and Magic assistant GM Matt Lloyd.
Thunder executives Troy Weaver and Nazr Mohammed have also had their names bandied about as potential GM targets for Chicago. However, based on a subsequent report, it would be a surprise if Weaver has interest in the job. Karnisovas has already added J.J. Polk and Pat Connelly in the first steps toward assembling a new front office.
- Appearing on the McNeil & Parkins Show on 670 The Score in Chicago, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was evasive when asked whether the Bulls have asked to interview Michael Finley for a front office position. However, he said he’d grant Chicago permission to speak to Finley if asked. Finley was identified last week as a potential candidate for the Bulls’ GM opening.
Hoops Rumors is looking ahead at the 2020/21 salary cap situations for all 30 NBA teams. Due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the NBA, it’s impossible to know yet where the cap for 2020/21 will land. Given the league’s lost revenue, we’re assuming for now that it will stay the same as the ’19/20 cap, but it’s entirely possible it will end up higher or lower than that.
While the Mavericks were expected to take a step forward in 2019/20, few expected the team to come out of the gates by winning 16 of its first 22 games, with Luka Doncic playing like a legit MVP candidate. Dallas slowed down from there, but still entered the NBA’s hiatus comfortably holding a playoff spot in the West, at 40-27.
Having installed Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis as the two cornerstones of the franchise, the Mavs will be looking for ways to continue finding help for those young stars, whether that means adding more complementary role players or trying to find a way to land a third impact player.
Here’s where things stand for the Mavericks financially in 2020/21, as we continue our Salary Cap Preview series:
Guaranteed Salary
- Kristaps Porzingis ($29,467,800)
- Dwight Powell ($11,080,125)
- Delon Wright ($9,000,000)
- Maxi Kleber ($8,250,000)
- Luka Doncic ($8,049,360)
- Seth Curry ($7,834,449)
- Justin Jackson ($5,029,650)
- Dorian Finney-Smith ($4,000,000)
- Boban Marjanovic ($3,500,000)
- Jalen Brunson ($1,663,861)
- Total: $87,875,245
Player Options
- Tim Hardaway ($18,975,000)
- Willie Cauley-Stein ($2,286,357)
- Total: $21,261,357
Team Options
- None
Non-Guaranteed Salary
- None
Restricted Free Agents
- Antonius Cleveland (two-way qualifying offer / $1,445,697 cap hold): Non-Bird rights
- Josh Reaves (two-way qualifying offer / $1,445,697 cap hold): Non-Bird rights
- Total (cap holds): $2,891,394
Unrestricted Free Agents / Other Cap Holds
- Courtney Lee ($19,139,505): Bird rights
- Dirk Nowitzki ($9,500,000): Bird rights 1
- No. 18 overall pick ($2,816,760)
- J.J. Barea ($1,620,564): Bird rights
- Michael Kidd-Gilchrist ($1,620,564): Non-Bird rights
- Devin Harris ($1,620,564): Non-Bird rights 1
- Salah Mejri ($1,620,564): Bird rights 1
- Total: $37,938,521
Offseason Cap Outlook
Hardaway had a strong season in 2019/20, but is unlikely to be offered a starting salary of $19MM if he opts out, so he’s a good bet to pick up his player option. Assuming he does, the Mavericks will enter the offseason without any cap room available.
Still, regardless of where the cap ultimately ends up, Dallas should have its full mid-level exception available to use in free agency. The club won’t have its bi-annual exception this time around, since it was used during the summer of 2019.
Cap Exceptions Available
- Mid-level exception: $9,258,000 2
Footnotes
- The cap holds for Nowitzki, Harris, and Mejri remain on the Mavericks’ books because they haven’t been renounced after going unsigned in 2019/20. They can’t be used in a sign-and-trade deal.
- This is a projected value.
Note: Minimum-salary and rookie-scale cap holds are based on the salary cap and could increase or decrease depending on where the cap lands.
Salary information from Basketball Insiders and Early Bird Rights was used in the creation of this post. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Each year, Zach Lowe of ESPN names his “Luke Walton All-Stars,” a group of players who appeared to be borderline NBA players until finding a role – and a team – that suits them. This year’s installment of Lowe’s Luke Walton All-Stars serves as a handful of mini-profiles on his choices and features a number of fascinating tidbits on those players.
For instance, according to Lowe, Doug McDermott – who has been traded four times since being drafted in 2014 – has gotten into the habit of donating clothes to Goodwill as the annual trade deadline approaches to make packing easier in case he gets moved again.
As Lowe details, McDermott was worried a trade to Dallas in February 2018 might be his “last chance” in the NBA, but the sharpshooter credits Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle for helping him play loose and urging him to not hesitate to launch three-pointers. The Mavs wanted to re-sign McDermott in 2018 but didn’t have the cap flexibility to do so, and Carlisle encouraged him to take the Pacers‘ three-year, $22MM offer, Lowe adds.
Lowe’s story is worth checking out in full, but here are a few of the highlights from the piece:
- The Mavericks had to beat out the Heat and Pelicans to sign Dorian Finney-Smith as an undrafted free agent in 2016, per Lowe. The three-year deal with a $100K guarantee was “probably more than the Mavs wanted to offer,” since Finney-Smith seemed at the time like a long shot to make the regular season roster, but it turned into a great investment.
- Despite a history of productivity, Pistons big man Christian Wood bounced around the NBA due to reputational concerns, including a perception that he was an unreliable communicator, according to Lowe, who says there was gossip around the NBA about Wood splurging on a Bentley after banking “very little” NBA money. “There is stuff in my background that affected my reputation,” Wood said. “It was never basketball-related.”
- Earlier in his career, Marquese Chriss was insistent about his preference to play power forward, but the Warriors‘ big man now admits it’s not his ideal position, per Lowe. “I was naive,” Chriss said. “I realize now the skill set I have is better for (center).”
- Former Rookie of the Year Michael Carter-Williams has now adjusted to a much more modest role with the Magic, in which he focuses on playing lockdown defense and “hitting singles” (rather than swinging for the fences) on offense, according to Lowe. “It wasn’t easy,” Carter-Williams said. “I still believe I can do more. But this is part of maturing. Maybe one day I’ll get a bigger role and do what I did in Philadelphia. Maybe I won’t. Either way, I’m happy I’m playing.”