[Richard]

Originally posted by: madape
I am completely on board with you Stressboy.

I have a few specific criticsms of Richard's post.

1) Shaq's story is irrelevant to the Mavericks situation. He muscled his way out of Orlando because he wanted to be an actor an a rapper. He couldn't pursue those avenues in Orlando, so he forced the Magic's hand. Dallas doesn't have that kind of draw, so we'll never get to luck into the kind of good fortune that fell into the Laker's laps. The trade also happened prior to the new CBA going into effect. The new rules have made it harder for teams to aquire elite players via sign and trades. This is why you can forget about ever trading for Duncan, Garnett, Yao, or even McGrady.

Funny how the best gm's like West always find ways to add more talent than their competitor's regardless of what rule changes happen.

2) Jason Kidd has a reputation of being a player that mires his teams in mediocrity. He's the definition of a franchise player who's not good enough to win a title. Phoenix learned this the hard way. If he wasn't playing in the East, he'd still be leading some poor team to year after year of first or second round playoff exits. Yeah, you can get a player like this. But is that what you want? Is that better than what we have now?

To each his own Madape, but at the moment I'd be happy to pick up a guy so mediocre he could get us to two straight title games.

3) Sacramento is the same team as the Mavericks. The exact same team! They have the same troubles that we have here. They will conistently be one of the top teams in the NBA, but they'll alwats be underdogs to win the championship because they don't have a dominant player. With all due respect to Webber, he just isn't on the same level as Duncan, Garnett, or Shaq. They are like Dallas in that respect. We have had similar success by following their model. But that success is limited by the fact that neither Dirk nor Webber is good enough to carry their teams to the NBA championships. I don't think that comparing the Mavericks to this team actually helps your argument.

Again, personal preference, but I won't have too much argument if we can have the most regular season wins over a long stretch like Sac has. And, take out the refs one year and an injury to Webber last year and they would probably have been in 2 Finals. I would love to be that "bad".

4) Jermaine O'Neil and Kobe Bryant are two examples of how two teams have rolled the dice on an unproven player with tremendous upside and had the bets pay off. However, for every Kobe, there are ten Kwame Browns. But you are right, it is not just luck. You have to give credit to Walsh and West, who are without a doubt the two best GMs in the league. I like to think that we've had some of the same kind of success here in Dallas. Dirk is Don Nelson's Kobe Bryant. Our future depends on how much he can develop. If he elevates his game to the level of O'Neil and Kobe, we'll have a great shot at a championship. If Dirk is nothing more than what we saw this year, we'll be waiting for that ring for a long, long time.

Pretty much agree here. But, again, it seems to always be the good gm's who get "lucky" with those dice that way. And, it takes a smart gm to know when its time to hold the cards and bet a championship run on a guy or fold them and trade him for someone who might be able to help you make one. I have real reservations about whether four years of misses give indication that the guys we have now are smart and good enough to make that call successfully.

Text