Mavs FA spending since 2011 do you agree or disagree with approach?

[Dallas41]

I'm sure most of you have seen this over at SI.com and it does bring up a interesting point regarding Cuban since 2011.

What is your take do you disagree or disagree with the the way FA spending has been handled?

The Mavs haven't been willing to spend and go into the luxury tax since the current CBA was implemented in 2011. At what point does that become an issue? Shouldn't the Mavs be spending a lot now (within reason, of course - and we believe that Crowder deal was well within reason) while Doncic is still on his rookie contract?

[KillerLeft]

Good topic.

The short version of my take: not bringing the championship team back in 2011 to chase free agents was a monumental error. I didn’t agree with that decision at all.

At THIS time, I’m fully on board with building the team in a smart way. The worst possible thing they could do is hamstring themselves with mediocre players on bad contracts the way they did when Nash/Dirk were young.

It’s worth noting that when we get the final numbers for Burke, WCS and Terry, they will be within $5 million-$6 million of the luxury tax, so they are definitely spending more for this team than they have in quite a while. They used the MLE, and I would argue that they used it in a better way like this (multiple players, and locking up Terry at a team-friendly cost for TWO ADDITIONAL YEARS) than spending it all on one player. Nothing against Crowder, but it seems like the goal was to get younger and more athletic this off-season. While I didn’t expect that, I certainly welcome it.

In general, I feel that they have put themselves in a really good situation moving forward. They have improved the roster significantly while simultaneously increasing their cap flexibility. It’s not all about Giannis. The cap space can be used earlier by building a trade around one of their expiring contracts (they have several at a variety of useful sizes) at the deadline, for example. There are other doors this approach leaves open, too.

Clearly, the plan is to put the best, YOUNG roster together possible before Luka signs his rookie max extension in 2022. Once that happens, they’ll be relegated to an over-the-cap approach like the Dirk era Mavs were. I, personally, am super thrilled that they learned from the mistakes they made back then and are playing a smarter game this time around.

Now, once the roster is in place and Luka signs his extension, will Cuban once again be a tax payer? That’s an interesting question, and I don’t think we know the answer, but I don’t blame him a bit for avoiding the tax these past several years. With the repeater tax penalties and the way you get hamstrung after a while (see the Warriors) avoiding the tax until it makes sense is actually much better for the on-court product in the long run.

[Thespiralgoeson]

I'm on SI.com right now and don't see anything about Cuban or the Mavericks. What does it say?

In a general sense though, I can say than plan powder was idiotic. I actually agreed with letting Chandler walk in 2011, but in retrospect I can admit that it- and I- was wrong. What was far worse though was to keep trying the same failed strategy over and over again as Dirk got older and older.

Deron Williams actually talked somewhat extensively about why he didn't sign here in 2012, and it's very illuminating why the Mavs have been rejected so many times. The main reason, he said, was that he wanted to know what the Mavs' plan was for when Dirk was no longer a star, and the Mavs didn't have a plan. He said that Donnie and Carlisle basically just told him to trust their track record. That was absolutely ridiculous, when I found that out, I didn't blame Deron at all for rejecting Dallas.

Now, if Deron Williams felt that way in 2012 with the Mavs having come right off of a championship, how the hell do you think other players felt in the years after that as Dirk got older and older, and the Mavs got worse and worse?

Also, it didn't help that Cuban didn't even attend the meeting. Apparently he was taping Shark Tank that day, and didn't bother to reschedule. I wanted to punch Cuban in the face when I found that out too. Maybe Deron still re-signs with the Nets, but he has said that Cuban not attending the meeting did offend him and did affect his decision. I hope to god Cuban learned his lesson and never has or never will make that completely inexcusable mistake again.

[Dallas41]

wow

That's pretty bad I didn't know that was the reason D.Will went to the Nets

I just assumed the Mavs weren't that interested since Cuban didn't show up.

[KillerLeft]

Regarding Williams, the Mavs didn’t even offer the max, apparently. I remember being pissed about that, at the time (and about the Shark Tank thing, too), but in hindsight, seems like they dodged a bullet.

Williams literally JUST came off the Brooklyn payroll like last month. Having to stretch waive someone is bad news.

[Dallas41]

Mavs Money Ball questioned the MLE signings this year

Personally, I don't agree because I like WCS & Burke.

He also goes on rant about FA's wanting to play with Luka

https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2020/1...cess-questions

It’s a good thing the Mavericks pulled all this off, because free agency was another lackluster slog. Here is where everyone yells at me that the Mavericks only had the MLE, so there wasn’t much they could do. That is true, and I agree! I wasn’t expecting much from the Mavericks free agency this offseason, but I was hoping for a new acquisition with the MLE. Instead the Mavericks used it for bringing back two bench players, one in Cauley-Stein who might be out of the rotation by January when Porzingis returns. I am glad the Mavericks ended up spending their money, because that money spent is far more valuable than not, if nothing else for contracts that can be used to grease trades. What really grinds me are the reports about the Mavericks chasing Marc Gasol, who then went to the Lakers once the Lakers opened up their cap space and losing out on Jae Crowder, who went to Phoenix for the same amount of money the Mavericks could afford, although we don’t know how many years the Mavericks dangled. There weren’t a ton of options with the MLE, but here are some additional players aside from Gasol and Crowder that could have fit that slot and helped next season: Derrick Jones Jr., Serge Ibaka, Tristan Thompson, De’Anthony Melton (RFA), JaMychal Green, Aron Baynes, Justin Holiday, Kris Dunn, Garrett Temple, Maurice Harkless, Patrick Patterson, and Harry Giles.

[KillerLeft]

He’s underselling the TWO extra years of control they get with Terry by dipping into the MLE for him, too. Good players (which he hopefully will be) on rookie contracts are GOLD. They did the same thing with Brunson.