We love our boys in blue!

[omahen]

man, what a breath of fresh air

I wonder, do your bosses, customers or whoever you work with in your professional life have such low expecations from you?

To boss: I plan to do my work by tomorrow. In reality you do it a week later, not deliver on schedule and you get away with - I did try my best, really did.

[Scott41theMavs]

You don't get to live life that way. You can't peer into the future and find out whether a trade is worth it down the road.

But it does work exactly that way. These guys in FO are paid huge money to take the right decisions and maximize value.

While trading Barnes might have been the right decision, failure to capitalize on that was a failure which puts a question mark on whether the decision was correct in the first place.

We did go after Kemba. If that had worked out it would be a different story. Just because they could not close the deal you cannot say the plan was bad. If they had made absolutely no attempt to do anything with that money, then yes one can blame them. One can also blame them for not having a good plan B when Kemba spurned them. But the HB trade itself would have looked great if Kemba took the offer they gave him.

They had all kinds of options after Kemba - they could have split the $11 mil in caproom they had left on, say, two of the guys they were targeting this TDL - RHJ and Burks? Could have wrapped those guys up for $5 mil a year easily. Think about how much better our roster would be - and our trading options - had we done that. But noooooooooo. I'm wondering if there aren't some sort of issues between the MBT and a handful of the agents. It made no sense for those players not to come knocking for the Mavs' cap money. They and their agents must not have liked something about the team, or the Mavs shooed them off, moronically. If the MBT could make nicey-nice with Duffy, then surely they can patch those relationships up as well.

[omahen]

You want to go on record to say that the Mavs have no ability to make moves going forward?

Of course not. But it will be definitely more difficult. They just lost 20 million of workable salaries, while basically staying a little over the cap. All outgoing salaries in any trade will be valuable role players instead of salary fillers or a combination of both.

[fifteenth]

I wonder, do your bosses, customers or whoever you work with in your professional life have such low expecations from you?

To boss: I plan to do my work by tomorrow. In reality you do it a week later, not deliver on schedule and you get away with - I did try my best, really did.

Production type work, which you describe above, is not the same thing as making deals. In deal making you put in the work ahead of time, and sometimes when you get to the deadline the correct decision is to say "no". So bad analogy. 

But to tweak the analogy, IF I did business development or recruiting at my job (which I don't, I'm technical), and I landed either clients or new hires on the magnitude of Luka and KP in a calendar year, and followed that up by placing a new, hard working coachable team around them, and helped the company to position it's assets so that it could add even more talent over the next couple of years, then I'd get a massive promotion and raise.

[Hypermav]

I haven't seen a move yet that would have moved the needle for Dallas in any way outside of Covington. And he's just a role player. So, I would have stayed put as well.

[fifteenth]

They had all kinds of options after Kemba - they could have split the $11 mil in caproom they had left on, say, two of the guys they were targeting this TDL - RHJ and Burks? Could have wrapped those guys up for $5 mil a year easily. Think about how much better our roster would be - and our trading options - had we done that. But noooooooooo. I'm wondering if there aren't some sort of issues between the MBT and a handful of the agents. It made no sense for those players not to come knocking for the Mavs' cap money. They and their agents must not have liked something about the team, or the Mavs shooed them off, moronically. If the MBT could make nicey-nice with Duffy, then surely they can patch those relationships up as well.

Scott, you judge them solely on what you think they should have done without making any attempt at understanding what they did in relationship to their own plans. But what you think they should have done, or what I think they should have done, is not what they think they should do.

[Jym]

You want to go on record to say that the Mavs have no ability to make moves going forward?

Of course not. But it will be definitely more difficult. They just lost 20 million of workable salaries, while basically staying a little over the cap. All outgoing salaries in any trade will be valuable role players instead of salary fillers or a combination of both.

Yeah it is what it is 
I'm glad we didnt commit long term money to Wiggins or even Iggy 
I just dont see us doing anything major going into 2021 now. 
Hopefully we'll use that GS pick to move up a few slots. We dont need 2 young rookies 
Then find a useful bench guy on a one year MLE deal. Worse things could happen

[Hypermav]

My only disappointment is we didn't add another unicorn or all star starter.  I'm spoiled.

[omahen]

But to tweak the analogy, IF I did business development or recruiting at my job (which I don't, I'm technical), and I landed either clients or new hires on the magnitude of Luka and KP in a calendar year, and followed that up by placing a new, hard working coachable team around them, and helped the company to position it's assets so that it could add even more talent over the next couple of years, then I'd get a massive promotion and raise

Well, first of all, you didn't get your fat new clients for free. You paid quite a lot of your future flexibility for them. Still, great move.

and helped the company to position it's assets so that it could add even more talent over the next couple of years

Now this is exactly what you failed to do. It was your job to add even more talent and you failed to do it. Yes, you get a nice hefty bonus in 2018/2019 season for Luka/KP. 2019/2020 season was bad and we, your employers, are wondering if you are still really that motivated to do your job or if their is another issue with you. Because you failed 2019/2020 badly, especially comparing with previous year. You didn't add talent and your company has worse position to add more talent next season, because you didn't create it by gathering assets.

[fifteenth]

Well, first of all, you didn't get your fat new clients for free. You paid quite a lot of your future flexibility for them. Still, great move.

Leaving the analogy, Luka and KP actually create flexibility in the sense that there should be players wanting to come here because of Luka and KP.

[Scott41theMavs]

Scott, you judge them solely on what you think they should have done without making any attempt at understanding what they did in relationship to their own plans. But what you think they should have done, or what I think they should have done, is not what they think they should do.

What is their plan? Judging on today, it's "Plan Sandbag" - they are short a wing (by their own admission) and possibly a center (if WCS doesn't work out the rest of the way) from having a full competitive 10-man lineup for the rest of the season and the playoffs. What value is there to Luka and the boys playing their first playoffs with a hand tied behind their back? I don't get it.

Longterm, the roster currently consists of a budding superstar (Luka), a very good #2 star who can hopefully be made to mesh well with that superstar, and six players (THJ, DFS, Maxi, Curry, Wright, and Brunson) who play at the level of the 5th-best player on the championship-contending team or so, with only one having significant upside at one day being more highly rated than that (Brunson), and that's still doubtful in that case. The Mavs will, at some point, need to finish their roster by adding guy number 3 and guy number 4, ideally while keeping a fair number of that supporting crew. Not using the TPE nor Lee gives them some de facto non-existent cap space - it's less than the full MLE. There's no advantage to it, no benefit. Whereas using those tools would have 1) allowed them to go into the playoffs this year with a finished team, for a far more realistic and less-discouraging learning experience, and 2) far more importantly, would have given them additional trade assets for the acquisition of that #3 or #4 guy.

I really don't see how what we've seen here can conceivably be seen as a plan rather than cluelessness. Perhaps I'm wrong and we'll trade for Aaron Gordon or someone better on draft day. Feel free to rub it my face if that happens. If we go into 2020-2021 without that third or fourth guy, well, Giannis is far more likely not coming here than coming here in 2021, and I for one would take it for granted that the doomsday clock on Luka's trade me ultimatum will have started to tick.

[fifteenth]

What is their plan? Judging on today, it's "Plan Sandbag" - they are short a wing (by their own admission) and possibly a center (if WCS doesn't work out the rest of the way) from having a full competitive 10-man lineup for the rest of the season and the playoffs. What value is there to Luka and the boys playing their first playoffs with a hand tied behind their back? I don't get it.

Longterm, the roster currently consists of a budding superstar (Luka), a very good #2 star who can hopefully be made to mesh well with that superstar, and six players (THJ, DFS, Maxi, Curry, Wright, and Brunson) who play at the level of the 5th-best player on the championship-contending team or so, with only one having significant upside at one day being more highly rated than that (Brunson), and that's still doubtful in that case. The Mavs will, at some point, need to finish their roster by adding guy number 3 and guy number 4, ideally while keeping a fair number of that supporting crew. Not using the TPE nor Lee gives them some de facto non-existent cap space - it's less than the full MLE. There's no advantage to it, no benefit. Whereas using those tools would have 1) allowed them to go into the playoffs this year with a finished team, for a far more realistic and less-discouraging learning experience, and 2) far more importantly, would have given them additional trade assets for the acquisition of that #3 or #4 guy.

I really don't see how what we've seen here can conceivably be seen as a plan rather than cluelessness. Perhaps I'm wrong and we'll trade for Aaron Gordon or someone better on draft day. Feel free to rub it my face if that happens. If we go into 2020-2021 without that third or fourth guy, well, Giannis is far more likely not coming here than coming here in 2021, and I for one would take it for granted that the doomsday clock on Luka's trade me ultimatum will have started to tick.

I have no desire to rub anything in your face. That last time I kidded with you about eating crow, prior to our little dust up, I mistakenly thought you would think it was funny because you've admirably poked fun at yourself for eating crow in the past. So I thought I was joining you in a joke you'd already made. My bad for that though.

Regarding the Mavs plan, we'll see. I think it's there but maybe they'll prove me wrong. In my mind all the lack of trade means is that they didn't find a trade that fit their plan.

[omahen]

Luka and KP actually create flexibility in the sense that there should be players wanting to come here because of Luka and KP.

All 2018/2019. Doesn't change the fact 2019/2020 was bad year

[StepBackJay]

Trade deadline blue balls and no relief

[fifteenth]

All 2018/2019. Doesn't change the fact 2019/2020 was bad year

here's where I just agree to disagree, even thought I don't like that phrase

[StepBackJay]

Sad we couldn't at least get another GSW player for a 2nd round pick. Buyout market it is. My issue is we have Boban that doesn't play and Wright that takes minutes away from similarly productive Brunson when we need a wing. Mavs knew they needed a wing, they said they did and they targeted Green. I think they shouldn't have let Green hold them hostage which might be a big reason why we are in this predicament.

I still can't believe we sign Boban for 2 years as like a 4th big when we could have had Danuel House or some of these other cheaper wings to at least try to compete for the rotation. I just don't get their team building strategy last summer. Curry made sense because Mavs wanted shooting and he was a good value for a shooter with history here. These other moves made no sense.

[Cark Muban]

Lol this phrase can't be used in jest anymore when we traded away guy we labeled as our future in the middle of a game

[Scott41theMavs]

All 2018/2019. Doesn't change the fact 2019/2020 was bad year

here's where I just agree to disagree, even thought I don't like that phrase

I can't speak for Omahen, but what's frustrating to me is that I'm baffled that someone who cares as much about the Mavs as you do and is as astute in his fandom as you are doesn't see how poor the 2019-20 front office decisions and/or execution has been since the KP trade. I get upset about it because you're worthwhile enough as a poster and fan that your opinion matters, and it's like an itch that can't be scratched when it's an opinion that doesn't seem to fit with the realities before us.

[ClutchDirk]

I wonder if Knicks fans would complain if they got Luka in a trade for trash and 2 high 1sts but their team didn't hit a home run in the off-season and didn't make a trade at the TDL for role players...


They would give their firstborn IMO to be us right now...

[Scott41theMavs]

Sad we couldn't at least get another GSW player for a 2nd round pick. Buyout market it is. My issue is we have Boban that doesn't play and Wright that takes minutes away from similarly productive Brunson when we need a wing. Mavs knew they needed a wing, they said they did and they targeted Green. I think they shouldn't have let Green hold them hostage which might be a big reason why we are in this predicament.

I still can't believe we sign Boban for 2 years as like a 4th big when we could have had Danuel House or some of these other cheaper wings to at least try to compete for the rotation. I just don't get their team building strategy last summer. Curry made sense because Mavs wanted shooting and he was a good value for a shooter with history here. These other moves made no sense.

Pretty sure that we went into the 2019 free agency presuming that THJ was a placeholder who would ride pine this year and be traded with picks this summer. Wright made some sense in that scenario. THJ changed the narrative. Now, we have a badly imbalanced team in which five of our eight or nine best players - Luka, THJ, Curry, Wright, and Brunson - are guards, two or three (KP, Maxi, possibly Powell/WCS) are bigs, and only one (DFS) is a wing.

I just can't fathom that they chose to go into the playoffs with an unfinished team.