(Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)
As a girl, one thing I know first hand is shopping:
Let's face it guys, shopping is a competitive sport for women. We do our scouting through the sales circulars. We plan our purchase carefully, sizing up our needs, and our budgets. Then we launch an all out strike, to claim that bargain before the competition.
So you ask: What that has to with the Dallas Mavericks, or basketball? This is the time of year, when the Dallas Mavericks brain-trust looks for bargain talent.
The NBA draft is right around the corner. Yes, the Mavericks do have their first round pick. Since making it to the second round in the playoffs, the Mavericks are insure of an almost next to last pick. Don't expect to find any bargains there. But you never know, the Mavericks have been known to trade-up.
For the past couple of years, the Mavericks have done their best bargain hunting with the Summer League.
What is Summer League?
It is for developmental, and transition purpose. All the NBA teams participate. The teams comprise of current year draft-picks, last seasons rookies, sophomores, and developing players.
The new draft-picks have a transition time between college and pro-ball. Players that are owned by the teams, that were overseas, are invited back to play.
Lastly player that have been cut from their teams, can end up with an invitation to play. The Summer League-rs give these second-chance players, a second chance to sell their skills to a shopping team.
Past Summer league bargains includes: Jose Juan Barea, Brandon Bass, and James Singleton. Gerald Green was also a Summer League find. Let's just say he's still in development.
We need to budget our wallets carefully:
With a down economy, the NBA has lowered the salary cap. Every team will be capped out at $57.3 million, for the '09-'10 season. That is a shrinkage of $1.38 million, from the previous season. Rumor has it, the cap will fall to $55 million for '10-'11 season.
An added hit to all the teams, is the Luxury tax penalty. That will drop from $71.15 million for previous season, to 70 million for the coming season. Making it easier for all teams to go over cap.
Only profitable teams can afford to pay the Luxury tax penalty, for being over salary cap. This will force teams that are in the "Red" to possibly look to dump salary. Sounds like a bargain hunters dream. Right?
Before we can go shopping, we need to inventory what we have:
Let's start with our basic essentials, with our starting five:
Jason Kidd
We're going to send you the most entertaining Dallas Mavericks articles, videos, and podcasts from around the web.
34 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete