Could a 39-year old, Dallas icon be the most Interesting Free Agent this season? How could that be so when you have players such as Stephen Curry, Blake Griffin, and Chris Paul on the market? Believe it or not, Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks could hold that honor if the team declines his team option.
No contract talk yet
Nowitzki signed a two-year deal last year and is due $25 million. According to Kevin Spain of USA Today, a report from ESPN found that only $5 million of that is guaranteed. There is a team option for the season, and they have until July 1st to exercise the option or potentially reconstruct a contract.
The 'Most Interesting Free Agent' case
The argument against this claim is that there is little chance that Nowitzki to leave Dallas; therefore, has no reason to be interesting at all. The main reason is that if the team does not exercise their team option, that will make Nowitzki an unrestricted free agent. The question would be how long the contract would be?
Nowitzki is entering his 20th season in the NBA. He will be the sixth player ever to play 20 seasons or more. Nowitzki will join Robert Parish, Kevin Willis, Kevin Garnett, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Kobe Bryant. The record for most NBA seasons is held by Parish, Willis, and Garnett at 21 seasons.
Nowitzki will be 39 when the season begins.
That means if Nowitzki would be 41 years old if he were to break the all-time season's record. Willis played up until he was 44 years old, while Parish played up until he was 43. The age barrier won't be an issue, but will Dallas offer anything more than one year.
The likelihood of a multi-year deal
The Mavericks missed the playoffs for the second time in five years.
Nowitzki isn't getting any younger, and they have a flurry of holes to fill. The Mavericks will have decisions on if they should resign Nerlens Noel and Yogi Ferrell. If the Mavericks want to get better in what remains of Nowitzki's career, then his $25 million needs to shrink, especially if they want to sign a top free agent to Dallas.
What would make the most sense is to offer Nowitzki a similar deal to what he has now. Nowitzki doesn't need a lot of money to sign a two-year contract, with one year guaranteed for $15 million, and a team option for the 2018-2019 season. This would give the Mavericks an extra $10 million to spend in free agency.
Nowitzki is on the downhill climb of his career. He also suffered an Achilles strain that sidelined him for 25 games. Nowitzki averaged 14.2 points for the season, but his bounce back should make any fan pull for him to play for at least two more seasons.
