03-03-2026, 12:51 PM
(03-03-2026, 12:34 PM)michaeltex Wrote: Historically, the risk factor increases as the draft proceeds, thus the rookie wage scale and only two guaranteed years for FRPs to protect teams from overhyped college "stars". But it's still a crap shoot. Just look at the two guys taken ahead of Luka.
Carlisle was notorious for not playing rookies, I don't know if Nelly was any better. Why spend time and resources on the draft if you're not going to play them anyway? Obviously, Dirk was a win, but even he was a trade for Tractor Traylor during the draft. Imagine how the Mav's history would change if that deal didn't happen. Even so, I wonder if Dirk would have been successful if he didn't have Holger's dedicated summer workouts to polish his game to the point they HAD to play him?
I think a lot of the reason rookies were not played is the Mavs rarely had quality rookies. They generally picked late first round if they had a pick at all. I think Cuban got burned a couple of times in the draft and decided it was not the way to go. He undervalued it for most of his time here. I wouldn't blame the coaching, I think that one is all on Cuban.