Kemp, Rice being pursued.
By Jodie Valade and Marc Stein / The Dallas Morning News. 08/08/2000
Not one of this year's prominent free agents has been lured to Dallas by Mavericks owner Mark Cuban or coach-general manager Don Nelson, but that doesn't mean that the two aren't plotting changes galore.
With an aggressive approach that falls in line with the Mavericks' continuing shift away from their long-standing intent to hoard salary-cap room for the summer of 2001, the Mavericks have pursued trades for at least two marquee names: Cleveland's Shawn Kemp and the LA Lakers' free agent Glen
Rice. The Mavericks have been involved in trade talks with both teams, Cuban confirmed Monday.
Cuban also confirmed Monday that a multi-player trade with the Lakers that would have swapped forward Cedric Ceballos for 7-0 center Travis Knight has fallen through – at least for now.
And those possible changes that would help in paring down an 18-player Dallas roster don't even take into account that the Mavericks still have the $2.25 million salary-cap exception available to pursue players this summer, one that Cuban said he is still open to using.
The aggressive movement from the Mavericks stems from a change in philosophy sparked from observing recent moves in the free agent market -- and what Cuban said he believed were unimpressive roster changes. Though the Mavericks originally had hoped to protect salary-cap space for next summer,
that plan has been revised.
"We are looking for players who can contribute immediately, and get us further into the playoffs – even at the cost of using our cap room," Cuban said.
One of those players is Kemp, a 6-10 veteran that the Cleveland Cavaliers have openly had on the trading block in efforts to avoid falling victim to the luxury tax that will be installed next season. Kemp, who averaged 17.8 points and 8.8 rebounds per game last season, has four years at $70.88
million remaining on his contract. Portland has been considered the front-runner to land him.
"We are very interested in Kemp, but not at the expense of key players," Cuban said. "If the Cavs want to unload him for luxury tax reasons, we would love to have him. We would make the deal work from a salary-cap perspective, but wouldn't give up cornerstone players [for him]."
Though Cuban wouldn't provide specific names, "cornerstone" players on the Mavericks probably even include 7-6 center Shawn Bradley, who would be a natural to be thrown into a potential Kemp deal because his salary ($8.37 million) is at least in the neighborhood of Kemp's ($11.72
million) for the upcoming season.
The Mavericks and Cuban have been most aggressively focusing on unloading Ceballos, guard Robert Pack, forward Hot Rod Williams, center Bruno Sundov and guard Damon Jones – the latter two who as free agents would have to be signed before being involved in any sort of trade.
A trade that would have sent Ceballos, Sundov and Jones to the Lakers for Knight fell through, in fact, when Jones would not agree to a sign-and-trade deal. The possibility of obtaining Knight still remains, though. When the anniversary of Ceballos' contract signing comes Aug. 27, for base year
salary-cap reasons he is eligible to be traded straight-up for Knight. Knight averaged 1.7 points and 2 rebounds in just 6.5 minutes per game last season for LA, but is a favorite of Mavericks assistant coach Del Harris, under whom he had one of his best seasons. Knight has four years remaining on
his contract.
In addition, Cuban said one potential sign-and trade deal with the Lakers to obtain free-agent Rice already fell through, though he hasn't given up on anything.
"We liked the deal we had, but it didn't pan out, so we go on to the next," Cuban said.
Given all the trade possibilities, Cuban said he still has a wait-and-see approach with free agents this summer, and holds out hope that he can find a free agent who will contribute to the Mavericks, who can have a maximum of 15 on the season roster.
"There is a time to be first and a time to be the last guy left with money," Cuban said. "It makes total business sense. You rush to get the exact guy you want, but if you can't – which we couldn't with the big guys – then you wait to see if a diamond comes out of the
sand."
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