Now what?

[DevinHarriswillstart]

Originally Posted by mac222b

I would?ve definitely gone over the Knicks offer. Not sure I?d go all the way to 30m. The Knicks deal is descending so I guess we probably could?ve done the same, so it starts at let?s say 29.5 and becomes better as it goes on. If I?m Cuban, I do ANYTHiNG to make sure Luka doesn?t leave. If we kept Brunson with Wood and McGee added we are serious contenders if everything breaks right and we have all picks to trade again soon. Now we need to find a guy who replaces what JB brought instead of basically being a two way larger wing away from complete. Brunson AND Siakam or someone like him, though I maybe prefer a better shooter than Pascal we probably won?t be in a position to be choosy.

Is Brunson the anything to keep Luka from leaving move? I'm not sure. The Knicks treated Brunson like he was Luka, and that's hard to match. And Brunson's defense absolutely killed us vs GS. In fact, I remember that just like I remember his greatness vs the Jazz. So you're committing to your three best players, Luka, Spencer, and Brunson as guys who don't play defense. And it did eventually kill us in the playoffs.

Schroder makes sense because his role wouldn't be as big as Brunson's. I like him a lot off the bench if we can sign him.

[mac222b]

Originally Posted by DevinHarriswillstart

Is Brunson the anything to keep Luka from leaving move? I'm not sure. The Knicks treated Brunson like he was Luka, and that's hard to match. And Brunson's defense absolutely killed us vs GS. In fact, I remember that just like I remember his greatness vs the Jazz. So you're committing to your three best players, Luka, Spencer, and Brunson as guys who don't play defense. And it did eventually kill us in the playoffs.

Schroder makes sense because his role wouldn't be as big as Brunson's. I like him a lot off the bench if we can sign him.

I wasnt seeing Brunson as the coup de grace or anything like that. I think we can still recover, mainly due to Luka. I think we would?ve been better served using our assets to try to find our second best player, preferably a big wing, along with keeping Brunson. So to me we lost our second best player, though you could call DFS that last season with little argument from me, for nothing and created a new hole to fill. We almost NEED our new #2 to be a better creator/ball handler/initiator than someone like Wiggins or OG Anonoby now that Brunson is gone. Instead of applying finishing touches to a contender we created a new problem. Im not saying resigning Brunson makes Luka staying a slam dunk. I think the Mavs losing their second or third best player for nothing, a player who was homegrown, not to mention the way it went down where we are once again left looking clueless or ill prepared, is a bad look. Too many of these situations contribute to a league wide perception of the Mavs franchise (i.e Cuban) as something or someone to be taken slightly less then seriously. And Cuban had no problem overpaying the Harrison Barnes of the world when he was desperate. All that said, maybe Brunson really wanted to be in NY and we really didn?t value him higher than 21.5. Im sure Portland doesnt value Nurkic as a 16 million dollar player. They kept him to make their star happy and to not lose an asset for nothing, while creating another hole on the roster.