Report: Mavericks Have Legit Chance with Mike Conley & Hassan Whiteside

 

 

The Dallas Mavericks’ “Plan A” this summer has quickly revealed itself to be acquiring both Mike Conley and Hassan Whiteside. As MFFLs we have been conditioned to reserve our faith in any kind of Plan A, but an ESPN Insider thinks this could be the year it all works out. Dallas Resident Marc Stein appeared on Zach Lowe’s Podcast, The Lowe Post, on Tuesday and had some intriguing reports involving the Mavericks.

 

One of the biggest obstacles the Mavs have to make this summer is what to do with Chandler Parsons, and it has already been reported that the Mavs will not offer him a “Max Deal.”

 

(Which, for Parsons, would be a 5 year deal worth around $23 million a year).

 

Stein says that Parsons will be “aggressively courted by other teams” this offseason and we have to imagine that means Max Deals will come his way. Lowe and Stein discussed that NBA GMs have a saying, “It only takes one asshole.” Meaning it only takes one GM to offer a player a Max Deal before that becomes his asking price, and there may be more than one of those that offer Parsons that kind of contract. That being said, Parsons days in Dallas (however/wherever he may be spending them) seem to be numbered.

 

However that plays out, the Mavs are focused on signing the Mike Conley & Hassan Whiteside tandem. Stein said that the Mavericks “are in, with a legit chance on both [free agents]” and that Conley especially will “give the Mavs serious thought.”

 

Conley, who Lowe and Stein say is “far and away the best point guard on the market” will have “no shortage of suitors” though. The only other team specifically mentioned as having interests in him was our neighbors right down I-45, the Houston Rockets. Who will be “poking around” at the idea of signing Conley even with Patrick Beverly, a perfect fit for James Harden, still under contract. The Memphis Grizzlies (Conely’s, hopefully, former team) are “really confident they’ll bring [him] back” in the same way they were with Marc Gasol last year. Gasol signed a 5 year Max Contract last year as reported by Stein himself, but we’ll see if Conely decides to follow suit.

 

Did Stein go as far as to say the Mavs are the odds-on favorite to sign both of these players? Not exactly, but there’s a “legit chance” and any good business man knows that anything can happen once you secure a meeting. And we all know at least one good business man.