The 8 and 2 stats are very misleading. He only played garbage time up until the last month of the season when he began starting. In the last month of the season, he had better numbers than Lebron. Daniels is going to be a starter for the Mavericks for years to come. Someone would have put more money on the table than the MLE. Just as no one thought Nash was going to get a 65 million dollar contract someone would have paid more for Daniels.
So Harris is going to start at point and Daniels at the 2? That sure is a young and unproven backcourt...
yup, I doubt they will be championship contenders this year but they should still be competitive. i would say around 4th to sixth in the West this year
There is a huge difference in the leverage McGrady had and what Shaq has. McGrady would have been an unrestricted FA next summer. The Lakers have Shaq locked up for 2 more seasons. The Mavericks need about $25m to match Shaq's assigned player exception trade value. Without Nowitski, some combination of this will be needed to get over $25m and under $30m for a trade to happen: Antoine Walker - $14,625,000 Michael Finley - $14,609,375 Jerry Stackhouse - $7,000,000 Christian Laettner - $6,187,500 Tariq Abdul-Wahad - $6,750,000 Danny Fortson - $5,922,078 Shawn Bradley - $4,000,000 Walker and Laettner are not worth Shaq, both expire next summer and clear $20.7m from LA's payroll. Shaq on the other hand will make $32m a year after these two expire. If I were LA (and assuming Dirk is not tradeable), I'd ask for Walker or Finley and then Stackhouse, Laettner and Bradley for Shaq and one small contract. Back on topic. Count me in with the group that thinks the Mavs overpaid for Daniels. The could have gotten him for less. Daniels has talent no doubt but he has some gaping holes in his game, is a combo guard and not a true PG like Nash, and his playoff numbers were against the Kings who are not known for D and who were pretty banged up at playoff time (Bobby Jackson and Vlade with Webber still not 100%).
Nash was a huge part of the Mavs being such an incredibly low turnover team for one that runs and guns as much as they do. They'll be much more mistake prone all across the board now that they have a rookie and a combo guard (and Antoine Walker!) running their offense. The Mavs won't be nearly as effecient offensively.
MLE does not mean you are a very good player. There will be average players this year that get the MLE. Also, how many rookies could have averaged 16/6/3 in a playoff series when they are the teams fourth or fifth option on offense.
There are probably around 100 players making more than MLE. But the prices of FA have gone crazy this summer.
