05-20-2024, 09:02 PM
(05-20-2024, 05:11 PM)OBX Maverick Wrote: Nellie & Donnie struck gold in the draft with two generational players in Dirk and Luka. Count Brunson in there, too. Otherwise their draft record was pretty abysmal with a few other exceptions. I will give them credit, however, for making a few good trades which really boosted the franchise.
But what Niko is doing is phenonemal. I was watching a national broadcast the other day (and typically I could care less what those talking heads have to say), but I think it was Michael Wilbon who put it perfectly…..after the loss of Brunson, the picks given up in the Kyrie trade, the draft “tank-gate”, and the Grant Williams miss, Niko otherwise threaded the needle perfectly with the draft of DL3, the signings of DJJ and Exum, and then the trades for PJW and DG. There was literally no room for error for the Mavs to contend this year and beyond, and he succeeded.
Nellie & Donnie struck gold twice and it should have been 3 times (well documented that Cuban stopped Donnie from drafting Giannis). Who knows what other things were screwed up by Cuban meddling, including trading a lot of our picks. Most of the picks were late first rounders as well.
Nico first two years here were a disaster. The list is long of terrible moves, the worst being not offering Brunson an extension. I mostly blame Cuban for this. Why bring in a guy with no FO experience to run the show? The disaster of last season may have been enough for Cuban to both bring in somebody with actual legit FO experience (Lindsey) and back away a little bit. I'm hesitant to say they threaded the needle perfectly though. Williams was a miss and they were saved from themselves on Kuz.