(06-18-2021, 01:49 PM)CountDirkula Wrote: I will give my 2 cents. I think Luka's contract extension brought all of this to light. It turned the heat up on how the Mavericks plan to operate in the future. In my opinion the Maverick's offense relies to much on Luka. It's like spread the floor and let Luka operate. Since Luka is one helluva player this works quite often, but in a 7 game playoff, teams find a way to lower the effectiveness of this. It does not take a coaching genius to just hand the ball to Luka. Having no backup strategy and game plan shows a deficiency in either the makeup of the team (the GM's fault), or the coaching of the team (Rick Carlisle's fault). Porzingis seemed to lose his effectiveness and that points to Carlisle and Luka ignoring him. I think he was not aggressive and maybe he was even afraid of getting hurt, but more than anything else, I think his lack of results really spelled the demise of Donnie Nelson and Rick Carlisle. I am wondering if the players stopped listening to the coach. Most NBA coaches will tell you that a head coaching job has an expiration date. You would hope that Luka and Porzingis would value Dirk's opinion on things. He is a former MVP who has a track record and special insight into how the Mavs have operated the last 20 years. I hope Dirk listens to them and the Mavs can pick a highly qualified GM and coach.
We've been saying this since Luka's rookie season. Carlisle has little to no control on this team. DAJ/Wes/DSJ trio tried to publicly block Luka from the throne but luckily Cuban had the vision to see Luka was something special and shipped those traitors out of town asap.
The trick now is balancing Luka's power within the system but again Carlisle had no idea how to reel him in on/off the floor as you alluded to. Listening to the Lowe Post podcast, there are damning things said about Carlisle and that was before the news of his resignation (fired behind the scenes). I am more confident than ever Cuban made the right move and real MFFL's should be applauding his gusto.
A caveat also mentioned on the Lowe Post podcast is that Luka was allowed to do whatever the **** he wanted in Carlisle's "system." Is that Harden/Westbrook style of play what he wants or he is more open to a more evenly distributed type of system? If it is the former, maybe the problem is Luka but we won't know until the new regime steps in.
Lastly, I don't think Dirk would have jumped in to help if the situation was as much of a dumpster fire as some "fans" think it has become. IMO, Dirk sees the potential of something special brewing and wants to be a part of it. Remember, he watches the Mavs games too; if armchair GM's like us can see the problem with Carlisle/Donnie, he sees it too!