Dirk Nowitzki plans to opt-in for final year of his contract with Mavericks
When Dirk Nowitzki signed a three-year contract to stay with the Mavericks as an unrestricted free agent back in 2014, he took a deal for far less than he could have received by testing the market to potentially play somewhere else.
Nowitzki has a strong sense of loyalty to Mark Cuban and the Mavericks organization, so he signed a contract worth a little more than $8 million per season to leave some money on the table for the team to go out and spend it on help in free agency.
Dallas has done that, with guys like Chandler Parsons and Wesley Matthews each getting hefty deals, but the results have been mixed. Nowizki could decline his player option for next year to try to cash in once more, but as he's maintained all along, he plans to play out his deal for the agreed-upon price.
Nowitzki is unique, in that few if any players would leave as many millions in their owner's pocket as Nowitzki has and will continue to do in Dallas. His choosing to opt-in is especially commendable this summer, when the salary cap is expected to spike upwards of 30 percent and literally every team in the league will have a surplus of money to spend.
The Mavericks have done a decent job of retooling the roster on the fly to remain competitive in recent years without going the full-fledged rebuilding route. If Dallas feels forced to bottom out and start over at the end of what would be Nowitzki's 19th NBA season, it'll be interesting to see if he decides to sign on for one more year to try to add a ring to what's already a Hall of Fame résumé.
