Amateur GM: If Iverson Signs With Charlotte, Can Mavs ‘Buck Shot’ Their Way To A Trade?

   This town (Charlotte) ain’t big enough for the both of rumored hired-gun Allen Iverson and Raymond Felton and Raja Bell. So if A.I. really does land with the Bobcats, which of the incumbent guards gets a ticket on the first stagecoach out? And can that stagecoach bring another rotation player to the Mavs?

   We see this as the latest in worthy Dallas conversations regarding “The Buck Shot’’: Greg Buckner’s expiring contract and filler in exchange for Raja Bell.

    Let’s break it down:

    * The biggest NBA news here is Iverson finding a home. Dime magazine reports that an Iverson-to-Charlotte trade will be done. The Charlotte Observer follows up with an acknowledgement that A.I.’s reunion with coach Larry Brown is not done but quite possible. We recognize that there are lux-tax issues, but for the purposes of this piece, let’s go with the notion that the Bobcats marry A.I.

    The A.I. addition does at least one thing for Charlotte: He will generate revenue-generating buzz for a franchise starving for it.

     *If that signing does get done, the Bobcats are overloaded at the point guard with a trio of players who are not at their apex of their careers. As it was, Felton was going to be scrapping for PG minutes with D.J. Augustin, their high No. 1 pick and their assumed PG of the future. In that sense, Felton is the expendable guy at PG.

    *However … Felton is a free agent whose QO is so large that he's probably going to just sign it because his offers (and value) don't really gain him what he wants (which is, a major bump over the QO). We’ve played with it and just don't see many practical ways to change that eventual outcome.

    Now, we do know of the Mavs’ long-standing admiration for Felton; they almost acquired him last January in a deal involving ‘Gana Diop. Do the Mavs want to spend big money -- $6 mil a year or so – for a backup to Jason Kidd? If not, they stick with JJ Barea as the backup while paying him $1.6 mil. If so, maybe there's a Buckner/Barea-for-Felton possibility where Felton takes MLE-size money.

     A possibility, we say. But not the most likely of them.

    *So we say Felton is stuck. And Augustin is with him at the 1. Maybe the Bobcats ask Iverson to play some as a 2-guard. The kid Gerald Henderson is also on the roster as a 2, and again, Charlotte has a clog of bodies that are a little too old or a little too young and maybe somebody’s gotta go.

     *So Dallas creates an angle centered around Buckner for Bell … all designed save the allergic-to-the-lux-tax Bobcats some money (while not really costing Dallas any).

     (An aside: While there is reason to doubt that the for-sale Bobcats want to take on an Iverson salary, we need to factor in the trade ideas we are about to discuss. These are money-savers that can help finance a an A.I. signing … and when a deal like this is done and then A.I. sells you some tickets, you can come out even and still viable for Robert Johnson’s potential buyers.)

     A simple Buckner-for-Bell one-for-one isn't legal. But there are ways to acknowledge "amount of dollars saved" for Charlotte versus "amount of extra ability gained" for the Mavs in a way that makes both sides happy.
     So. …
    *Assuming the Bobcats a) agree with our view that Iverson – who for the first 12 years of his NBA career averaged 42 minutes per -- will need ample elbow room, and b) that Charlotte will be looking for a way to shed its excess bodies while maximizing savings, and c) Charlotte has some eagerness to rid itself of Bell's salary and ability …
    *If we’re Dallas, we propose The Buck Shot/Shawne Williams for Raja Bell. This swap saves the Bobcats almost $1.8 million. And it adds a viable two-way 2-guard to the Mavs roster. And that 2-guard is a former Mav who is well-liked at the AAC and who is playing on (you guessed it) the final year of his contract.

   (For the record: A Buckner/Barea-for-Bell deal offers even more savings for Charlotte, about $2.5 million, but the Mavs would be giving up talent they might intend to use. Another savings plan for Charlotte: Buckner/Nathan Jawai for Bell. That saves Charlotte almost $3.5 million, but again it means Dallas is giving up a kid who might have potential while taking on added payroll.

    *We must note: This is simply one of the ways The Buck Shot might be utilized. We mapped out the idea of using The Buck Shot to get Milwaukee’s Ramon Sessions (like Felton another young point guard trying to score in free agency). And as long as we’re speculating …

    *How about … taking our Sessions-for-Buck/Barea idea and sliding two extra pieces into it: 1) a new version of the rumored trade of Matt Carroll to Toronto where Marcus Banks ends up going elsewhere, and 2) Sessions going to the Clippers (they’ve been kicking his tires) with center Marcus Camby coming to Dallas. In this scenario, the Mavs use The Buck Chip to get a starter, Milwaukee salvages something for losing Sessions, and the Clippers get a targeted player and save payroll.

   *But we digress. Bell isn’t the more costly Sessions and he isn’t the extremely more costly Carlos Boozer (Sessions and Boozer join Felton and David Lee as quality FAs who remain on the shelf). Raja is 32, but he still qualifies as a defensive-stopper type, just as he was in his first go-‘round with the Mavs. Nowaways, though, he’s also a more accomplished offensive player (by the numbers, he’s now a 3-point shooter on percentage par with “3-point specialist’’ Matt Carroll). Before moving to Charlotte, Raja was a full-time starter on a damn good Phoenix team. The Mavs possess some answers at the 2 (Josh Howard starting, Jason Terry as the NBA Sixth Man of the Year, defensive specialist Quentin Ross behind them). But if you are trading Greg Buckner for Raja Bell -- unless you've pinpointed a bigger-better -- you do that all day long.

   This town (Dallas) would be big enough for all of them.