What exactly is the mavericks player giving up if he approves the trade? It doesn't seem all that big a deal. Why is he holding back the team?

He's just waiting to see if DJ comes back to A&M next year or declares himself eligible for the draft.

[This message has been edited by AggieBB (edited 2/16/2008 10:06a).]

It's due to the so-called "Larry Bird" rule. Basically how it works is if you are with a team for more then 3 years, then upon free agency the team you play for can sign you even if they are over the salary cap, which the mavs are, but it has to be for a certain amount of years. If they trade him, he loses his Larry Bird rights. This is vey important because he wants the mavs to sign and trade him at the end of the season, and that would be the only way he could get a long-term deal because every team is over the cap. He is 30 and this free agency would most likely be his last, so he wants to get a long term deal via sign and trade.

When teams trade players, they expect the players to understand that "it's nothing personal, it's just business," but apparently the reciprocal isn't true.

P.S. If George continues to veto the trade, and Stackhouse keeps his mouth shut, the alternative will be for the Mavericks to sign Keith Van Horn to a George-like contract and then throw him in to the trade.

So he tinks the mavericks will sign him to a multi year deal and then trade him at the end of the year. Now that he's doing this, i'm sure they will just pass on signing him and let him become a free agent and get his one year deal elsewhere.

Not necesarilly true, because again, signing George allows them to go over the salary cap. The original purpose of the rule was to allow teams to go over the cap, not to allow players to be sign-and-traded. They won't hold a grudge.

There are currently 18 players in the NBA who qualify for this rule.

Isn't there a forum entitled "Basketball, Other"?

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