MAVERICKS 139, PELICANS 107

[mvossman]

Sometimes you need to take steps backwards to move forwards.  I guess it all depends on what side of the fence you land on if you think a core of KP/Luka can be a championship team.  I don't think they are but even if you do, this team has a lot of building to do around them to make this a championship roster.  That's gambling way too much on KP who only plays in ~60% of his games.

I don't disagree with occasionally stepping back, but think that needed to happen before they ran out of any cap advantage for dumping him.  I'm struggling to see what long term purpose it would serve now.

As for contending, I'm not sure they could not have already put a quasi contender out there.  A Brogdon, FVV or Ball would have made a big difference.  Hell if they simply got Dragic a couple years ago instead of Delon, they probably don't make that disastrous JRich trade.  Who knows where this team goes last year with Dragic and Curry.