Getty Collin Sexton of the Cavaliers (right) could be a key to a Ben Simmons trade.
After the Dallas Mavericks acquired Christian Wood in a trade and signed JaVale McGee to be their starting center, it has been pretty quiet this summer. Fans were likely eager to see if the Mavs would get another ball handler, especially after losing such a huge piece in Jalen Brunson. But that has not been the case as of yet.
However, it does seem like the Mavs front office has not been trying. Cleveland beat reporter Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com recently spoke about the Mavs and Cavs discussing a potential sign and trade for Collin Sexton, a Cavs player in purgatory this entire summer.
“The Cavs have had conversations with Dallas about a sign-and-trade for Collin Sexton,” Fedor says on the ‘Wine and Gold Talk’ podcast. “But if you’re talking about a sign-and-trade, the Cavs need something back that is going to be valuable to them. And neither the Jazz nor the Mavericks have the pieces that the Cavs would want back in a sign-and-trade for Collin.”
Unfortunately, it looks like the Mavs do not have the pieces at the moment to facilitate a sign and trade for Sexton. The Mavs do have future draft picks available, but are pretty scarce in terms of players whom the Cavs would be interested in a sign and trade.
Mavs Had Interest as Far Back as Two Months Ago
This is not the first time that the Mavs and Sexton have been linked. On July 3’s episode of Fedor’s Wine and Dine podcast, he mentioned that the Mavs were rumored as a team that expressed interest in Sexton after losing out on Brunson.
“They don’t have cap space. So it would have to be a sign-and-trade worked out with the Cavs. And I’m told that the Cavs are not very attracted to any of the pieces that Dallas would be willing to send back to them in a potential sign-and-trade.”
It looks like this is pretty similar to the recent intel about Dallas’ interest in Sexton. The Mavs maintain they still have interest in the young guard but it doesn’t look like anything will happen soon.
Mark Cuban recently talked with the Dallas Morning News and said it was highly unlikely the team was planning to make any more moves heading into next season.
“Unlikely unless something somebody gets cut somewhere that really surprises us? I mean, we want that flexibility throughout the season. You know, I know how fans feel about it. It’s always like, you know, we got to win the summer we’ve got to do this and we got to do that…We could have a non-guaranteed contract guy in that spot. But so we’ll just see what shows up and play out the options and see what happens.”
What Collin Sexton Could Bring to Mavs
Although it seems unlikely the Mavs will be able to land the former eighth overall pick, it does not hurt to dream.
The Mavs have maintained such an interest in Sexton because of the role everyone knows that he could fit with Dallas. As of now, Spencer Dinwiddie is slotted to be the secondary playmaker behind Luka Doncic, but Brunson’s departure would allow Sexton to thrive in that 2A, 2B role as a playmaker.
Dinwiddie showed in the playoffs last season he is capable of being productive, but his stint in Washington has shown that there are cases that he could be inconsistent for stretches at a time. The Mavs cannot afford to have their primary ball handler not named Doncic to struggle too much. At the moment, there isn’t anyone that can be even a remotely decent ball handler, so that’s why Sexton is such an intriguing option for Dallas.