- Detroit’s Andre Drummond, Sacramento’s Nemanja Bjelica, Cleveland’s Tristan Thompson and Kevin Love and San Antonio’s Jakob Poeltl are potential trade targets for the Mavericks, Callie Caplan of the Dallas Morning News writes. The Mavs are seeking help in the wake of Dwight Powell‘s season-ending injury.
Kristaps Porzingis could see a lot more action at center the remainder of the season, according to Eddie Sefko of the team’s website. The Mavericks need to replace the minutes of Dwight Powell, who is out for the season with a ruptured right Achilles. When paired with Maxi Kleber, Porzingis can play either center or power forward. Porzingis can utilize his playmaking skills from the middle, as he did for a stretch against the Clippers on Tuesday.
“We’ve done it some,” coach Rick Carlisle said while adding, “The bind you get in is with rebounding and that was obvious in the second half. We were really up against it on the boards. … But in terms of the lineup and everything else, there’s a lot of things we’ve got to keep on the table.”
We have more on the Mavericks:
- The Mavs’ front office has made contact with free agent center Joakim Noah, Tim MacMahon of ESPN tweets. However, the team has concerns about Noah’s health and is also looking at overseas and G League options, MacMahon adds. Noah, 34, appeared in 34 games with the Grizzlies last season. Dallas would have to open up a roster spot to bring in a free agent.
- Washington’s Ian Mahinmi, Minnesota’s Gorgui Dieng and Golden State’s Willie Cauley-Stein and Cleveland’s Tristan Thompson are some of the trade options the team could pursue in the wake of Powell’s injury, Sefko writes in a separate piece. Rookie Isaiah Roby and Justin Jackson could also pick up some of those minutes, Sefko adds, and the Mavs might pursue another G League option, Ray Spalding, of the Greensboro Swarm, who was on Dallas’ roster for part of last season.
- Even before Powell’s injury, the team was perusing the trade market for players with size who can score 15 points a game, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst (video link). “They have assets. They have a trade exception, they have Courtney Lee, who’s a contract that can be traded. Watch out for them,” Windhorst said.
- The Mavs have two trade exceptions available to utilize prior to February’s deadline, including one worth over $11.8MM. Check out the list of all trade exceptions here.
Mavericks big man Dwight Powell has suffered a ruptured right Achilles tendon, the team announced in a press release. When Powell left Tuesday’s game with an Achilles injury, there was a fear that it would be a season-ending tear, and tests today confirmed as much.
According to the Mavs, Powell is currently weighing surgical options and updates will be provided as appropriate. It’s safe to say the 28-year-old will miss the rest of this season, and there’s no guarantee he’ll be ready to go for the start of the 2020/21 campaign, since recovery from an Achilles tear can take upwards of a full calendar year.
It’s a tough blow for the Mavericks, who were leaning heavily on Powell as their starting center alongside power forward Kristaps Porzingis. The former second-round pick has averaged 9.4 PPG and 5.7 RPG with a .638 FG% and solid interior defense in 40 games (37 starts) for Dallas this season. His 26.5 minutes per contest represented a career high.
The Mavs have some assets that could be used in a trade to acquire another center if they want to find a short-term fix. Those assets include a pair of 2020 second-round picks – including the Warriors’ second-rounder – as well as Courtney Lee‘s expiring contract and a trade exception worth nearly $12MM.
Dallas won’t be able to apply for a disabled player exception for extra cap flexibility. The deadline to request a DPE was January 15.
For now, the Mavs will likely rely on Porzingis, Maxi Kleber, and Boban Marjanovic to take on increased roles in their frontcourt, with forwards like Dorian Finney-Smith and Justin Jackson perhaps spending more time at the four.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Dwight Powell went down with a non-contact injury in tonight’s tilt against the Clippers and Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link) hears that it’s believed to be a torn right Achilles tendon. So far, it has only been diagnosed as an Achilles ailment, with further testing required to confirm the severity of the injury.
The center has been a key contributor for the Mavericks, manning the starting center spot in 36 of the team’s games this year. He’s been a major reason why Dallas has overachieved and is in good position to make the postseason.
The 28-year-old has averaged 9.4 PPG and 5.7 RPG with a 63.8% field goal percentage and solid interior defense in 26.5 minutes per contest.
Powell, who entered the night ranked sixth in the league in true shooting percentage, signed a three-year extension with the Mavs prior to the season. That extension doesn’t kick in until next year and it runs through the 2022/23 campaign, paying him approximately $11MM annually.
The Mavericks will have Kristaps Porzingis in the lineup for the first time since December 29, as ESPN’s Tim MacMahon passes along on Twitter.
“Porzingis is scheduled to play. He’s looking forward to playing,” head coach Rick Carlisle told the media prior to the Mavs’ tilt against the Clippers.
Porzingis’ knee has kept him on the sideline during the entire month of January. He’s missed 10 games for the club and Dallas has gone 6-4 during his absence.
While there’s no word of an exact minute restriction, Carlisle said that the big man will play shorter stints than he normally would. Porzingis has played in 31 games for the Mavs this season, seeing 31.2 minutes per contest.
The Mavericks announced in a press release that they’ve partnered with Chime Banking for a jersey sponsorship deal. While the exact terms of the agreement aren’t known, Mark Medina of USA Today reports that it’s worth “just under eight figures.”
Dallas previously had a jersey sponsorship deal with the company 5miles, but terminated it last year. Following the end of that partnership, the Mavericks had been the only team without a uniform patch in place, as our tracker shows.
As NBA teams consider their trade options before the February 6 deadline, it’s worth keeping in mind that a number of clubs hold traded player exceptions. These traded player exceptions allow over-the-cap clubs to acquire a player – or multiple players – whose salary fits within the TPE without having to send out any salary in return.
[RELATED: Hoops Rumors Glossary: Traded Player Exception]
Traded player exceptions can’t be combined with another salary or exception and often aren’t worth much, so most of them ultimately go unused. Still, they can come in handy every now and then, particularly for under-the-tax clubs that don’t mind adding a little more money to their books.
Last season, a total of 23 trades were completed between January 22 and February 7, resulting in 23 trade exceptions that haven’t yet been used or renounced and will expire if they’re not used by this year’s trade deadline.
Here are those traded player exceptions, listed in order of value, with the expiration date noted in parentheses for each TPE:
- Dallas Mavericks: $11,825,694 (2/7)
- Miami Heat: $6,270,000 (2/7)
- Houston Rockets: $3,620,016 (2/7)
- Houston Rockets: $3,206,160 (2/7)
- Toronto Raptors: $2,536,898 (2/7)
- Detroit Pistons: $2,500,000 (2/6)
- Portland Trail Blazers: $1,740,000 (2/7)
- Houston Rockets: $1,621,415 (2/7)
- Toronto Raptors: $1,569,360 (2/6)
- Cleveland Cavaliers: $1,544,951 (2/7)
- Houston Rockets: $1,544,951 (2/7)
- Oklahoma City Thunder: $1,544,951 (2/3)
- Cleveland Cavaliers: $1,512,601 (2/7)
- Houston Rockets: $1,512,601 (1/22)
- Houston Rockets: $1,512,601 (2/7)
- Memphis Grizzlies: $1,512,601 (2/7)
- Toronto Raptors: $1,512,601 (2/7)
- Dallas Mavericks: $1,233,152 (1/31)
- Detroit Pistons: $1,140,682 (2/7)
- Washington Wizards: $311,913 (2/6)
- Cleveland Cavaliers: $266,728 (2/4)
- Memphis Grizzlies: $184,467 (2/7)
- Washington Wizards: $183,148 (2/7)
For the full list of traded player exceptions currently available, including a Warriors TPE worth $17MM that probably can’t be used until July, click here.
Tim Hardaway Jr. struggled as a sixth man option for the Mavericks at the beginning of the 2019/20 season, as Eddie Sefko of Mavs.com details.
Tim Hardaway Jr. struggled as a sixth man option for the Mavericks at the beginning of the 2019/20 season, as Eddie Sefko of Mavs.com details.
“I knew that wasn’t my game,” Hardaway said. “An opportunity [to start] presented itself. I tried to make the most of it. And here we are today.” Hardaway has improved since moving to the Mavericks’ starting five on November 20, averaging 16.5 PPG and shooting 43.1% from long range.
- The Kings passed on Luka Doncic in the 2018 draft due to concerns about his fit alongside De’Aaron Fox, a decision that some fans in Sacramento have had a hard time moving past, writes Sam Amick of The Athletic. According to Amick, former Kings coach Dave Joerger passive-aggressively joked to GM Vlade Divac midway through last season that he’d negotiated a trade with the Mavericks to land Doncic, to which Divac shot back: “Do I get their coach, too?”
Having traded Jeff Teague to Atlanta today, the Timberwolves are actively pursuing additional deals and have intensified their pursuit of Warriors point guard D’Angelo Russell, report Shams Charania and Jon Krawcznyski of The Athletic.
[RELATED: Timberwolves trade Jeff Teague to Hawks]
Russell was atop Minnesota’s wish list in free agency this past offseason, but the Wolves’ recruiting efforts fell short when the Warriors swooped in with a four-year, maximum-salary offer for the All-Star guard.
Russell has been viewed as a trade candidate essentially since the day he agreed to sign with Golden State, but the Warriors appear inclined to keep him at least through the 2020 trade deadline, per Charania and Krawcznyski, since the club would have more trade options once its hard cap lifts in July. As such, there has been no traction so far on a potential deal between the Wolves and Warriors.
While nothing is imminent on the Russell front, rival teams say the market for Robert Covington has been heating up as of late, according to Charania and Krawczynski. Minnesota is expected to “drive a hard bargain” for the talented three-and-D wing, but plenty of contenders have interest, including the Rockets, Mavericks, and Sixers.
New Wolves head of basketball operations Gersson Rosas spent nearly two decades working in Houston’s front office and was Daryl Morey‘s top lieutenant for years. He shares Morey’s aggressive approach to the trade market and likely won’t hesitate to shake things up and reshape Minnesota’s roster to fit his vision. After today’s Teague deal, it seems safe to say the Wolves aren’t done dealing.