After an off-season where the LA Lakers, Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks took turns disregarding the NBA's new luxury tax penalties, Mark Cuban's insistence on maintaining the Dallas Mavericks salary cap flexibility has become a bit of a running joke in basketball circles.
↵However, the Mavericks owner hasn't abandoned that talking point yet, and he thinks the luxury tax could come back to bite teams next off-season:
↵↵↵"The financial side isn't the big hurdle," Cuban said. "That's just money. It's the flexibility. I don't want to be in a position where I can't do a sign-and-trade for somebody if that can help my team. I can't get a free agent because I have no cap room -- all I have is $3 million -- and I can't do a sign-and-trade. The trades are limited to 125 percent [in matching salary], so you can't be that team that takes on a bunch of bad contracts. ... That's how we've always done it, taking somebody else's mistakes."
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According to his logic, Dallas has hamstrung themselves over the last two years so they'll be able to take advantage of teams who are too hamstrung to make moves over the next two years.
↵Basically, it's kind of like how the Knicks were able to sign the NBA's reigning Defensive Player of the Year without giving up any assets last off-season. Mavericks fans can only hope Cuban is able to pull of a similar heist going forward.