06-18-2021, 08:08 AM
(06-18-2021, 07:27 AM)DanSchwartzgan Wrote: A few random thoughts...
No wonder tea leaf reading has been so difficult. We've been dealing with two sets of leaves. Like I said Wednesday, literally everything we think we know about preferences and relationships and the basis upon which decisions are made (based on history) are all out the window now. Literally anything could happen from a personnel standpoint this summer. I think we can stop with the posts about Duffy clients coming here. The Duffy relationship with Mark has always been poor. It was the Duffy relationship with Donnie that overcame the history with Cuban. I suspect Duffy takes a wait and see attitude rather than pushing any more of his guys this direction (its not like the JRich thing turned out like he hoped).
To me it sounds like the main problem was between Carlisle and Duffy. Rondo, Collison, Richardson and Doncic were all acquired by Cuban (and Donnie) and ended up having huge problems with Carlisle. It´s almost like every time Carlisle doesn´t approve of a decision, he´ll punish the poor player for it. I don´t want Rondo. I don´t want raw rookies.
Therefore it´s plausible Duffy tried to keep his clients away from the Mavs in free agency, because Carlisle killed the value of so many of his clients. Who knows how many other agents felt the same way about Carlisle´s behaviour and people skills.
In retrospect, we probably had no shot at Lavine in free agency as long as Carlisle was here. Now it may be different. Obviously it would still depend on the new GM/headcoach, but I feel the biggest obstacle has been removed.