ROSTER TALK: Mavs favs for Vogel if no HC job exists. Kyrie handshake deal?

[Chicagojk]

I've said it many times, and it bears repeating ---

Until Cuban hires an EXPERT (and takes himself out of the equation, fully empowering the expert) to handle the player evaluation, negotiation, drafting, development, and all the other roster-building tasks, the Mavs will continue to blunder their way along. It's a GM's league, there are only 30 teams, and the competition has EXPERTS who are actively competing against the Mavs.

The fact that Cuban chose to replace Donnie with a man who has none of those skills, and will be learning on the job while competing against others who are miles ahead and also learning more skills, it was a terrible choice. They needed an expert, and got a kindergartner. While we are disappointed by what's going on, none of these results should be surprising.

They still have no clue how to get players who are two-way talents -- in particular, those who can defend -- so how are they going to fix this? Blind leading the blind.

I so want it to work, but you are probably right.

It is probably not a apples to apples comparison, but look at what Boston did when Stevens took over as GM when Nico took over here.  Boston had all their picks which the Mavs were a little limited.    They had a deeper roster already, but they got off Kemba, took a gamble on Horford, traded for Derrick White and traded for Brogdon.   All three may have weaknesses but they are just good players who fit their system.   Look at the players Dallas has targeted over that same period of time.   I keep waiting for Dallas to make these type of smart moves or calculated gambles but it never comes.  Just more questionable "WTF" moves.

Just looking at some of our recent opponents, some of these guys have been available at certain times for different costs:

Vanderbilt- I was against offering a unprotected first for him, but he was great against us.   Former second round pick in the Jalen draft
Naz Reid- Undrafted two years ago
Nic Batum-  He wanted to stay in LAC but he would have been a really nice piece here
Kyle Anderson- Just a solid player.  SA, Memphis and Minny have all had good runs with him.   Nothing flashy but a skilled big player.

The league is filled with them.  Most won't require first round picks, but you just need to be able to evaluate guys correctly and make smart decision.