The Dallas Mavericks' acquisition of Peja Stojakovic could face additional hurdles as it appears the NBA was not initially convinced that the Mavericks and Toronto Raptors went about the Serb forward's buy-out and a subsequent proposed trade to send Dallas big man Alexis Ajinca to Toronto in accordance with NBA rules.
Mavericks Forced To Convince NBA Peja Stojakovic Deal Isn’t Shady
In other words, the deals may have been connected, which would be against NBA policy as a circumvention of trade rules.
Other Western Conference contenders hoping to sign Stojakovic, who reached a buy-out agreement with the Raptors on Thursday, complained to the NBA that by agreeing to trade Ajinca to Toronto in order to sign Peja, the Mavericks had essentially completed a trade without meeting the very strict guidelines trades must follow.
But according to Jeff Caplan of ESPN Dallas, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban visited the league on Friday to show a chronology of text messages that supposedly revealed that the deals were considered and reached separately. In order to sign Peja, the Mavericks had to clear a roster spot. The Raptors, Cuban says, asked if they would send Ajinca to Toronto and pay the remainder of his 2010-11 salary in the process. Given that Dallas’ other option would have been to waive a player (which also requires the team to pay his salary), the trade’s benefit was simply to cut the team’s luxury tax bill.
The Mavericks lost Caron Butler for the season earlier this month. Sasha Pavlovic has manned the small forward position of late, and not particularly well.
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