NEWS: Dirk Joining the Mavs Front Office as a Special Advisor

[jesusshuttlesworth82]

I resent the lumping in of Donnie and RC a little. Two, different people. 

The rest of your post is thoughtful, and I don't have any issue with anyone who CHOOSES to be more optimistic about the situation, only I think the notion that you have about how it seems like the results we've seen are directly correlated to Cuban doing what those two guys want is wishful thinking. I do not see evidence of it. 

All of the info we've learned over the past days, and even other nuggets from the past decade (including an article by McMahon, who you are now trusting as 100% plugged in, about the Parsons situation) points to the idea that from year to year, it is unpredictable who Cuban will listen to. It seems to change every couple of seasons, by MULTIPLE accounts from multiple points along the timeline. We're talking about a guy who let Chandler Parsons be the main voice in roster construction for a while. That happened. 

Now, that can absolutely be interpreted as a situation wherein there has not been a strong/competent enough voice to which he can turn consistently. I'll grant you that. 

But, it can ALSO be interpreted, rather easily, as an indication that he just doesn't understand the type of structure people need in an organization like this to do their jobs with HONESTY and CONFIDENCE. When people are constantly trying to figure out how to maneuver politically in order to keep their jobs, or gain additional power, they are not focused on BUILDING A WINNING BASKETBALL TEAM. 

Likewise, I have often wondered, not just recently, about whether or not building a winning team is more important to Cuban than the celebrity he has been gaining and enjoying since buying the team. For me, that's a problem. Not that the bad answer might be true, but that it's even a question worth pondering. That's a VERY Jerry Jones conversation, and it absolutely applies here, too. 

I have no problem whatsoever with Nelson going. I think the organization will lose SOME good things that we might not realize he brought, but he's not some indispensable genius. Carlisle IS an indispensable genius, and convincing him to stay here as long as he did is one of the better things Cuban and/or Donnie have accomplished, imo. But, even losing him is fine, IF the TOP of the organization gets fixed. 

What's baffling to me is that just one day later, I can already see evidence in certain posts that no matter who gets hired as GM or coach, no matter what Cuban says in his next interview, people will trick themselves into believing these changes are positive. They MIGHT be positive, but what we know NOW is that for the past 48 hours our team has been the laughing stock of the NBA. I'm sorry, but that's just not the start of the kind of change I was hoping for. Connecting dots to form a pre-conceived picture doesn't interest me. I just think there's a shit ton of that going on here today.