Hello fellow Mavs Fans. I recently joined the greatest blog for the greatest team on the planet. I am undertaking my first posting by doing a somewhat extensive review of the Mavs cap situation for part 1. I will then follow up with a part 2 on my ideal preferences to how we use that cap money to build a team this summer.

We must first assess what is on the books for next year (source: http://hoopshype.com/salaries/dallas.htm). The following money is owed by the Mavericks to players next season:

Being realistic, Lamar will be gone. If we buy him out, his $2.4m will count against our cap. Let's assume Donnie trades him for someone else to buy him out, leaving our number at $46,466,971.

The next step is everyone's favorite amnesty candidate, Brendan Haywood. It should be noted that Marion is a candidate as well, but I prefer Haywood for a variety of reasons that may become a separate post. Erasing Haywood's contract puts us at $38,117,971.

I am going to now assume we keep everyone else. The cap is estimated to be about $60m through various speculations. I actually think it might be higher, but I will use the $60m nonetheless. Who am I to argue with the talking heads? This leaves cap space of $21,882,029. That is a nice sized number, but we are not done yet.

We must then factor in cap holds for empty roster spots, as well as factor in the Mavs draft pick salary. When a team has fewer than 12 players on its roster - and the Mavs in this scenario would have only seven - the league forces them to add a cap charge for each roster spot up to 12. The charge is equal to the rookie minimum salary, set to be $473,604 next season, according to a summary of the new collective bargaining agreement. Multiply that by 4 empty roster spots, and you get a total of $1,894,416. The fifth slot would be our 2012 draft pick at $1,563,120. This makes our magic number $18,424,493

A chart to review:

Deron Williams' salary will be $17,177,795. This will also remove a cap hold, leaving less than the veteran's minimum. We will then have the full mid-level exception, just over $5m for 4 years and the veteran's minimum to finish building the rest of the team.

Is this our best option? See part 2 to find out.