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Questioning My Emotional Involvement in the Mavs
#1
Maybe it's that my life just reached the 3/4 of a century point, but I've come to some realizations that may curb my future emotional investment into the Mavs:
In moving beyond Nelson/Carlise, Cuban chose as GM someone without the full range of normal skills, a player-friendly guy not up to par in "player evaluations" and other typical GM duties.
  
That's a clear indication Cuban intended to remain the de facto GM.
Cuban chose a coach, not one with a winning pedigree, but someone familiar, with whom he had a personal relationship.
The Mavs are Cuban's toy, his plaything, something he intends to pass on to his kids for them to play with.
Yes, there was 2011, but Mark CHOSE to move on from that group.
I don't feel sorry for Luka.  He's jumpstarted his career like no other before him.  In a couple years he will have to decide how important winning a championship is to him and if he needs to leave Dallas to achieve it.
Hopefully, he'll end up with a GM like Pat Riley who demands he take care of his god-given vessel with proper nutrition and habits.
Mark has simply not set the tone for a winning culture.  
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#2
Happy 75th!

The championship was the best/worst thing to happen.  Of course everyone is happy for Dirk who is probably the nicest and most down-to-earth superstar in our lifetimes, but it also validated Mark who, to put it charitably, is a less than ideal owner.  Luka might drag the franchise to the top of the mountain again, but similar to Dirk, I don't think this franchise can maximize his potential.  More worrisome is that I don't think Mark has the stomach for the money being spent on NBA franchises these days.  Compounding that problem is there are far fewer teams that are run incompetently so you aren't going to be able to take advantage of that incompetence, rather the Mavs are the ones that more often that not are being taken advantage of.  All of the niceties and innovation that Mark brought when he first bought the team have seemingly been surpassed.  

As terrible as it is to say, Luka leaving might be the best thing that could happen to the team.  I don't think Mark would take many lessons should that apocalypse occur but rather he might get bored and sell the team.  Luka seems like he's got a tremendous amount of loyalty in him so I don't think we are close to that day yet but I don't expect anyone to have the patience of Dirk.

I've lived away from Dallas now more than I lived there, but I don't think you can lose the bound you have with a city and their sports teams.  God knows I've tried to walk away from the Cowboys, but Jerry be damned, here I am watching every Sunday/Monday to see what 11 does.
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#3
(12-11-2022, 01:20 AM)WildArkieBoy Wrote: Maybe it's that my life just reached the 3/4 of a century point, but I've come to some realizations that may curb my future emotional investment into the Mavs:
In moving beyond Nelson/Carlise, Cuban chose as GM someone without the full range of normal skills, a player-friendly guy not up to par in "player evaluations" and other typical GM duties.
  
That's a clear indication Cuban intended to remain the de facto GM.
Cuban chose a coach, not one with a winning pedigree, but someone familiar, with whom he had a personal relationship.
The Mavs are Cuban's toy, his plaything, something he intends to pass on to his kids for them to play with.
Yes, there was 2011, but Mark CHOSE to move on from that group.
I don't feel sorry for Luka.  He's jumpstarted his career like no other before him.  In a couple years he will have to decide how important winning a championship is to him and if he needs to leave Dallas to achieve it.
Hopefully, he'll end up with a GM like Pat Riley who demands he take care of his god-given vessel with proper nutrition and habits.
Mark has simply not set the tone for a winning culture.  

Yep!
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#4
My fandom has waned since 2012.  As soon as Cuban broke up the team, and never wanted to compete for a title again with Dirk, then my fandom started cracking.

Throw in Cuban not spending money, not giving a damn about the draft, and basically not really being able to watch sports since they moved away from FSN and I can barely tune in to a game and my fandom is pretty much at an all time low.  I had more fun watching the 90s teams under Heard, Motta, and Jim Cleamons than this sh*tshow.  Jerry Jones is a better owner than Cuban.  Hell, Donald Sterling is a better owner.

And what is sorry, is as great as Luka is, he is about as likable as James Harden with his style of play.  Hold the ball for 20 seconds, then do a step back 3.  And then whine whine whine to the refs about everything.  It's boring AF.  His style is not conducive to winning in the playoffs but no one will tell him to play differently.  LeBron basically kowtowed to Pat Riley and told him that he doesn't run the franchise, etc.....  and LeBron was better for it.  Someone needs to do the same for Luka.  But no one in the Mavs organization will do that.
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#5
(12-11-2022, 02:53 AM)cow Wrote: More worrisome is that I don't think Mark has the stomach for the money being spent on NBA franchises these days.  

Yes, while Ballmer and Lacob/Guber are making personnel decisions oblivious to money, Cuban runs his operation on the comparative "cheap."

(12-11-2022, 12:55 PM)Bayliss Wrote: My fandom has waned since 2012.  As soon as Cuban broke up the team, and never wanted to compete for a title again with Dirk, then my fandom started cracking.

Throw in Cuban not spending money, not giving a damn about the draft, and basically not really being able to watch sports since they moved away from FSN and I can barely tune in to a game and my fandom is pretty much at an all time low.  I had more fun watching the 90s teams under Heard, Motta, and Jim Cleamons than this sh*tshow.  Jerry Jones is a better owner than Cuban.  Hell, Donald Sterling is a better owner.

And what is sorry, is as great as Luka is, he is about as likable as James Harden with his style of play.  Hold the ball for 20 seconds, then do a step back 3.  And then whine whine whine to the refs about everything.  It's boring AF.  His style is not conducive to winning in the playoffs but no one will tell him to play differently.  LeBron basically kowtowed to Pat Riley and told him that he doesn't run the franchise, etc.....  and LeBron was better for it.  Someone needs to do the same for Luka.  But no one in the Mavs organization will do that.

All great points.  For the last 20 years this board and the one before it has agonized over the draft only to have the Mavs totally ignore it as meaningless.
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#6
I quit watching for the most part when they passed on Giannis and then came back with Luka. There’s no Luka if they take Giannis (butterfly effects and all), and I think Luka is a slightly better player, so that worked out ok, but it’s been super frustrating watching this amateur brain trust try to build around him.
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#7
The writing was on the walls for years, but the Brunson-situation last summer was THE turning point for me. They had the best team in a decade but decided to cheap out on it without any path to replacing the guy. Out of all the horrendous contracts they’ve handed out and/or traded for over the years (KP with no injury clauses, THJ, McGee, trade for Bertans) Brunson had to be where they draw the line? Seriously?

Add that to their complete ignorance of asset management, patient roster building and the draft in general and you end up where you’re now. 

I’m just happy I finally pulled the plug and cancelled my league pass subscription this season. Haven’t regretted it one second so far.
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