06-17-2021, 01:09 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-17-2021, 01:22 PM by HanspardsShowerVoice.)
The process is ugly, but the ultimate result is good. If none of this had become public and the Mavs just fired Donnie this week out of nowhere, I think it would have been surprising (just because Donnie had been here for so long), but I don't think anyone would read much into it as far as the overall state of the franchise. In fact, most people would see it as probably a positive sign for the state of the franchise. Donnie deserved to be fired for his job performance the past 3 years. The KP disaster, the 2019 free agency debacle, the JRich/Seth trade, etc. Not adding any Top 50 players to add to your Superstar in over 3 seasons would get most NBA General Managers fired.
Mostly the ugliness comes down to the fact that this was done in a public manner thanks to The Atlantic article in which Donnie and/or his proxies took a behind the scenes war public. It was time to move on from Donnie purely for basketball reasons, but now that he's going scorched earth on the way out the door and waging public media wars shows that it was time for non-basketball reasons too. It's clear from this later article that Cuban was already getting ready to move on from Donnie regardless of what happened this week (ie Finley getting more and more responsibilities as the season went along). If Donnie had earned Cuban's complete confidence the "analytics guy" wouldn't have had the opportunity to usurp him. The story here is much more about Donnie's failings and losing Cuban's confidence than Voulgaris ascent. If Cuban was that enthralled with Voulgaris he could have extended his contract at any time, and even now the Mavs are non-committal about keeping him. Doesn't seem like Cuban is that infatuated with Voulgaris.
It's not the Dirk Era anymore and we need to move on. It's the Luka era. We need the Luka Era General Manager, and very probably the Luka Era Head Coach won't be far behind.
Mostly the ugliness comes down to the fact that this was done in a public manner thanks to The Atlantic article in which Donnie and/or his proxies took a behind the scenes war public. It was time to move on from Donnie purely for basketball reasons, but now that he's going scorched earth on the way out the door and waging public media wars shows that it was time for non-basketball reasons too. It's clear from this later article that Cuban was already getting ready to move on from Donnie regardless of what happened this week (ie Finley getting more and more responsibilities as the season went along). If Donnie had earned Cuban's complete confidence the "analytics guy" wouldn't have had the opportunity to usurp him. The story here is much more about Donnie's failings and losing Cuban's confidence than Voulgaris ascent. If Cuban was that enthralled with Voulgaris he could have extended his contract at any time, and even now the Mavs are non-committal about keeping him. Doesn't seem like Cuban is that infatuated with Voulgaris.
It's not the Dirk Era anymore and we need to move on. It's the Luka era. We need the Luka Era General Manager, and very probably the Luka Era Head Coach won't be far behind.