[he_gets_bucketsParticipant]

 As a Dallas fan, when I heard the news that DeAndre was going back to the Clippers from a friend whose a Clippers fan, I had mixed emotions. On the one hand, I was pretty shattered after thinking that we’d have such a young and exciting piece on our team for the next few seasons. But the other part of me thinks that this may be a blessing in disguise for our franchise.

Now, let me say now, I don’t think DeAndre is a bad player- quite to the contary, I think he is one of the best centers in the game today. However, I don’t think that he would of put us over the top in the West. Over the years Mark Cuban has admirably tried to lure that big fish free agent- Deron Williams, Dwight Howard, DeAndre. But we have never been able to land that guy who we could put next to Dirk as both a way to get Dirk a winning season to end his career on, and to take the reigns of the franchise going into the post-Dirk era. Now, with DeAndre spurning us, we are left at a cross roads. We have just lost Monta, Brandon Wright, Jae Crowder, our first round pick for this year and Tyson Chandler for 4 months of a disenchated Rajon Rondo- not exactly a great deal from our perspective. But I think this major loss will serve to push us in a direction we needed to go.

2011 was a perfect storm for the Mavs. We had peak Dirk, and he balled out of his mind all year. We had the perfect construction of guys around him, all veterans hungry for an illusive Larry O’Brien trophy, but not bums who couldn’t play anymore. Guys like Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, Tyson Chandler. We coalesced at the perfect time and managed to catch the Heat in the first year of assemblement, and I think that was a big break for us, being able to play them in their first year together was key in us being able to beat them. But we just can’t repeat that same formula anymore. We can’t build around Dirk like we used to, we can’t ask him to play 35+ minutes and give us 25+ points a night, he just isn’t the spring chicken he once was. The last few years we’ve been stuck in the not quite good enough to make playoff noise, but not bad enough to get a lotto pick, and that is the absolute worst kind of limbo to be in as an NBA fan. 

Missing on DJ, losing Monta and Tyson for nothing, I truely hope that this is the final signal for Mark Cuban, by all accounts one of the best owners in pro-sports, to give up on chasing that last hurrah for Dirk. We simply can’t bounce into contending shape within Dirk’s limited remaining time with us. We need to start looking at our options for building through the draft, and with how bad we’ve done at drafting the late first round over the past decade, we are going to need a high enough pick that its a no brainer choice. The Mavs haven’t taken a guy in the lotto and had him play for the team that season since Samaki Walker in 1996. This year that needs to change. With our pick going to Boston if we don’t get in the top 7, we need to have all hands on deck on this tank trip. I love Rick Carlislse and truely believe he is one of the best coaches in the league, but I pray that he can just pump out the losses this year in the knowledge that he will have a better roster(hopefully) the season following. It may not be a one year turn around as many teams that have tried quick rebuilds have found over the past few years(the Lakers, Celtics come to mind), but it is a much more appealing option to me as a fan then chasing non needle moving free agents and handing out the huge contracts we’ve given to guys like Wes Matthews. We need impact players, and we just haven’t been able to get them through free agency.

Basically the whole point of this post is to just highlight, that as a Mavs fan I’m more excited about our future without DeAndre than I was about the future with him. Yes I was very excited to see him running the floor, running picks with Parsons and Dirk feasting on wide open jumpers off DeAndre diving to the rim, but without him Dallas must turn in a direction we haven’t gone since the days of the franchise being a laughing stock in the 90’s- building through the draft. I am also very glad that DeAndre went back to the Clippers, because as a basketball fan in general I love watching the connection that he, Blake and Chris Paul share, and shall continue to enjoy watching them play together for years to come. 

Overall, I’m intigued to see the direction we take following this gut punch, and hopefully this time next year I can make some forum posts about the player we’ve picked up in the draft. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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