Rumor Mongering: Red Pill or Blue Pill?

Posted by Rob Mahoney on July 7, 2009 under Rumors | 10 Comments to Read

ESPN’s Marc Stein:

The Dallas Mavericks, after striking verbal agreements over the past few days to retain Jason Kidd and sign restricted free agent Marcin Gortat to an offer sheet, have identified their next target: Shawn Marion. The Mavericks and Toronto Raptors, according to NBA front-office sources, are in advanced discussions on a sign-and-trade deal that would bring Marion to Dallas. No trade appeared imminent Monday night, largely because this will be a difficult deal to complete without a third team to help make the salary-cap math work. But Dallas has emerged as the most determined suitor and perhaps the best option for Marion…If the Mavericks and Raptors can find a third team to help facilitate the trade, sources say that former All-Star guard Jerry Stackhouse will almost certainly be headed to the Raptors in the exchange. Stackhouse is scheduled to earn $7 million next season at age 34, but only $2 million of his salary is guaranteed as long as he is waived by Aug. 10. “For sure,” one source close to the process said of Stackhouse’s involvement. One big issue, though, is that even buying Stackhouse out for $2 million would force Toronto to shed $2 million somewhere else from its payroll to finance its Turkoglu signing.

Emphasis mine.  More to come.

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  • Kevin

    I’m confused about this, are we giving them picks or something too? With Marion being a free-agent I was under the impression they could just renounce his rights and have more cap room. Why would they want Stackhouse’s $2 million buyout?

  • Kevin

    But if we can get him we do become a lot like the Wizards of the west, still weak defensively but very deep. Who goes to the bench in this spot though, ideally it seems like Howard because of his one on one tendencies but then he scores so much in the first quarter it’d be tough to bench him. Do we start Kidd, Howard, Marion, Nowitzki, Gortat with Barea, Terry, and Damp from the bench?

  • Ricky

    Can’t we include $3 million in any trade? That would seem to cover the Stackhouse buyout…

  • Brian D

    Is Wizards of the west a compliment or an insult?

  • http://www.blogabull.com your friendly BullsBlogger

    This isn’t even true, right?

    The Raptors are dealing with a razor-thin margin only in relation to the salary cap. They need every penny to sign Turkoglu. But they can sign/trade Marion afterwards using the Bird rights. So I don’t see how taking on $2m to cut Stackhouse hurts them in terms of payroll (they’d still be way under the luxury tax). It does hurt in that they need bodies, so trading Marion for a guy just to cut him doesn’t really make sense.

    • http://www.thetwomangame.com Rob Mahoney

      @BullsBlogger: Toronto has to renounce their rights to their free agents in order to sign Turkoglu. On top of that, I’m sure Toronto is itching to sign Turk to his deal, which would put a bit of an expiration date on ‘Plan A’, anyway. He’s already gone back on an agreement with the Blazers, so Colangelo is no doubt ready to get this thing in writing. I’d honestly be surprised if Turkoglu’s deal isn’t done tomorrow, which means the Mavs and Raps might have to get another team in on the deal to make the salaries work.

      It seems like Colangelo is motivated to get Marion a deal only out of respect and friendship dating back to he and Marion’s Phoenix days. Provided the Raps can get enough cash/assets to make their ledger come out neutral, I think he’s willing to make things happen.

  • Jared

    They can’t sign/trade Marion after signing Turk.

    They have to either renounce Marion (thus giving up their Bird rights on him) or sign and trade him for the cap room now.

    Thus the 2 mil coming back on Stack’s deal hurts them, and sending them 3 mil doesn’t help because it doesn’t give them cap room. It simply covers their costs.

    The reason Toronto does it is to pick up a couple low draft picks, and to keep Marion’s agent happy. They kind of pulled the rug out from under him with the Turk signing and Colangelo is trying to do Marion and his agent a solid.

  • Kevin

    I would say a complement, but like the Wizards we both could be adding a couple key rotation guys suddenly making us two of the deeper teams in the league. I really hope they can get this done. He’s still a great defender and will be our best guy finishing in transition. His efficiency could go back up in Dallas too being the 4th option instead of trying to force it as the 2nd option.

  • Andytobo

    Well, I mean, basically the way I see it Toronto is trying to get SOMETHING for Marion while it can. If they renounce him, they get nothing. If they trade him for future cap relief, they get future cap relief, but that’s the same thing as just renouncing him. So yeah, I suspect they want at least a draft pick too—but as Rob says, this deal is a ticking time bomb and the fact that there are still complications means it’s unlikely to happen. The Raptors are going to be sleeping on Turkoglu’s lawn, tonight.

    The one person who really has an incentive to get this done is Marion. Bird Rights is a bigger contract than the MLE, which is all he’ll get on the market.

  • Andytobo

    Also, it IS possible to S and T a player after you’ve renounced them.

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