[Zeus]

Originally Posted by EricaLubarsky

TCuban spent twenty years mortgaging the future of the team to get talent for Dirk. He didn't always succeed (I agree he and Donnie deserve blame for poor management) but he kept putting things on his credit card. When we got Luka, we simply didn't have the talent nor the assets to build a team. The credit card was maxed out and we didn't have anything to show for it.

Smart teams know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em. If Kyrie leaves, we're down multiple draft picks (2024/2029), down Kyrie, and the talent around Luka is going to be absolutely atrocious. If we come back next year down Kyrie and Wood without much to show for it, do you honestly think Luka won't ask for a trade? If he gives us an ultimatum to improve the team or trade him and we have no assets to get talent, what do we do then? If the trade request goes public, teams know we're desperate and we get less for him.

Sometimes when you go to a casino and keep losing, the best bet is to walk away. I think this might be the situation, as terrible as that will be for the next 2-10 years. Still, teams that realize they don't have it have been successful in blowing it up and rebuilding with young guys (Celts, Thunder, etc.).

What you say about looking bleak is true. I agree. I don't agree the reason why they were bad from 2012 to 2018 was because Cuban maxed out the credit card. It was actually the opposite. He didn't want to go into the luxury tax and keep the Championship team together because he thought he would be locked into that team and didn't realize that he would have been able to flip assets on the fly and potentially rebuild through trades etc. He was pinning the future on dry powder.