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Dallas
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 12,204
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Update on Mavs summer
By David Lord – DallasBasketball.com Devean George is signed (2 yrs at 4.2M, with a player option on the 2nd). And here comes Pops Mensah-Bonsu, an undrafted rookie from George Washington. The Devean move provides the Mavs with a backup forward who is considered a solid defender and even a long-range shooting threat (though critics argue that the long-time Laker has never lived up to his athletic potential). He was a nice role player, especially in LA’s title-winning triangle offense, a guy who the Lakers figured could become a Robert Horry type.
Here, he serves as a forward caddie, and that might just be good enough.
And Pops? He's not a smooth outside shooter, and heck, he's a sleeper (coming off a serious injury) but he takes it to the hole with an explosiveness one basketball man tells us reminds him of Darius Miles. The moves will bring the roster to 15 players.
Let's offer a quick update on the Mavs' summer.
THE ROSTER
Assuming Pops, the Mavs will have 15 players.
The roster after the George signing will look like this:
C - Diop, Dampier, Mbenga, Podkolzin
PF - Nowitzki, Croshere
SF - Howard, George, Pops
SG - Buckner, Stackhouse, Ager
PG - Terry, Harris, Johnson
Holdovers (9): Diop, Dampier, Mbenga, Podkolzin, Nowitzki, Howard, Stackhouse, Terry, Harris
Newcomers (6): Croshere, George, Buckner, Ager, Johnson, Pops
Gone since last year (6): PF Van Horn, PF Powell, SF Griffin, SF Marshall, SG Daniels, PG Armstrong
THE ANALYSIS
This summer the Mavs in essence kept their top 7 intact, the core from last season's runner-up team, with a primary focus on internal improvement, both individually and as a group.
Just keeping the core the same will help make their group play better. In a team sport where everyone's play impacts the others, familiarity is a huge advanatge. When the players are talented and you can keep them together, you excel.
But there is room for personal growth too, without making huge trades. Individually, it is clear they do indeed have players in that core capable of advancing. Diop, Harris, Howard, and Mbenga all are young and have improved every year. Dirk has also been able to add to his already-immense talent each season. Terry continues to grow as a PG in this sytem. There is every reason to believe that this core, even without any additions, could be even better next year.
But the team didn't stop there. The front office also worked to upgrade the complementary crew and do so at a reasonable cost. If any or all of the bottom of the roster turn out to be a significant improvement over the players they replaced, this team will be in position to notch the league's best record next year and be one of the title favorites. On paper such would seem to be the case. The bigger hope is that some of the additions (particularly at SG) will become more than complementary and perhaps become key contributing parts of the ongoing core.
The future looks strong.
CAP/TAX
George's contract is reportedly $2.0M in year one. Jason Terry's newly signed deal now is reported to be for $57M (rather than the previously whispered $50M), which would put his first year salary at $7.5M.
As a result, on our ledger the Mavs now have a taxable payroll of about $68.99M and will incur a tax of $3.57M.
Here are our updated calculations (not yet counting Pops):
TAXABLE PAYROLL
15,101,626 -- Nowitzki
9,296,874 -- Stackhouse
9,625,000 -- Dampier
7,500,000 -- Terry - 6 yrs 57M with max raises starts at 7.5M
7,300,000 -- Croshere
3,200,000 -- Buckner
3,153,120 -- Harris
2,640.000 -- Anthony Johnson
2.000.000 -- George
1,998,000 -- Diop
1,577,353 -- Howard
1,500,000 -- Mbenga estimated - no numbers reported, this just seems the proper range
1,221,240 -- Podkolzin
906,480 -- Ager
1,968,750 -- Abdul-Wahad, final year was reportedly 25% guaranteed when waived
68,988,443 TOTAL for 13 players
Tax threshold - 65,420,000
Tax - 3,568,443
Forfeiture of league revenue - 1,500,000 (estimated)
By the time a minimum salary player is added to the roster to fill that final slot, the tax will be almost exactly $4M for this season. That's far less than last year, but originally we didn't expect them to be willing to pay any tax at all. The doors to the Bank of Cuban weren't shut as tightly as we had anticipated.
OTHER CONTRACTUAL ISSUES
The Mavs are still planning on extensions for Dirk Nowitzki and Josh Howard. Both are busy with their summer activities away from Dallas, and neither has seemed to be in great haste to get the paperwork completed.
Accordingly, we think talks will commence when both players arrive in Dallas for the pre-training camp workouts in September, and extensions for both will be inked shortly thereafter. Neither can negotiate with any other team, and understandably both are very happy playing a key role on a serious contender for future titles. We don't expect any problems.
In addition, the Mavs will need to make a decision on whether to guarantee the 4th year contract of Podkolzin before this season begins. If they don't, he will become an unrestricted free agent next summer.
Our feeling is that this decision is still very much undecided. Even if they say no, they could still offer him a contract next summer to continue to work on development, but at a lesser rate than the option amount of about $1.9M. As the 4th stringer, it is a virtual certainty that his current minimal value will not go up this season, since he will get no playing time whatsoever.
UPCOMING MOVES
The Mavs said they intend to fill the final roster slot in October at training camp. They have invited several free agents from their roster league to camp, such as Mensah-Bonsu.
Could there be an alternate idea or secret plans for a trade in the works between now and then? We doubt it. The Mavs don't tend to play word games about how they are thinking. If they say they will make the final roster decision in October, then that's an indication they like their roster and aren't making any efforts to alter it. It's time to relax.
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Update on Mavs summer
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