NBA 2012-13 Season Thread - Crown The Heat!
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Dirk by himself is good enough for a playoff spot if he is healthy, I wish they could cryogenically freeze him because this is the one year tanking would be in your best interest. The tank plan won't fly with Dirk though so they'll be as competitive as they can in his remaining years and who knows some crazy trade might happen during a trade deadline again. You never know what might happen.
The "fans" who say Cuban is an idiot for breaking up the championship team need to shut up though. That was an old ass that team caught lightning in a bottle, Dirk went godmode, and LeBron/Big 3 were still learning how to mesh. There is no way they repeat after a lockout and they would be in a worse situation today. All those players except Tyson have either a) fallen off a cliff (JET, Barea, Butler) or b) retired (Kidd, Peja). Even Tyson has had injury issues the last 2 postseasons.
I do wish they would of kept Tyson but hindsight is 20/20 - he hadn't proved he could stay healthy for longer than a year and at the time both Dwight and CP3 were going to be Free Agents - then Dwight fucked everything up.
Mavs didn't even offer Bynum a deal, onlookers near the hotel said he was laboring just walking around and looked super out of shape. Cavs wasted 6 mil because I don't think he'll play.
Kirilenko gives the Nets a projected bench of: AK, Jason Terry, Shaun Livingston (baller), Blatche, and Reggie Evans. Yeah, they're old.... but I like it. #2 seed right behind Chicago.
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Agreed with pretty much all of that, and its easy to look back in hindsight and second guess everything. Who knew TChan would stay as healthy as he has either? Still though, it seems nothing has really gone our way since that summer - and barring a major miracle - is tough to see how Dallas pulls themselves back into WC contention anytime in the near future. Glad we got that ring when we did, ha.
Also, agreed re: JJ - decent little player, but give me a break.
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23 million expiring contract + a guy who can probably still one-man you two wins in the first round this season. The hard part is only a team that wants to "win now" will really want to make that trade, and finding a team with quality assets for Dallas that has that mentality would be somewhat difficult.
A deal with Denver of Dirk and Marion for W. Chandler, Faried, Arthur, McGee, Denver's 2014 first-round pick (via Knicks) is about the only thing I can come up with that actually involves players (not sure if the money works out, trade machine f'd right now), but Denver still isn't really a "win now" team.
We all know Cuban won't move Dirk though, so basically the team is boned. They aren't very good at drafting, nor are they very good at developing the talent of those players they actually do draft. They've been trying this "pile veterans around Dirk" strategy for years and now the only promising future talent they have is Crowder and two guys (Larkin and Ledo) that just got buried deep on the depth charts thanks to their only offseason moves of acquiring 3 PG and 1 SG. The team has no continuity (other than Dirk), no identity (other than Dirk), and now, almost-no connection with its fanbase (other than Dirk). If they don't do something drastic in the 2014 offseason (they do have their first round pick as long as they don't finish with a Top 10 record I think), they're going to wake up in 2015 looking at an incredibly deep conference with no playoffs in sight for them for years to come.
Dirk has his ring, that he got without having to team up with other superstars, he is totally validated.
Plus, he just got married and has a kid on the way - no way he's moving his new family out of the only U.S. city he's ever known. Dirk is a god in Dallas and he has said he wants his legacy to be playing for one team and going into the Hall of Fame as a pure Maverick - he thinks it's a rare and special thing for players to be loyal to one franchise.
If the plan is to keep Dirk as a Mav his entire career (which Dirk, Cuban, Carlisle, and Donnie are all on board with), then it's too late to rebuild - Dirk is too old for that to work now. So the only other option is to keep reloading, be flexible, and hope something unexpected happens around trade deadline time.
The mistake Cuban/Donnie made was valuing cap space over easily movable assets - Free Agents can't process cap space and expiring contracts, that's why DWill got lured back by Joe Johnson signing and Dwight with Harden/Parsons.
As for their drafting, they haven't really been in much of a position to draft top talent when they were picking in the 20s for a decade. Really only the Spurs have consistently hit on picks in that range. They definitely could of put more effort into it, but I like Crowder and the 2 guys they got this year.
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That move stinks of desperation. Can't blame Cuban for leveraging everything to go after Dwight. I suppose he's probably in whatever mode until they can finally dump Dirk's salary. Given the length of that deal I assume along with most everyone else that Dirk will retire a Maverick which is cool to see.
Monta really, really sucks though. I can't think of a player i'd enjoy rooting for less. Maybe Brandon Jennings.
Monta really, really sucks though. I can't think of a player i'd enjoy rooting for less. Maybe Brandon Jennings.
Calderon/Ellis is a huge huge huge upgrade over Collison/Mayo though. Mavs literally lost 10 games because of stupid turnovers by that backcourt late in games.
So you're looking at Calderon/Ellis/Marion/Dirk/Dalembert as your starting 5, with Vince/Devin Harris/Jae Crowder/Brendan Wright bench - unless they have to move Marion to make room then Crowder is your starter.
It looks like Cuban has given up on cap space, and just wants to grab a bunch of decent contracts/tradeable players just in case a trade opportunity comes up later. Hell, maybe they turn right around and trade for Asik from Houston.
So you're looking at Calderon/Ellis/Marion/Dirk/Dalembert as your starting 5, with Vince/Devin Harris/Jae Crowder/Brendan Wright bench - unless they have to move Marion to make room then Crowder is your starter.
It looks like Cuban has given up on cap space, and just wants to grab a bunch of decent contracts/tradeable players just in case a trade opportunity comes up later. Hell, maybe they turn right around and trade for Asik from Houston.