HALLELUKA: Luka Clinches All-NBA 1st team. 4th in 5 years

[KillerLeft]

So true. Thank you.

We can't know what (if anything) would have changed the outcome. As you note, it's disingenuous to say how Brunson would have proceeded, if a much more aggressive financial offer had come from the Mavs. Anyone saying they KNOW is just pretending they know more than they do.

I do recall reports early in the off-season that the Mavs had put $80M-$90M on the table, and at that point they were confident they had Brunson wrapped up. Obviously NY came over the top with numbers that blew that offer out of the water - and there's plenty of indication that the Mavs didn't reciprocate. We don't know, of course - but the PUBLIC posture is that they were waiting and assuming they had a last in-person chance to negotiate, and then didn't get it.

The Mavs' whine that Brunson didn't meet with them again, doesn't mean he wasn't open to a much bigger offer yet. No one on the Mavs has said they ever offered him as much or more than NY did. And if they wanted to offer more, yet couldn't figure out a way to get such a number to him without him having to come see them to get it, then (a) shame on them for being such dolts, where they can't even figure out how to make an offer (and they need a new FO that's competent), but (b) I don't really believe that spin by the Mavs anyhow.

Agreed. 

My (speculative) take, based on my read of everything we heard at the time is that: 

A) The Mavs wanted him back at VanVleet money, but they would've rather worked a sign and trade than go over that amount and viewed that as their fallback.

B) They didn't believe NY could pull off creating the necessary cap space to avoid working with them. NY showed them how easily that's done for a front office of average competence.

C) Once it became clear (starting on draft night) that NY would be able to carve out space, the Mavs had loads of time to reflect on what the NY offer was likely to be and whether they wanted to compete with that, financially. They ultimately chose not to do so, probably hoping Brunson would "realize" leaving a WCF team for a little more money was silly. I put "realize" in quotes because I don't think this was a very smart hope on their part. The chief factor in any job offer is remuneration. 

D) Meanwhile, all the stuff about Brunson's childhood connection to his hometown Knicks was very real, as was the recently made relationship with his father and the fact that his former agent and family friend was running the Knicks. I think it's very reasonable to conclude that part of him was really hoping NY's offer would be the best. I do not think it's reasonable to assume he was so enamored with the idea of going "home" that he wouldn't be able to make the best business decision, had the offers been different. He might've been "NY or bust" but he easily might not have felt that way if presented with a max contract, for example. 

E) Once the Mavs saw the writing on the wall with C and D, they reasoned that while Brunson might be worth north of VanVleet money to NY, where he'd be the main engine of the offense, he sadly wasn't worth that large amount (plus luxury tax) here, where he'd always have some positional overlap with Luka. There is some validity to this thinking, but...

F) The Mavs were wrong about point E. Way, way wrong. Not only was Brunson a hugely underrated part of the team's success (he's still being underrated right this second, as I type this), when you're already in the tax and your young superstar's rookie max extension is kicking in the following season, you simply cannot allow your 2nd best player, someone I'm now confident to call the team leader based on the drop-off in hard play and cohesion this year, to walk out of the door for nothing. You have to offer him the most money you possibly can to prevent that nightmare from becoming reality, imo. 

Maybe Brunson leaves anyway. What @"Kammrath" is convinced was the case might have ultimately been the case. But I think most of the people arguing for that would've been mortified if the Mavs had brought Brunson back on a bigger contract than he got in NY, let alone a MAX. I, personally, would not have criticized that, due to the circumstances, so I would've been loud, fast and public in an attempt to make such an offer clear.