01-18-2023, 03:10 PM
(01-18-2023, 02:03 PM)DanSchwartzgan Wrote: The effort to trade JB for #10 that summer corresponds to your scenario as well.
That didn't happen in the 2021 summer of the change-over to Nico. In the summer of 2021, when Nico came in, they had no pick and sat out the draft.
What you describe happened in 2020, following JB's 2nd year in the league, when the Mavs had picks.
"I think the other place they got outmaneuvered was the mistaken belief NY would need to deal with Dallas in a S&T."
Good observation. We know for a fact that neither NY nor JB had to deal with Cuban, for either a S&T or to get the deal JB wanted. But if Cuban assumed they did (as it appears), then his whole approach was based on a failure to properly read the cards -- or to properly play the hand he had. So he made it easy for JB to leave, waiting to play hardball and force a better outcome when the others were going on without him.