Vladimir Stepania - Dallas-Mavs.com Forums

mikeinrowlett · 08-04-2003, 11:14 PM

KG is ON? He is so far off it is not even comical. Unfortunately Mr Cuban does not get to play by Rhylan's rules. I'm not aware of the NBA rule where you can waive a player that you didn't want and not have it count against your salary cap. Except for a major injury of course. Bringing him in does cost the Mavericks 8 million bucks, real money. It is a factor when considering players. Your current situation effects future moves. You guys live in a fantasyland. Regardless of the player it costs Mr Cuban an extra 8 million dollars. To not add him counts nothing. Put whomever you wish in the 8 million slot but would you pay Avery Johnson 8 million dollars to have Stepania on your team? Hell no.

Fah Q · 08-04-2003, 11:53 PM

Mike why would the signing of Stepania effect an in season trade? You don't think we would give up players to get players? Maybe we trade the same amount of players we get. I think the Mavs need role players like Vlad. I hate Raefs contract but I'm not saying we should trade him when we get Vlad. I actually don't mind the thought of Raef playing about 20 min at PF and maybe 5-8 at C a night. Then you plug Brad and Vlad in the C position the rest of the night. IMO that would be pretty formidable considering we already have three All-Stars Fin, Dirk, Nash and one really good bench player NVE. I say we get some good depth and people who will do the little things (Rebounding) for the Mavs.

mikeinrowlett · 08-05-2003, 12:47 AM

The reason signing someone to a contract with the MLE will effect trades at the break is due to dollars. We will most certainly have to take on more bad contracts in an effort to get better. This means longer term for higher dollars. Avery Johnson is certain to go in a trade and he is eaten up by a bad contract that we must keep in future years. It all adds up to flexibility. The more players you sign and the higher over the cap you go the less likely a deal can be done. I'm not he couldn't help us but what I am saying he is not worth the money and the loss in flexibility. I know those in the general public wish we would have signed Keon Clark last year. Sacramento wants to drop him like a bad habit. Next year we will not have this slot if someone better comes along if we sign Stepania. I have faith Mr Cuban has all the angles covered. If nothing else I have learned to spell Stepania thru this exercise.

Fah Q · 08-05-2003, 12:56 AM

Someone will come along next year? I guess that's just like last year or even this year. Right? I'm sick of hearing about next year. If we are looking at next year lets move some of our older players for some younger ones, if we want it this year we have to make improvements on our depth and get some quality at center. I'm not expecting Vlad to be a savior but I do think he could be pretty productive in about 20-25 minutes a game.

DirkDiggler · 08-05-2003, 01:22 AM

hey yo..i dunno bout u...but i dont want to wait till feb trade deadline..

the reason we need to act now or next season(AND HAVE TO NEXT SEASON)...is cuz u want the player to go through the motions of they nellie weirdo system to understand it....its been a season and a half and raef still dont understand it..imagine how it'd be in feb if we traded and got a guy of raefs poetentials or better..and still not fit in well in nellie's system..u'll have a nother 1st-2nd round early exit topss...

u need to add someone do it b4 the season starts..so that way when playoff comes around the guy knows his way..the coach knows his player and the team knows how to react...

although im not much fan of the coach...nellie is a pussy who needs to make his team better now...

and no i too dont want to say "next season KG"..after last years Lewis and this years Zo....

if we do dat..next year comes around and KG decides..ehy I love minnie im gonna stay....or i feel miami or anyother tom dick or harry has a good chance at a championship..
then cubs will come out and say...the agent said it was a done deal...KG went the other way....

although a KG-Dirk combo is deadly..still dont wanna wait 4 it..im a result guy..every team i've followed got a championshi...i just started likin the mavs the past 2 yrs..and we've progressed so much...dirk is now my fav player..and i dont want to see us regress..not after the WCF...now i say we need to go forward...though realistically we wont...we need to...and if it means to say goodbye to one our 4 best..then so be it..just as long as we're gettin same quality all-stars in return.........

4cwebb · 08-05-2003, 06:57 AM

Evilmav2, of all the players the Mavs wouldn't want, I would imagine that Keon Clark is not on that list...at least he has tangible athleticism around the basket and isn't prone to picking up three fouls in the first quarter. Not to mention the fact that, despite the efforts of the Mavs to acquire yet another big white stiff (Brad Miller), Geoff Petrie landed him for the Kings instead this offseason...who would you rather have on your team for 7 years and around $70 million...Miller or Raef? Yeah, I'd rather have Miller, too.

Still, the Mavs have plenty of options to pick up a guy for much less money that can be a serviceable banger in the paint. Stepania might be that guy...he has certainly proven that he can throw his weight around, albeit in the same conference where Brad Miller made a name for himself. If I were a diehard Mavs' fan, I'd rather see Dampier or Dale Davis, but those guys cannot just up and walk away from their teams like Stepania.

Dooby · 08-05-2003, 08:48 AM

Apologies in advance for rambling.

A 2 year deal at $4M for Stepania is not particularly stupid. It is not reckless. It is not outrageous. It's real impact on this team's salary cap situation is negligible.

The real problem is that Mark has it in his head that he has to get some crazy-ass bargain. I keep going back to Horry and Pippen, two player I didn't even want. But apparently the good ol' Mavs had interest. Each guy signed for an amount equivalent to the MLE. Cuban offered each the Million Dollar exception of $1.5M for 2 years. Now Horry is the better example for my point. Horry signed a 2-year deal with the second being the team's option. SA will not exercise the option. Basically, SA signed Horry for a 1 year deal. The Mavs could have offered the same money, but didn't even try. A 1 year deal has no impact on the future of this club.

At first Cuban tried to use the $4.9M exception to get Malone or Mourning; two players worth more than $4.9M (if Mourning were healthy and if Malone weren't set on getting a ring), but seemed prepared to take that amount. Cuban was right with those two, but ultimately came up empty handed.

Since then, Cuban really has been dicking around. He has offered the MLE to players only a moron would think they might accept-Miller, Nasty, for example. I even toss Kandi on there, though his agent apparently coerced him into taking the MLE to play with his college roommate. Maybe Cuban was trying to initiate a sign and trade or maybe he wasn't.

Or he has offered the small exception to players that were being offered more elsewhere.

We have also, apparently, been offering our junk to other teams for their starters.

Now, none of this is a real problem, except that the Mavs have real deficiencies. Remember that throughout the season, just about everybody on this board agreed that the Mavs needed to: get a real starting small forward; improve low post scoring; add depth to the bench; find a real backup shooting guard; overall improve the defense. Well, hey, I think we decided that Raja can back up Finley. The only other issue addressed is drafting Josh Howard. Howard is not the answer despite the claims of the Mavs PR machine. If Howard puts up Najera-esque numbers, he'll be a smashing success; at the same time, he'll also be of very little help for a "contending team"(particularly when it means that he won't contribute much beyond the loss of production of either Walt or Grif).

So we have all these issues to be addressed, and we have done nothing to address them.

Imagine going to an auction. The auctioneer announces that the bidding will start at $10M. If a guy jumps up and screams "$3M!!!", that guy will look like a fool. Now further imagine, that after the initial offer of $10M, the bidding goes up to $15M, and the same guy is jumping up and down screaming "$5M!!!".

In essence, this is what Cuban is doing.

Now, I have a question. Is that even trying? Skin of "Ben and Skin" was on the Ticket last week and he said that at least the effort was there. Well, is it really? Are you really trying to make a trade when you are only willing to part with TAW, AJ, Esch or Bradley? Are you actually trying to acquire talent when you offer a guy that made the allstar team in 2003 less than he made the year before (Brad Miller)? Are you trying to acquire talent when you offer a guy 1/3 what another team offers when you can offer the same amount (pippen)? Are you trying to acquire talent when you offer a guy less money over 2 years what another team offers for just one year (Horry)? The Mavs have done or are doing all these things. Is that "effort"?