Mavs have a leadership problem | Cuban and Harlabob argue on Twitter

[Kammrath]

I think this is a HUGE issue and have been posting about it for a year.

Some posts from me on the subject:


From Dec 29, 2020...

1) Luka is not yet the leader he should be.

2) I think the Mavs purposely moved on from JJB to create a leadership vacuum that they are challenging Luka to fill.

Luka is going to have some growing pains as he learns to lead, but he is going to learn by doing it. I think the Mavs are purposely saying, "This is your team. Lead. Step up. It has to be you."

From Jan 23, 2021...

RC is actually giving Luka a ton of freedom to grow into the leader and on-court coach for this team. I think he wants Luka to be what Kidd was for the championship team. I think Luka is not ready for that yet, or maybe it is better to say Luka is struggling in taking on that burden so far. I don't think Luka is the leader he needs to be yet for this team, and my read is that for better or worse RC is choosing to step aside and give him the room to work that out for himself (I think JJB moving on was purposeful by the Mavs to create a leadership vacuum that Luka HAD to fill).

In this game I would like to have seen Luka step up his own energy and get in the faces of his guys when the Rockets players came out much hungrier than them. Luka spends too much time talking to the refs when he should be encouraging and getting his own guys to step up with more energy. Luka cannot control the refs, but he can control his response to them, his energy on the court, and his encouragement and leadership of his team. That needs to be his on-court focus, ignore those blind fools in stripes.

Long story, short, I think the Mavs have a team leadership issue. RC is creating the space and environment for Luka to be that and Luka is still young and immature and not performing well at his leadership role yet. I am confident he will grow and get there in the coming years, but I think his failure to be the leader he needs to be is the overall issue with this team (greater than the talent holes IMO) from my humble and limited perspective.

On Feb 2, 2021...

I have been beating the "leadership" drum for awhile as maybe the most central issue on the team and that Luka hasn't been able to fill that void as the Mavs and as RC have been asking.

It might stem some from the locker room issues during Luka's rookie campaign with DAJ and Wes, etc. I think Luka manifests very naturally some incredible "alpha dog" traits on the court but I think he does not channel those properly as a alpha leader should, especially off the court or during timeouts. I assume this created some of the weirdness that made the DAJ/Wes drama. I think the Mavs want EVERY player that ever walks into their organization moving forward to know that this is LUKA'S team, no ifs, ands, or buts. But for that to work they need Luka to stop acting like a child and start being a man who is going to lead the team. I think the Mavs think that the only way Luka is going to mature the way he needs to is if he bears the weight and consequences of his leadership (no more coddling or enabling him). They might be purposely allowing him to fail so that he will mature to what they know he needs to be. RC might in a sense be NOT saving this team from this losing streak, giving Luka room to step up and say enough is enough.

For the record, I think giving Luka the leadership responsibility was the right choice from my very limited perspective. I believe very strongly in growth through tribulation and am very grateful they aren't going to let Luka be a "child" for the next 4-5 years. As some Slovenian posters have observed, he is basically a spoiled rich kid who comes from a TON of privilege (which is unlike MANY NBA players) and I think the Mavs are approaching Luka with that in mind.