The Cost Of Doing (Salary Dump) Business
The Philadelphia 76ers currently have $13,710,114 in cap space, so they could trade Noel to the Mavericks for Bogut at a price of a first round pick in the upcoming draft and immediately release Bogut.
The 76ers simply do not have the interest in diluting the center space while Joel Embiid shows so much promise. As a matter of fact, it’s easy to imagine the Mavericks being interested in Noel.
Under Mark Cuban’s ownership the Mavericks have valued centers that can play great defense despite their limits on offense. The Mavericks won their only NBA championship when Tyson Chandler was defensive player of the year. On top of that, they offered DeAndre Jordan a max contract during the 2016 NBA offseason before Jordan changed his mind about joining the Mavericks and returned to the Los Angeles Clippers.
While Noel is unlikely to ever be as good as Tyson and Jordan, he can be a poor man’s version of them and the contract the Mavericks will have to give him as a restricted free agent in the upcoming offseason should cost them significantly less than Tyson or Jordan.