The NBA held the 2005 draft last night and, for a change, Dallas did absolutely nothing. The Mavs went into the draft without a pick (their 1st round pick went to Utah [who then traded it on to Portland, #27] as part of last year's Pavel Podkolzin trade and the 2nd round pick went to New Orleans [who traded it to Phoenix, who traded it to Orlando, #57] as part of last year's Darrell Armstrong trade. The Mavs were busy on the phones talking with other teams, but nothing came of it. It is the first time in team history that Dallas did not draft a player or make a trade on draft day. Donnie Nelson came out to talk to the media midway through the 2nd round at the Mavs media draft party. Nelson: "We were active, but nothing popped our way." Nelson: "The fact that nothing didn't happen wasn't a great surprise." He said that the Mavs wanted to develop the young guys the team already has and that the team is young enough as it is. He also said that other teams were interested in some of the Mavs young players, but the Mavs were not willing to part with them. After the draft ended, Dallas did contact Michael Harris (Rice) and Rawle Marshall (Oakland University) and signed them to the Mavs summer league team. Dallas will be fielding 2 summer league teams, so look for more rookie and young free agents to be added to the team in the next week. The Mavs hope to have Devin Harris, Pavel Podkolzin, DJ Benga, Marquis Daniels, and Josh Howard participate in the summer league. Dallas will be sending teams to the Las Vegas Summer League (July 6-15), the Southern California Summer Pro League (Long Beach, July 8-23), and the Rocky Mountain Revue (Salt Lake City, July 15-23). 2 big Mavs rumors were floated around over the past week. Both papers reported that the Mavs may buy out the rest of Shawn Bradley's contract and he may retire. From what I've heard (I was out of town when this news came out) Bradley has not had any official comment besides that he plans on coming to a decision in the next few weeks. Bradley likely needs knee surgery if he continues playing (don't know if he'd still need it if he wasn't playing) and if he does retire, the Mavs may be able to claim a medical reason for the retirement, which would affect how the rest of Bradley's contract would count against the salary cap [and possible luxury tax, since that is a hot topic right now]. Bradley has 3 years worth $14.5 million left on his contract. The other rumor is that the Mavs are considering using the "amnesty" clause that is reportedly going to be part of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) to release Michael Finley. The clause will reportedly allow a team to cut one player and that player's salary would not count towards the luxury tax, if there was one [the tax does not necessarily occur each season]. The team would still have to pay the player's salary and it would still count against the team's salary cap - the only benefit is for the possible luxury tax. It does not "free" up any money. The team would not be allowed to re-sign the player for the length of the player's contract. I can't tell you how disgusted I was when I heard this rumor and hoped it was more media speculation than reality based [and this rumor came out the day I flew out of town for a short trip - and I had a lot of questions of how this made sense without even knowing all of the details; and knowing the details made it worse]. But apparently it is reality based and the Mavs are seriously considering doing this. The only benefit cutting Finley under the amnesty clause would have would be for Mark Cuban's pocket book _if_ the luxury tax threshold was reached in any or all [and it could be none] of the next 3 seasons. There is no money saved to put back towards paying another player - Finley would still get the full amount left on his contract, 3 years worth about $51.8 million ($15.94 million in 05-06, $17.27 million in 06-07, and $18.59 million in 07-08). Cutting Finley would not reduce the team's salary cap amount so there is no money free up to by getting below the cap [and even without Finley's contract, Dallas would still be over the cap]. Dallas would lose a player still capable of putting up good numbers [he did average 15.7 points and 4.1 rebounds last season in playing a more reduced role and playing with a bone spur in his ankle all season], still have to pay him, and get nothing in return. And Dallas would still need to get (and pay) another player to replace Finley. If the Mavs kept Finley and things weren't going well down the road, he could still be traded for something valuable - it's been shown in the past that there is no such thing as an un-tradable contract. Losing Steve Nash last season was bad enough, but at least the Mavs didn't pay him $51 million to go play for another team. Already a number of reporters for other teams are drooling at the thought getting a player like Finley for just a couple of million. Using the amnesty clause on Finley just makes no sense talent wise and not much sense dollar wise. Trying not to go into too much detail [see Larry Coon's Salary Cap FAQ if you want more information], the luxury tax is a dollar-for-dollar charge for the amount a team is over the luxury tax threshold (which is more than the salary cap) that tax occurs only if the percentage of the basketball related income (BRI) that goes to the players is over a certain percent - but whether a tax occurs is not known until after the season ends and the BRI is computed for the previous season. The tax goes into a pool that is then distributed back to the teams. Under the old CBA, the league decided how to distribute the money to the teams and did so favoring the teams under the luxury tax threshold. Reportedly under the new CBA, the pool will be distributed evenly back to all 30 teams [so a bit of the tax money that Dallas may send would come back to the team]. So take any reports that you've read with Dallas saving a ridiculous amount of money by using the clause on Finley with a huge chunk of salt - they are only using the worst case scenario (the tax occurring each of the next 3 season and Dallas being over the tax by at least Finley's contract amount) and doesn't subtract the money Dallas would be getting back (or consider the salary going the player that would take Finley's roster spot). Basically it comes down to which is more important to Cuban: wins or possibly saving some money - not to mention Finley possibly going to an opponent and helping that team against Dallas, like Nash did last season. I hate this talk and unfortunately it's going keep going for the next several weeks. The exact details of the amnesty clause are not yet known and will not be available until the new CBA is finalized. The clause can not be invoked until the new CBA is signed (current target date is July 22, but could be later) and would be available only until the start of the regular season. patricia