IZTOK DIAGNOSES DECLINE OF MAVS OFFENSE

[michaeltex]

DallasMaverick
Do the best-structured organizations always yield the best results? No.  Do the smartest people always make the best decisions?  No.  Sometimes, it's pure, blind luck, like in A Random Walk down Wall Street.  Sometimes the complexity of relationships and personalities can't be quantified.  If it could, we'd reduce winning to a simple set of steps, a nice formula that yields repeatable results.  Life isn't like that.

The above rationalization could be used to minimize the need for expertise in any situation.  To be sure, dart boards have a bulls eye that CAN be hit on the first throw.  My amateurish view of the Nico hire is that it was heavily weighted toward improving the culture, while ignoring or minimizing expertise, experience, track record, scouting, X's and O's, etc. Hopefully, next time the pendulum swings, it will be a shorter radius.

My take is that this is a team effort and Nico is not an island. 

As GM he should be tasked with evaluating and leading a team to effectively address all of the major functions of team management like Cap Space, Player Performance, Player Development, Talent Identification and Acquisition, Backoffice Staffing, etc. To expect him, as an individual, to exhibit top performance skills in these areas is unrealistic, as it would be for any GM candidate. Sure, Nico will get credit or criticism according to results, but his main contribution should be to insuring those responsible for a subject area are skilled and empowered. If an area is underperforming (e.g., Draft evaluations) then the requirements for improving results are his responsibility to address. 

Outside of coaching staff moves, I don't hear much about team staffing changes, so I don't know if anything has been done internally or if it's just swapping Nico's name for Donnie's on the door and business as usual. But I bet most here don't know much about this area either.