(06-22-2021, 12:02 AM)ItsGoTime Wrote: While I agree that the buck stops with Cuban and he has his hands in pretty much everything, the overwhelming blame you seem to be laying at his feet is almost impossible.
It hasn’t been Cuban sitting in his office on trade machines figuring things out then barking orders and exact details to his loyal underlings.
I certainly am not saying that Cuban personally dictated every task to everyone at every point. As I said before, he used the input of others, just like all GMs do. But he's calling the shots, and setting the general direction and limits in what they are doing (or even TRYING), and since every decision is interconnected with the rest (given the nature of the cap and the limits it imposes), his fingerprints have been left on everything.
Beyond that, there's this: a GM can't say "It's not my fault" when he is the one hiring, firing, deciding what they will do (based on his own limits of ability), what helpers he has on each project, creates their direction and limits (based on his own limits of ability), and then the results continue to be spotty at best. Do you think the idiocy of Bob trying to be the coach, to dictate things to Rick in games, and even tell Luka what to do, was without Cuban's sign-off? Or Bob getting to overrule scouts and Donnie and others to draft Green over S Bey? Of course not. And who do you think Bob and the rest (and before the current guys, Rosas) have been answering to - to Donnie? C'mon, of course not, it all flows through Cuban.
Cuban thinks he can do it better than the rest of the league, he runs his team with whatever whims suit him at the moment, and feels he has had no need for someone better than him to be the real GM, so they live with being limited by his weaknesses.
Plan Powder flowed from that. It was the approach that "we can't figure out anything good we can do to make a difference this yeat, so let's do things that, if they are bad, won't hurt us later - and then come back next year and hope for better." It was all defensive, because they couldn't spot the unrecognized talent and negotiate for them at bargain prices, so they just tried to do as little as possible. I think they tossed $15-$20M in potential spending room in the dumper in a recent summer because they had no idea how to get value for it. I think it was the disaster summer of having max room for Kemba, whiffing completely there, and then all they can land is Delon. That's some really bad planning, evaluating and negotiating.
I don't think he's learned, and I think we'll see some guy hired who will be an up-and-comer who can learn on the job, with Cuban's guidance. He'll supposedly be creating his own expert GM. So to speak. While the clock is ticking down rapidly on Luka. I sure hope I'm wrong on this part - I know I'm not wrong on the rest.