The Dallas Mavericks may be one of the NBA teams that helps Bryan Colangelo be creative and help out a soon-to-be ex- Raptor , but there will have to be another team involved.
As ESPN.com reported last night, the Mavericks are now in hot pursuit of Shawn Marion in some sign-and-trade transaction but league sources said the Raptors aren't going to simply take an offer and run with it. In order to protect the salary cap room necessary to sign free agent Hedo Turkoglu to a contract later this week, the Raptors will only be drawn into a sign-and-trade deal if they can avoid any additional financial obligations to players.
Getting three teams involved in any transaction under the NBA's arcane salary cap rules is dicey at the best of times. When a team like Toronto needs to come out of a deal without assuming any salary, it complicates matters even more.
The Mavs, according to league sources, are dangling the contract of Jerry Stackhouse because it carries only a $2 million guarantee. However, those sources said Toronto, which needs to divest itself of Marion's contract to have money to pay Turkoglu, can't even handle that relative pittance.
The sign-and-trade deal for Marion would allow him to make a little bit more money while being cut adrift by Toronto. If the Raptors can sign him for any amount and give him annual increases of 10.5 per cent, the Mavs can only offer him the mid-level cap exception (estimated at about $5.6 million) and raises of only 8 per cent.
There would be no real benefit to the Raptors , according to league sources, other than helping out a former player without jeopardizing the Turkoglu signing.
The Mavs, however, are not the only team that's inquired about Marion. League sources said Cleveland has expressed a mild interest and even Oklahoma City made a cursory call, although it's unclear how far those talks ever progressed.
