Mavs Donuts: A KP Trade, 12 Steps To Acquiring An NBA Star

Some of the Mavs' complications lead to the conclusion that a Kristaps Porzingis trade creates a most viable path.

DALLAS - Player acquisition is not just about free agency. In fact, in the case of the Dallas Mavericks, it’s much, much more complicated than that. And some of those complications lead to the conclusion that a Kristaps Porzingis trade creates a most viable path.

A quick sketch, Mavs Donuts-style.

DONUT 1: THE CAP Let's use $112.4 million as the projected cap figure. That's the same number we originally used to come up with Luka Doncic's five-year supermax extension being worth not $200 million, as was so often written, but rather, $201.5 million. And today? Ta-dah, everyone is using the $201.5 million.

We feel confident in our Big Calculator here. (We also feel confident Luka will sign it, present organizational woes and all.)

DONUT 2: THE PRE-THJ SPACE Let's use $34.4 mil as Dallas' cap space without having signed Tim Hardaway Jr. Yet. 

READ MORE: Tim Hardaway on NBA Free Agency: 'I Love It Here'

We say "yet'' of course because as DallasBasketball.com has written often and with on-the-record quotes from the principles, the Mavs and Hardaway plan to stay together this summer.

DONUT 3: J-RICH ISSUE Let's figure Josh Richardson opts out of his $11.6 million deal. If he doesn't, there are other ways around this, but the opt-out would be the easiest path. (Not as easy as having kept Seth Curry - ouch - but it's the best Dallas has following that misguided trade.)

DONUT 4: NO TO WCS Let's assume Dallas doesn't pick up Willie Cauley-Stein's team option. We're going to make the argument here that the Mavs need a more reliable replacement on the roster going forward.

DONUT 5: HOORAY, A SIGNING! So ... Hardaway gets paid, say, $20 million. This is a good thing - but not "good enough'' if he ends up being Dallas' second-best player behind Luka Doncic. Hardaway is a supporting-cast member on a contender. 

So how does Dallas plow through this toward that building-a-contender goal?

DONUT 6: NEW CAP-ROOM FIGURE That Tim signing leaves $14.4 million in cap room - alas, not enough to accomplish anything monumental.

DONUT 7: BACK TO THE BIG CALCULATOR So ... we circle back to the Big Calculator. If the Mavs keep KP and Hardaway, they simply don't have much room to do much else. They can make an over-the-cap trade with Richardson, maybe? And sign somebody to the full-MLE?

Nothing "monumental,'' still.

So - and this is a frustrating truth - the 2021-22 roster suddenly looks way too familiar.

DONUT 8: SO YOU TRADE KP And it is at this point where the Mavs simply must consider trading Porzingis for a piece.

A "piece''? What about a "star''?

READ MORE: Is Porzingis Nearing His End With Dallas Mavericks?

Nope. A non-star starter in return is all you're looking for, because after all, isn't that all he is? A "non-star starter''? So a piece it is, and it has to be one that is less expensive than $30 million KP is.

DONUT 9: SQUEEZE IN SAVINGS Such a trade would be designed with this in mind: Find a way to save, say, $10 mil in such the swap. And now you've got $24 million in room. Now you are a buyer.

Find a way to save $15 million in the swap, and now you've got $29 million in room. Now you are a front-of-the-line buyer.

DONUT 10: KP 'UNTRADE-ABLE'? Nonsense. Every single summer it is established and re-established: There is no such thing as an "untrade-able'' contract. We've already written volumes about this particular target and that team where KP fits and the like. (Those stories are stacked up neatly here. ... and then there is this powerhouse examination of all the KP trade rumors, named, and yeah, examined.)

Indeed, as owner Mark Cuban begins his interviews with candidates to replace the "mutually departed'' GM Donnie Nelson (and then, in orderly fashion, to replace the resigned coach Rick Carlisle), "What would you do with Porzingis?'' ought to be among his first questions.

Sidebar: It should be pretty easy for Cuban to ask that of the next GM, as the next GM is right down the hallway.

READ MORE: Dallas Mavs Exclusive: Mark Cuban Answers on 'Targeting Ujiri'

No, Masai Ujiri will not be Cuban's first interviewee. Or his second. Or his third ...

DONUT 11: THE ADMISSION The Mavs are not particularly good when it comes to admitting errors. The trading of Porzingis - for an equal-value player (like Kemba Walker, which gives them no extra space but might still make them better) or for the aforementioned cheaper player - would be such an admission.

As it regards the Doncic-Porzingis partnership, it almost worked on the court. It did not work off the court. (At all.) Admit it. Cleanse yourself. Move on.

Maybe Donnie's departure means a clean slate in the "Admit the Error and Move On'' Department.

DONUT 12: THE FINAL WORD By the way: None of this proposed jostling means "cap room is king.'' That's another error in judgment that the Mavs should cop to.

Being a "destination city'' is king. And if Luka Doncic cannot help his bosses be this, then Donnie Nelson isn't the only one of his bosses who should get the boot.

But being a "buyer'' can still come as a result of having the room to make a signing or to make a trade. And salvaging the Kristaps Porzingis error by trading him is a viable way to get there.