07-01-2021, 02:21 PM
(07-01-2021, 09:01 AM)F Gump Wrote: While it doesn't really help to remake the roster at the moment, my belief is that a huge part of the Mavs issues stem from the fact that their franchise's ability in player evaluation and player development has been anemic. And that's probably because Cuban decided early on that he wanted to build a faster way, through trades (players already developed by other teams) rather than by the hard slow work of sifting through prospects, developing an eye for potential, drafting smartly, scouring the GL and end of rosters for overlooked prospects, and then figuring out how to mold that potential into an NBAer.I was reading some stuff on this the last few days. According to the report, teams historically get stars by drafting and developing them or by trading for them. Transfers in free agency make splashes, but are the least common way that stars go from one team to another.
As you note, Cuban decided long ago that he wanted to rely on the free agency route. It would be like him to want to do something counterintuitive. And by all appearances, he is digging in his heels on that approach, hiring Nico, who has some relationships with stars, and Kidd, whom he views as a "relationship guy."
There might be a reason why other teams don't rely on free agency to get stars. Or, it might be that Mark is applying his philosophy that it doesn't matter how many guys he misses out on, as long as hits on someone at some point. That might have been at least logical in years where the team had little talent anyway, but now with Luka, there could be a big cost to just missing out a few more years.
It might be hard to shift to a trade-based philosophy right away, since they don't have the assets to appeal to a team that needs to unload a star and rebuild. He needs to build up a clutch of draft picks and promising young players for that, but it's difficult to switch to that midstream, when they're trying to contend now.
Long story short, I agree that the strategy of depending heavily on free agency to acquire a star is dubious. It has failed for ten years. But, I think they're going all in on it, at least for now.