[he_gets_bucketsParticipant]

 I’ve been a fan of the Mavericks since I was about 8. I live in Australia so there wasn’t a tie through geographical convenience, the reason I went for them was because whenever me and my brother would play NBA Live 06, I sucked really hard and would just shoot 3’s on every possession pretty much straight away, and the Mavs had 4 guys who could shoot pretty darn well and they were pretty much the best team all around anyways.

  I’ve stuck with them ever since, I screamed at my tiny computer screen running in 10 fps watching a terrible live stream of the 2006 finals on a terrible dial up connection, I watched in dismay as Golden State beat us in the first round in 2007, I ordered the big championship merchandise pack in 2011 when we won the Chip and I still wear the shirt regurlarly. I watched in an equal amount of dismay as Cuban let the roster go after the Chip to chase big name free agents, and watched again, offseason after offseason, us whiffing on every free agent, every summer. First it was Deron Williams. Then it was Carmelo. Then it was Dwight. Then we finally got DeAndre, and then, nope, we didn’t.

This offseason though, has been by far the worst. 2 Summers ago, even though we whiffed, at least we came up with something. Chandler Parsons and Wes Matthews was a pretty dud haul, it was enough to make us competitive enough not to get a good draft choice, but still too mediocre for even the brilliant mind of Rick Carlisle to turn the team into a contender. This summer, we won’t even get that, but you’ll be darn sure that by the end of free agency, we will have signed some duds for a ridiculous amount of money, and we will once again be stuck in that awkward space that teams like Atlanta have been in for a decade. 

 Dirk has been and always will be my favourite player of all time. But Cuban has failed him the past 5 years. When he looks around and he sees organisations like the Spurs and the Heat constantly being able to reshuffle their roster in order to keep their star players in contention, surely Dirk, who is by all accounts a very laid back guy, must be royally peeved that the last 5 years, where he has taken less money to help Dallas land a big name, have been a massive waste of time. 

 I don’t want Dirk to stay. He deserves better then what we as an organisation have given him, I want to see him on a contending team, even if its in a smaller role, 20 minutes off the bench a night, battling it out in the playoffs and chasing another chip. For Dallas, it makes more sense to let Dirk go to a contender and just bottom out for draft picks then it does to keep him around and be good enough for 35 wins and the 10th pick. I hope Carlisle would be alright with doing this for a season, as losing him would be a massive blow as I truely think he is one of the best coaches in the league, what he does with how little he gets given is truely amazing to me, but I would understand if he doesn’t want to throw away a year.

  In an absolutely loaded 2017 draft class, now is the time to move into the next era of Mavs basketball, and give Dirk the end to his career he deserves, somewhere else, in the postseason. 

 

[he_gets_bucketsParticipant]

 And just after posting this I see we have signed Harrison Barnes to a max offer sheet and I will go cry myself to sleep now.

[he_gets_bucketsParticipant]

 And just after posting this I see we have signed Harrison Barnes to a max offer sheet and I will go cry myself to sleep now.

[220Participant]

 I still have a hard time understanding why Mark Cuban would let the majority of his key free agents leave after winning the championship. They’ve never recovered from that decision. The team also isn’t overly interested in building through the draft so they have almost no young pieces that can develop and help draw guys in the future. The Mavs need to change how they do things, even free agent happy teams like Miami and the Lakers add key players in the draft from time to time rather than simply dealing them just to make the playoffs.

[220Participant]

 I still have a hard time understanding why Mark Cuban would let the majority of his key free agents leave after winning the championship. They’ve never recovered from that decision. The team also isn’t overly interested in building through the draft so they have almost no young pieces that can develop and help draw guys in the future. The Mavs need to change how they do things, even free agent happy teams like Miami and the Lakers add key players in the draft from time to time rather than simply dealing them just to make the playoffs.

[he_gets_bucketsParticipant]

 Agreed, I was really high on Justin Anderson before the draft and was actually hoping we’d get him, but he didn’t really show much of anything to me that he could be anything more than a role player at his peak, and while I like Dwight Powell, again, I don’t see him being anything more than a role player on a good team. Those two guys, plus AJ Hammons who we drafted in the second round, are the only guys under 28 on the roster. We have no youth, no great vets, we have nothing. I really just want us to blow it up, get a top pick in the 2017 draft and get whoever ends up performing best in college this season out of Dennis Smith, Lonzo Ball, De’Aaron Fox and Markelle Fultz from the stacked point guard class.

But yeah, the way we have run things has been terrible. We mortgaged our future to chase free agents, whiffed, and now we are paying the price heavily

 

[he_gets_bucketsParticipant]

 Agreed, I was really high on Justin Anderson before the draft and was actually hoping we’d get him, but he didn’t really show much of anything to me that he could be anything more than a role player at his peak, and while I like Dwight Powell, again, I don’t see him being anything more than a role player on a good team. Those two guys, plus AJ Hammons who we drafted in the second round, are the only guys under 28 on the roster. We have no youth, no great vets, we have nothing. I really just want us to blow it up, get a top pick in the 2017 draft and get whoever ends up performing best in college this season out of Dennis Smith, Lonzo Ball, De’Aaron Fox and Markelle Fultz from the stacked point guard class.

But yeah, the way we have run things has been terrible. We mortgaged our future to chase free agents, whiffed, and now we are paying the price heavily

 

[r377Participant]

I think they need to rebuild / tank. Never a fan of wes Matthews contract after the Achilles. That barnes contract is just desperate…..

They will be struggling for an 8th seed, just give up, rebuild and save your cash to spend when they can compete.

Unfort for Dirk it may be better to move on ( I know he wanted to retire a mav, but so did garnett with wolves) they won’t be competing for a champ soon, he would be much better on the raptors, Celtics, pistons, pacers or warriors….

[r377Participant]

I think they need to rebuild / tank. Never a fan of wes Matthews contract after the Achilles. That barnes contract is just desperate…..

They will be struggling for an 8th seed, just give up, rebuild and save your cash to spend when they can compete.

Unfort for Dirk it may be better to move on ( I know he wanted to retire a mav, but so did garnett with wolves) they won’t be competing for a champ soon, he would be much better on the raptors, Celtics, pistons, pacers or warriors….

[Hype Machine]

 I give the Mavs a ‘D’ this offseason.

The problem is obvious. Free Agents use them for leverage. 

And when was their last good draft?

Fair enough, free dirk.

 

 

 

[Hype Machine]

 I give the Mavs a ‘D’ this offseason.

The problem is obvious. Free Agents use them for leverage. 

And when was their last good draft?

Fair enough, free dirk.

 

 

 

[kobyzParticipant]

 Best coach in the league – V, great basketball culture – V, just made the playoff – V, Anderson evident as being great value pick – V, Matthews proven as healthy and still top 5 SG with great trade value in today market – V… Their situation isn’t that bad…

[kobyzParticipant]

 Best coach in the league – V, great basketball culture – V, just made the playoff – V, Anderson evident as being great value pick – V, Matthews proven as healthy and still top 5 SG with great trade value in today market – V… Their situation isn’t that bad…

[he_gets_bucketsParticipant]

No way in heck that Matthews is still a top 5 SG, Brad Beal, Harden, Derozan, Jimmy Butler, CJ McCollum, Dwyane Wade, Andrew Wiggins, Klay Thompson, Khris Middleton, Victor Oladipo- all were much, much better than Matthews last year. As for his trade value, what team is going to trade anything of worth for a guy coming off an achilles injury, who just averaged career lows across the board, including sub 40% from the field, whose turning 30 this season? 

 Anderson hasn’t proved to be a value pick, he played poorly last year (3.8 ppg on .405% shooting, 25% from 3, PER of 12.3), and as said above, doesn’t really look like he’s going to much of anything at this point- and literally everyone else on the roster besides Anderson, Hammons and Powell is 28 and over, and none are starting quality outside of Dirk whose 38, and maybe the corpse of Deron Williams we currently have. 

"Just made the playoffs" – uhh? How does that have any bearing on our current situation? Even if we had just made the Western Conference finals, that wouldn’t mean jack because we sure as hell aren’t getting back there within the next 3 years, and we didnt do that. We were a 6 seed, and got 1 game off OKC and were completely destroyed every other game.

Our cupboard is completely bare of players and there aren’t any free agents left for us to pick up. Even with Rick Carlisle, who I think is in a similar realm to Pop, we are going to be extremely mediocre. Our situation is very bad, and will continue as a cycle of mediocrity, mid 30 wins every year, never bad enough for a top 5 pick, never good enough to be more than a low seed, until we decide to bottom out for a year and get a blue chip prospect.

 

 

[he_gets_bucketsParticipant]

No way in heck that Matthews is still a top 5 SG, Brad Beal, Harden, Derozan, Jimmy Butler, CJ McCollum, Dwyane Wade, Andrew Wiggins, Klay Thompson, Khris Middleton, Victor Oladipo- all were much, much better than Matthews last year. As for his trade value, what team is going to trade anything of worth for a guy coming off an achilles injury, who just averaged career lows across the board, including sub 40% from the field, whose turning 30 this season? 

 Anderson hasn’t proved to be a value pick, he played poorly last year (3.8 ppg on .405% shooting, 25% from 3, PER of 12.3), and as said above, doesn’t really look like he’s going to much of anything at this point- and literally everyone else on the roster besides Anderson, Hammons and Powell is 28 and over, and none are starting quality outside of Dirk whose 38, and maybe the corpse of Deron Williams we currently have. 

"Just made the playoffs" – uhh? How does that have any bearing on our current situation? Even if we had just made the Western Conference finals, that wouldn’t mean jack because we sure as hell aren’t getting back there within the next 3 years, and we didnt do that. We were a 6 seed, and got 1 game off OKC and were completely destroyed every other game.

Our cupboard is completely bare of players and there aren’t any free agents left for us to pick up. Even with Rick Carlisle, who I think is in a similar realm to Pop, we are going to be extremely mediocre. Our situation is very bad, and will continue as a cycle of mediocrity, mid 30 wins every year, never bad enough for a top 5 pick, never good enough to be more than a low seed, until we decide to bottom out for a year and get a blue chip prospect.

 

 

[kobyzParticipant]

 Matthews was great for someone who just came after injury, you look too much into numbers, his impact more than that, he was second best player on a playoff team, all things consider his value still of top 5 SG… In a redraft i would take Anderson in the late lottery, he is a gamer, play both ends… 

[kobyzParticipant]

 Matthews was great for someone who just came after injury, you look too much into numbers, his impact more than that, he was second best player on a playoff team, all things consider his value still of top 5 SG… In a redraft i would take Anderson in the late lottery, he is a gamer, play both ends… 

[surveParticipant]

dont really agree about Matthews.  never liked that contract, even with todays cap…but that was yesterday.

agree about Anderson though.  just that I think he would be better in another system…or it may take him some time under Rick.  

everyone shouldve known someone was gonna back up the money truck for HB and with him this team really improves.  what the Mavs are doing isnt great but isnt bad either.

 

[surveParticipant]

dont really agree about Matthews.  never liked that contract, even with todays cap…but that was yesterday.

agree about Anderson though.  just that I think he would be better in another system…or it may take him some time under Rick.  

everyone shouldve known someone was gonna back up the money truck for HB and with him this team really improves.  what the Mavs are doing isnt great but isnt bad either.

 

[DolanCareParticipant]

Thank you for pointing out that Mark Cuban has a lot of explaining to do.  I’ll never understand the praise he receives by the basketball intelligensia. He’s not their GM, yet he dismantled their roster because he thought he could lure FA’s like Pat Riley. 

Dirk should absolutely leave he’s keen on the idea. I’m just not sure he is though. 

 

 

[DolanCareParticipant]

Thank you for pointing out that Mark Cuban has a lot of explaining to do.  I’ll never understand the praise he receives by the basketball intelligensia. He’s not their GM, yet he dismantled their roster because he thought he could lure FA’s like Pat Riley. 

Dirk should absolutely leave he’s keen on the idea. I’m just not sure he is though. 

 

 

[Author]

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