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[StrandedOnBeauboisHill]

I hate to dig this up again as the volume of 'Brunson-I told you so' posts is down considerably (but this is the NY game Saturday).  I don't trust anything anyone has said in this episode.  Not Nico, Not Cuban and Not Rick Brunson.  But, I've always thought that by the time the summer came around it was too late.

I think the mistakes were not trading him at the TDL and presuming NY would need to deal with Dallas to get to the number they needed to hit.  Brunson got a big pay day, family and a starring role in NY.  Two of those things were not available in Dallas and none of us truly know what was and wasn't offered here financially.

This board definitely understates the fact that Brunson was leaving and there most likely was not anything that the Mavs could have overpaid to prevent it from happening.  Don't get me wrong, Cuban has been cheap and Brunson was a mismanaged asset but he was mismanaged by the fact that they let him hit UFA.  I would argue that the summer before the season started may have been a little too late.  There was no reason for him to sign a 55M dollar extension if he already had a promise (I'm assuming at least) from his dad's former agent that he could get him at least that much and a starting role if he let free agency come.

When I look back on Brunson, aside from structuring his deal in a way that allowed all this to happen, the one person I actually get most upset with is...Robert Sarver.  He made a decision during the 2020 draft that I feel two franchises should be upset about.  With all the reporting that Brunson was getting paired with that pick to move up for Haliburton combined with the fact that Jalen Smith would have absolutely been waiting for the Suns at pick 19...it's honestly the biggest what if scenario I play through my head around the Luka era.  The Suns would have been much better off taking a flier on Brunson while still getting the guy they wanted and paying him less while they were at it.  I'm sure Brunson finding out how much he was being shopped probably made the tampering a lot easier over the next two years as well.