Poison Pill Contract: Dallas Mavs' Josh Green Trade Could Be Complicated

Fourth-year guard Josh Green is one of the Dallas Mavericks' top trade pieces, but putting him in potential deal would be more complicated than many people might realize.

As we approach the end of the calendar year, that means we're about a month and a half away from the NBA trade deadline. Despite battling a slew of roster injuries, the Dallas Mavericks are in pretty good shape in the Western Conference standings with a 16-9 record, good for third-place as they face the fourth-place defending-champion Denver Nuggets on Monday night.

All that being said, it wouldn't hurt for the Mavs to make some small roster tweaks ahead of this season's deadline, especially when it comes to adding more size on the wing and improved backup center depth. To do that, though, the Mavs will have to have something that other teams want.

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Fourth-year guard Josh Green is one of Dallas' more attractive trade assets, as he's a 23-year-old 3-and-D guy who just signed a three-year, $41 million contract extension before the season began. However, due to that extension, throwing Green into any potential trades is more complicated than many people might realize, according to Mavs Moneyball's CBAMavs. Here's what they had to say about the "poison pill" provision on Green's extension.

"The provision to restrict rookies from being extended and then traded is nicknamed the poison pill. This is just a name that reflects the trade math imbalance that is at play. If you haven’t understood before, trades are completed from each team’s perspective," CBAMavs writes.

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"Usually, the numbers that both sides are working with are the same. If the Mavericks had traded Josh last season, then the Mavericks and the other team would have used $3,098,400 as the number for Josh. Since the number is the same, the math is simple. After a rookie is extended, the number would no longer be the same for both sides. The Mavs would use his current season salary $4,765,339, but the receiving team would use the average of his current season and all extension years divided by the years ($11.4 million)."

So, yes, Green is one of the Mavs' best trade chips if they choose to move on from him, but finding the right deal could be hard due to the imbalance that the "poison pill" provision implements. If you'd like to read deeper into the Green's complicated contract trade numbers, you can do so here, as well as look as visual illustrations.