Nevertheless, Cuban’s Mavs stand to benefit as much as any team other than the Golden State Warriors from Durant’s decision to take his talents to the Bay Area. They’ll begin doing it with Andrew Bogut. Durant signed a 2 year, $54 million dollar contract with the reigning Western Conference Champions. The Mavs needed a center and had the cap space to absorb Bogut’s expiring contract. Moving Bogut is just the fist of many dominoes that will fall. Last season, Pachulia averaged 8.6 points and 9.4 rebounds for the Dallas Mavericks in 26.4 minutes a game, which he can likely duplicate in Golden State.
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The Dallas Mavericks are still reeling from DeAndre Jordan’s sudden change of heart during last year’s free agency, and this time around, they’re not taking any chances with their new prized recruit, Harrison Barnes.
Joining Barnes in Dallas will be Andrew Bogut, who the Warriors have agreed to send to the Mavericks in their necessary contract shedding.
And, to be quite honest, the Warriors not matching that contract for Barnes is nearly as big a relief as landing Durant is satisfying.
“It’s a great honor to play next to two shooters with the capabilities of Steph and Klay”, Bogut said in a promotional question-and-answer session on Twitter this month.
Before the signing occurs, Barnes, who will also be a part of Team USA this summer in the Olympics, was in Cedar Rapids for his annual summer basketball camp. The lineup is similar to last season, when Dallas was the sixth seed in the Western Conference with a 42-40 record, and lost to Durant and Oklahoma City in five games in the first round. He addresses their desire to add youth and athleticism this offseason and replaces Chandler Parsons in the rotation as the starting small forward and backup power forward. There’s no need to freak out when things don’t go perfectly on day one, and Dallas sure seems to have a knack to recover well when they swing and miss at guys like Mike Conley and Hassan Whiteside.
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As Parsons was rounding into form with the playoffs drawing near, he sustained another right knee injury that required more surgery but wasn’t considered as serious.
