Could Dallas Help Facilitate a George Hill Trade to Cleveland?

With George Hill at the front and center of trade rumors, could the Dallas Mavericks be a third team to help the deal go through?

The NBA Trade Deadline is just under a few weeks away and rumors have already been leaking out as teams try to figure out the market before February 8th.

One of the newest rumors is from ESPN as they reported the latest on George Hill and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

“The Cleveland Cavaliers are progressing in conversations on a deal to acquire Sacramento Kings guard George Hill, league sources told ESPN,” said Adrian Wojnarowski in his latest ESPN report.

For a Cavs team in desperate need for some versatility and defense in the back court, Hill would be an excellent addition for a second half run.

In the same report, Cleveland would be sending Iman Shumpert, Channing Frye and possibly others.

For the Kings, this would be about clearing cap space next summer as Frye is on an expiring contract and Shumpert has a player option for next season. Even if Shumpert picked up the option, they would be clearing around $9 million in cap space.

Woj also went on to say that for the Kings to take on the players from the Cavs, they are looking at separate deals for Malachi Richardson and Skal Labissiere.

This is where the Mavs could come into play.

Sitting on roughly $13 million in cap space, Dallas could help Sacramento out by taking on a player, but for a price of course. Since it would be ill-advised to simply dump Richardson or Labissiere, Sacramento should look to attach something to them.

Take for instance, Garrett Temple.

Temple is 31 years old and making $8 million this season. He has a player option next year for $8 million also. If Sacramento wanted to clear up that space, they could make the Temple contract the price of taking on Richardson or Labissiere.

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Kosta Koufos has almost the same contract as Temple while veteran Vince Carter has an expiring contract worth around $8 million.

Richardson is a 6’6″ wing who was the 22nd overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft. The 22-year-old wing would be a flyer type of player that Dallas could look to develop.

Labissiere is a 6’11” forward out of Kentucky that was drafted 28th overall in the same draft. He is just 21 years old and would give the Mavericks the same type of development prospect except in the front court.

Hypothetically, Dallas could absorb both Temple and Labissiere into their cap space without sending anything back in return. Sacramento would proceed with their proposed deal and shed the contract of Temple for next season to Dallas.

Assuming Temple picked up his option for next season, cutting $8 million from the cap space might be worth it for a prospect like Labissiere.

Next: One Big Question for the Dallas Mavericks at the Trade Deadline

So far, nothing is reported on the Mavericks front of being interested, but this is the perfect type of situation to use their cap space in an opportunistic way.

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