Cuban's Biggest Mistake

[MavzMan]

Originally Posted by Thespiralgoeson

Boston's plan only worked because there was a team stupid enough to trade their entire future for a bunch of guys at the end of their careers. That was the most spectacular fleecing in NBA history, hell maybe even sports history. It's right up there with the Cowboys/Vikings Herschel Walker trade. You can't just copy and paste what Boston did. Who do you think we could have gotten premium draft picks for?

I do agree though that the whole philosophy behind plan powder was flawed, to put it mildly. Dallas was never going to be an attractive destination for free agents as long as our best player was 35 years old and the team had no promising young prospects. I'm a firm believer that- with very few exceptions- championship contenders are primarily built through the draft, which the Mavs all but ignored for most of this century.

Actually the plan was to sign a new franchise player to groom and have Dirk hand the team off to, or even 2 players at the time. The problem is that Dallas has never been a FA destination and Dirk has never got the respect from the players. After the 2011 championship, it was assumed that Dirk is now a legit champion, beat all of the best teams and best players in their prime, won the Finals MVP, and now should be considered a guy that others would want to join up with and carry on the Mavericks mantle. It didn't happen.

The fact is that it was a legit philosophy at that immediate time. As seasons have gone by, it gets more and more clear that it was the wrong choice. The NBA is littered with dead horses of free agency and draft picks ... let them lie in peace.

[Thespiralgoeson]

Originally Posted by MavzMan

Actually the plan was to sign a new franchise player to groom and have Dirk hand the team off to, or even 2 players at the time. The problem is that Dallas has never been a FA destination and Dirk has never got the respect from the players.

That's more or less what I just said. Dallas was never an attractive destination for a franchise player- because Dirk was older by that point. If you're a Dwight Howard or whoever, having a 35 year old Dirk "hand the team off to you" is not very much of an incentive. You want a team with another star in his prime that you can play with for years, and/or young prospects that can give you a healthy supporting cast for years. Dallas had neither.

After the 2011 championship, it was assumed that Dirk is now a legit champion, beat all of the best teams and best players in their prime, won the Finals MVP, and now should be considered a guy that others would want to join up with and carry on the Mavericks mantle. It didn't happen.

The fact is that it was a legit philosophy at that immediate time. As seasons have gone by, it gets more and more clear that it was the wrong choice. The NBA is littered with dead horses of free agency and draft picks ... let them lie in peace.

It was sensible enough in 2012. I was fully in favor of it- not because I thought it necessarily had great odds of succeeding, but because I didn't think there were any better options. I think the real problem came after that summer when we missed out on Deron and Dwight, and year after year kept the "powder dry" by only signing decent players to short term deals, still hoping for the big fish. The problem with this approach was that, even if you had a decent team- which we did with Monta/Parsons/Chandler- you can't develop any continuity and you're starting all over every season. Couple that with Dirk getting older and older and us STILL not having any young prospects, and you have a law of severely diminishing returns.

The Rondo trade certainly didn't help either.