Mavs Trade Gasol for Bogut!

Dallas, TX

Just as Dallas had made a trade bringing in Jeff Teague to run the offense sending Vucevic to Milwaukee, the Mavericks have sent their other center, Marc Gasol, to Minnesota for Andrew Bogut. Clearly, the better player is Gasol, he's got the skills on offense and defense, and can be easily a top 3 center in the league. Also departing with Gasol, is Kirk Hinrich, who wasn't seeing much playing time, with Jamaal Franklin coming in for Dallas, an up and coming two guard who will bring much needed energy off the bench with George Hill and Channing Frye.

So why would Dallas trade Marc Gasol for a downgrade at center and a slight upgrade at a reserve?

Tanner Owen wrote:We reached out to Marc Gasol about a possible extension to lock him up long term as a Maverick. We valued Gasol greatly, rejected countless offers for Gasol...But we got some terrible news back from Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce...Marc Gasol did not want to sign an extension and wanted to become an unrestricted free agent to test the waters and see what's out there. That crushed us...and it slightly lowered his trade value due to it. We were already in trade discussions with the Minnesota Front Office, so I brought up a Gasol/Bogut swap. We discussed it for a couple of weeks...Yes, we informed them of Gasol's status (we respect them greatly and wouldn't blindside them like that)...We were in talks to bring in [Danny] Granger as well, but they didn't feel like it would be worth the risk...We couldn't risk losing Gasol during free agency and not getting anything in return...so that was why we pulled the trigger on this trade. We wish Marc Gasol good luck as well as the front office of Minnesota.

A huge blow for the Mavericks as it appeared that they were just starting to click with Teague in the rotation (three game winning streak against the Nets, Thunder, and Lakers). It appears that the Mavericks have a little more rounded rotation now...although, they really need a true small forward who can step up and hold his own against some of the elite players out there.

In other news, the Boston Celtics made some trades that resulted in Tayshaun Prince getting cut from the team...The Dallas Mavericks reached out to Prince and signed him for the remainder of the season. He will serve as one of Dallas' leading high fivers alongside Jared Cunningham and Mike Moser.

Good luck man - a slight downgrade but Bogut is a better shot blocker and overall a good C on a deal that you're happy with

I think we both got what we wanted out of the deal. Both Bogut and Gasol were underpreforming on our teams, so hopefully the swap does them both good. Jamaal Franklin should be really good too.

Knew Gasol was gone once Vuc was traded and I actually like Bogut better on this iteration of Dallas than Gasol as it allows Teague to have the ball more and probably DeRozan as well to get them going since Bogut is more of a finisher than initiator while defensively Bogut can hold down the paint for you.

Gonna be interesting to see what SF you target.

Seems you guys are very scared to risk in FA, which certainly is a smart thing to do. But when Free Agency rolled around and you offered Gasol a max (which is what he'll command) with that 5th year, it's doubtful he'd decline. Interesting deal though, Bogut should make you a better defensive team.