For all the consternation Danny Ainge has gotten, getting Corey Brewer would complete what ultimately would be a good couple of weeks. As I said in the Morning Dump, In exchange for Perkins, the C's will have gotten upgrades from Semih, Marquis, Harangody and Nate Robinson if Brewer does come here. Name me one trade where you upgrade four positions on your team while only taking a step back, at one?
Of course, signing Corey Brewer is a big if
But Boston and San Antonio, in this case, can’t compete financially with the Dallas Mavericks, who have their full mid-level exception remaining — worth just under $4 million as of Wednesday because the figure is reduced daily from its original $5.8 million at this juncture of the season — to comfortably exceed any offer the Celtics or Spurs could make.
The Celts actually have the least to pitch financially of the three teams, sitting more than $5 million over the luxury-tax threshold and limited to offering a pro-rated share of the league minimum just as they gave Murphy. With the Spurs only about $1 million away from the tax line and likewise only possessing cap exceptions worth $1.5 and $1.2 million, respectively, Dallas would appear to have a clear bidding advantage over their neighbors from the NBA elite, fitting as it might be to see Brewer wind up with the Spurs given the frequent comparisons linking Brewer to Bruce Bowen.
Sources say Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, like Rivers, has been lobbying Brewer to try to seal a deal. There’s a decent chance that Sasha Pavlovic, who earlier this season completed two 10-day contracts with Dallas, will return to the Mavs if they don’t get Brewer … and possibly land with Boston if the Mavs do.
This makes it an uphill battle because, unlike Troy Murphy, who has made about $50 million in his career… Corey has made about $8 million so far. Obviously nothing to sneeze at, but he's not as financially set as a lot of these other guys. So if Mark Cuban decides to go balls out and dangle nearly $4 million in front of Brewer… who is he not to take it? It's not like its the Cavs tossing money around. It's a contending team that is basically giving you almost half your career earnings in one shot.
I'm not sure Dallas will toss the rest of their Mid-Level at Brewer… but they could. Meanwhile the Celtics can only offer him the prorated amount of $915,852, the minimum wage for a three-year veteran. They can talk history, and Ubuntu, and have KG, Ray and Paul give him a call… but money is money for a kid like that. It'll be hard for him to say no to Dallas or even the Spurs.
So maybe we should just mentally prepare ourselves for the Sasha Pavlovic era.
Ummmmm….. yippee?
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