Mavericks waive veteran center

The Mavericks have officially requested waivers on center JaVale McGee, the team announced Tuesday. McGee will clear waivers in about 48 hours, becoming an unrestricted free agent on Thursday.

Shams Charania of The Athletic reported a week ago that Dallas intended to waive McGee and use the stretch provision on his remaining salary. As we outlined last Wednesday, Aug. 31 is the deadline to waive a player if his club intends to stretch the player’s current-year salary across multiple seasons.

Assuming the Mavs’ plan to stretch McGee’s salary remains unchanged, that means that instead of counting against the cap for $5.7M in 2023-24 and $6M in 2024-25, his cap hits will be spread across five seasons at a rate of about $2.35M per year. His dead money will be on the team’s books through 2027-28.

McGee signed a three-year, $17M-plus contract with Dallas last offseason, but only spent seven games in the starting lineup and subsequently fell out of the rotation altogether. The 35-year-old averaged 4.4 points and 2.5 rebounds in a career-low 8.5 minutes per game across 42 appearances during his second stint as a Maverick.

The Mavs shopped McGee in various trade talks throughout the offseason, but were unable to find a taker, given the negative value of his contract. By stretching his remaining salary, they’ll become ineligible to re-sign him until the 2025 offseason, after his deal would have expired.

Dallas reportedly intends to sign free-agent forward Markieff Morris to replace McGee on its projected 15-man regular-season roster. Prior to signing Morris, the team’s salary is $5.5M below the luxury-tax line, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks. Reducing McGee’s 2023-24 cap hit will give the Mavs some additional breathing room to maneuver below the tax this season.