12-10-2020, 04:28 PM
(12-08-2020, 10:17 AM)michaeltex Wrote: Driving in this morning and turned on NBA channel on SiriusXM to hear the morning guys (Starting Lineup?) talking with Cuban. Short drive so I didn't hear much, but he commented that the ability to free up cap space next summer with the expirings and TOs was not intentional. They didn't really have a plan powder and that they would have moved on Jones and Richardson regardless, it just turned out to give them (potentially) a lot of cap flexibility next summer.
So you can believe as much or as little of that as you want.
He did say they are excited to play on Christmas day and that Lebron vs Luka was a marquis matchup, but the first game vs PHX is a challenge as well with CP3 there now. He also pointed out that 13 of 16 games are on the road and, while it will be a challenge to manage the covid exposure, it will be a good opportunity for the team to bond going into the remainder of the season. With no crowds, he thinks it may be more of a bubble game and not so much of a home court advantage.
Optimistically, he thinks that a significant portion of the public will be vaccinated, at least those who are willing to get treated will have access to it (personally, I think this is overly optomistic). As a result, he thinks the second half could be wild if the arenas are opened to fans due to pent up frustration with the isolation required by the pandemic.
That's all from this intrepid cub reporter today.
One thing I forgot to mention, but it's significant. Cuban says that the Mav's organization is NOT going to lay anyone off just to save money. Due to the empty arenas, roles may change to handle the current business environment. He expects some natural attrition due to better offers, etc. etc., but he says he has been financially fortunate personally and he doesn't need to make more money. He says releasing an employee in these economic conditions will be a hardship and he is not going to do that just to save some money.
Sorry, I forgot about this before. He sounded sincere to me. Maybe some of us who are closer to the organization will have a different view, but I'm going to give him a big "Hell Yea!" for now.