Luka Dealt to Lakers: Nico Harrison is a Basketball Terrorist

[cow]

That phase happened so quick because the Mavs were good immediately following, and had a finals appearance (and should've had a ring) not just 2 years later.

If the team fell apart after 2004 and had to tank, I think the Nash debacle would've been felt a lot worse. 

The Mavs had ideally the perfect team around Luka and were poised to prove their finals run wasn't a fluke. They never got that chance. And now instead of high level basketball the next 3-4 years we are restarting all over again for seemingly no reason at all.

It's actually worse than no reason at all as it was GM malpractice that's had no ramifications which just exposes our ownership has  sunk to a new low (the fact that I miss Mark Cuban bends my mind).  Lucking into Cooper Flagg might have helped make some of Mavs fandom look past the pain, but the start of the season has probably undone that oversight.  And that doesn't even factor in extended a coach that was Carlisle parting shot to our front office.  Things would certainly look different had Kyrie not gotten hurt, but at this rate, the season will be lost long before he can make a difference.  Being a bottom feeder right now wouldn't be the worst thing with the landscape of the West, but we are really short on draft capital to begin with.  It's a snowball that started with Porzingis and somehow ended with us trading the very dude that this team was built for.  The moves that everyone has made are the type that get rules written to prevent them from happening again.  Even Dirk walked away from the organization which is unbelievable.