FRISCO - Feisty veteran guard Patrick Beverley is planning to grant the Dallas Mavericks a recruiting meeting at the June 30 opening of NBA free agency, league sources tell DallasBasketball.com.

Beverley, late of the Los Angeles Clippers, is seen here as a coveted tier-2 star. He is infamously competitive, the sort of pain-in-the-butt player who can make interesting a Round 1 series against the vaunted Golden State Warriors (as he did this past postseason, battling with Kevin Durant), the sort of lightning rod who can cause a fan to wish to direct anger at him (ask the Dallas Mavericks!), the sort of player who due to his sheer presence -- even though that presence is but 6-1 -- transforms a young team into a smart one, a "soft'' team into a tough one.

The Mavs have a number of people inside the building who support the idea of acquiring Beverley due to the "toughness upgrade'' issue; I believe young Luka Doncic can be counted among them. Naturally, the Clippers plan to retain the guy their coach, Doc Rivers, calls their "heartbeat.'' Little wonder, also, that Beverley will be coveted elsewhere, including possible down the street in Los Angeles by the Lakers, who may not have the cap room to secure a max player but could certainly make an attractve offer here.

The Mavs, I'm told, are working to calculate how to bring Beverley to Dallas, even though he represents an option ranking well underneath a top priority like max free agent Kemba Walker.

It has largely been established that the PLAN K toppers, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and Kawhi Leonard, are not likely Dallas-bound. DBcom is reporting that another PLAN K prospects, Khris Middleton, is planning to re-up with Milwaukee. That leaves Kemba Walker. ... who we have long-reported is the most viable "big fish.''

But in trying to find help for Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis, what if PLAN K flops altogether? How does Patrick Beverley work?

Again, there will be competition for a player who has twice made the All-Defensive team and who over the last four seasons had made himself a fine 3-point shooter. (Sean Deveney mentions the Bulls, and also notes that Beverley won't "wait'' on the Clippers.) But L.A. has some challenges here. According to the DBcom Big Calculator, the Clippers' cap room would allow them to add one "big fish'' (Kawhi Leonard?). However, if they attempt to bring in two stars, Beverley and Danilo Gallinari will probably be casualties of that process.

In that latter scenario, the Clippers will have to let go of Beverley’s cap hold to create the room for the second star, and because they will have gone below the cap, they won’t be able to offer him anything other than the room MLE.

And there is where Dallas can swoop in. At one time we hoped Beverley would command something in the full MLE area of about $9.25 million; now it seems some team might blow that number out of the water. (It's about "the bag,'' Bev says here.) But the Mavs can still pull that off, while also signing another second-tier standout -- all fitting with Donnie Nelson's "Split Our Aces'' secondary gameplan.

Beverley AND a max guy? That would be a difficult trick to pull off here. Beverley and another good player, like Nikola Vucevic or Derrick Favors or Malcolm Brogdon or Bojan? There can be ways to engineer twin "gets'' like that. (A "Split Our Aces''-style plan is demonstrated here.)

Patrick Beverley is about to turn 31 in July, so GM Nelson's "add to the young core'' comment wouldn't be served here. But the Mavs' goal needs to be to get "better,'' not to get "younger.'' Beverley as part of a "split-the-cap-room'' approach works within the boundaries, and Beverley working alongside Luka on the floor works, too. But it'll almost certainly first require Dallas receiving some "no's'' from its PLAN K premium guys, along with two of those premium guys becoming viable Clippers targets. ... at which time the cogs can turn toward bringing a cockroach to Dallas -- at least for a recruiting meeting, which Beverley is now clearly agreeable to.