If Sessions Wants A Team NOW, Here's A Way For The Mavs To Be That Team

   Recently we outlined our idea of how the Mavs could acquire free agent Ramon Sessions (along with veteran big men Kurt Thomas and Francisco Elson) from Milwaukee in a Sign-and-Trade that might satisfy all three parties: Milwaukee, Dallas, and of course Sessions.

   But what if Sessions' biggest priority is doing a deal NOW? We have a news flash: if the details in the deal are configured just right, and a few adjustments are made, it can be done immediately.

Overall, this is a challenging situation because in creating a successful trade not only do you have to work hard to create a win-win-win situation that exceeds the alternatives for each party, but you have to avoid the NBA's trade-limiting base year limits that would be applied to Sessions. But we think we met those challenges, with one caveat: our proposal would have to wait until September in order to satisfy a two month no-trade restriction that arises in packaging players who have recently been traded.
  

Our original idea was

Buckner-Williams-Barea-Jawai 
FOR 
Thomas-Elson-Sessions (at almost any size contract)

But if the waiting becomes an issue, then we – playing Amateur GM -- have figured out this variation that would work immediately.

In a separate section of the above trade, trade Buckner for Thomas, thereby eliminating the waiting period for each because their salaries are not combined. Remove Jawai from the core of the trade for Sessions-Elson and substitute a cheap Sign-and-Traded player using their Non-Bird 120-percent exception (for multiple reasons Green would probably be the likeliest choice here, but the numbers would work for Singleton as well). Then pay Sessions a very precise amount of money in order to slide past the base-year limits.

That deal works.

Then it's possible (but not necessary) to toss Jawai back into the mix of players going from Dallas to Milwaukee as a third simultaneous part of the deal.

The end result looks like this:

Buckner-Williams-Barea-SNT (Green or Singleton)-Jawai (optional)
FOR 
Thomas-Elson-Sessions (with a starting salary in a very specific salary range)

This idea is probably somewhat less attractive to all three parties than our wait-until-September 9 version, although there could be some added benefits as well.

For Dallas, this version doesn't necessarily send away Jawai (whose inclusion helps with Dallas' over-populated roster problem), it might send away Singleton whom the Mavs might prefer to keep, and there's no way to include Humphries. But it does limit the size of the deal for Sessions to a full-MLE-ish commitment.

For Milwaukee, the "do-it-now" variation would have them taking a bit more salary, somewhere in the range between about $200,000 and $1,000,000 more. But as the Bucks try to keep interest in the franchise stirring, it also might be a minor plus to have the fans drool over the idea of adding former Slam-Dunk champ Green.

For Sessions, immediacy puts a lower cap on the size of the contract Dallas could offer - although we think there's still room for a bigger contract than others are apparently offering him. But the first year limits also come with a floor, which could work to his advantage as well.

The size of contract that Sessions could be offered in such a deal is very tricky to calculate. But if my algebra isn't too rusty and my math is done without error, here are the limits:

• smallest 1st year contract possible - 1st year salary $4,233,839, can max at 6 yrs $32.071M (minimum would be 3 years, and with full 10.5% raises he'd get $14.035M)
• options in the middle are countless, including variations in the starting salary, number of years (from 3 to 6), number of years guaranteed (must be at least one), in the size of raises (contract can go up or down each year by up to 10.5% of year one salary), and the amount of dollars guaranteed (particularly in the last year, creating Stack-like possibilities for later)
• largest 1st year contract possible - 1st year salary $4,731,361, max 6 yrs $35.84M

Note that in that range, the financial guarantee given can still compare quite favorably to the max MLE of $33.93 million that Sessions has not been offered by anyone.

Ultimately it all comes down to priorities. If "now" is important, everyone gives up a little bit to get it done. Or there's something even better in about a month that they could choose to wait for. Either way, we think there's a doable deal available to be made, where everyone wins.

And then it comes down to something else: In our examination this week of Sessions’ availability, we fully acknowledge the stories that have “the Knicks, Clippers and a third team’’ preparing bids. … though we do wonder whether Sessions would want to be a third wheel in LAC ... and we wonder if the Knicks will want both Sessions and Jason Williams. … and we don’t know the identity of the “mystery’’ team. (It's worth pointing out that because Sessions is a RFA, the Bucks -- though the buzz is they will let him go -- still hold that card.)

Most importantly, we haven’t taken the Mavs’ temperature on either of our specific Sessions concepts – though Fish has a pretty specific answer from Donnie on the club’s general acquisition mindset.

So my involvement here in Amateur GM’ing is mine alone, and not necessarily reflective of the Mavs’ thoughts or intentions.

But I can hope, can’t I?