2021-2022 MAVS NEWS: 4th in West | WCF loss [ARCHIVED]

[F Gump]

https://twitter.com/washedmavsblog/statu...24614?s=21

This is important, and speaks to a point I've been making for a long time.

For quite some time, the Mavs have been so-so in some very important areas, namely evaluation, development, recruiting, negotiating, and cap management.

The first part of the solution was to admit the weaknesses. The second was to address them, by either becoming the best, or hiring the best. Cuban has seemed intent on proving he could do it himself, even though the results have said he can't keep up.

Fortunately, from what he has been saying and now doing, Nico doesn't have the same ego problem, and is hiring the top skills that are needed.

Cap creativity - knowing ways to manipulate the cap as needed - is vital, and the Mavs have had little of that since the 2011 CBA ended their "just be willing to spend more than the next guy" as a sustainable talent-gathering strategy. Since then, they have been limited to Roster-Building 101 cap ideas - clear cap room by waiting until contracts expire, and then see if you can find a free agent to fit.

That lack of creativity and understanding of the possibilities, as Cuban thought he already knew it all, has been a significant anchor on this team for a decade. It led to the roster tear-down after the title, as they failed to envision the MANY ways to sustain talent and keep key players while also being able to move on from players AFTER their skills started to erode. Later it cost them Giannis. Lots of moves have been very crude - pay whatever it takes (and overpay) if you want a guy, and pay to get someone else to take him if he doesn't fit perfectly. Players at the end of a contract who they didn't intend to re-sign have not been used to extract picks and talent from other teams. Even as recently as a month ago, there was no comprehension that it would have been easy to extract a pick from some team who wanted to hire RC, after he quit. The asset management has been basic, to say the least.

There are still other areas in which super skills are still needed, and not apparently present, in solving those shortcomings. But this is a start, and a really good sign that Nico has no problem in getting top skills where they are needed.