Posted by Bryan Gutierrez on June 17, 2013 under Commentary | 
Mark Cuban was once again on the radio, this time on KCTK-AM, to further explain the summer of intrigue for the Mavs. He spoke about the work he’s done in regards to flopping. That will be discussed later this week. The more pressing issues are geared towards free agency and the draft, both rapidly approaching.
Here is the Quoteboard with highlights of Cuban’s appearance on The Ticket in regards to free agency and the draft.
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Posted by Bryan Gutierrez on June 14, 2013 under Commentary |
This week, The Two Man Game will start looking at what the Mavs could do as another pivotal summer is upon them. Mark Cuban has said there are different ways or “permutations” to ensure the Mavs won’t have a failure of a summer if they are unable to land a big fish acquisition.
Dirk Nowitzki said Cuban is “all-in” on this summer, and committed to bringing the franchise back to where it belongs. There are traditional ways to do that but there are also outside the box ways of doing that. We’ll look at five potential angles the Mavs could work that would be considered outside the box.
The next important event on the docket is the NBA Draft later this month. The Mavs will hold the 13th pick in the draft. They owe the Oklahoma City Thunder a first-round pick before 2018. That pick is protected through the first 20 picks of the draft. But if the Mavericks don’t convey it by 2017, the Thunder gets the pick no matter when it is in the 2018 draft.
To figure out how the pick ended up being owed to Oklahoma City needs a bit of explaining, so here we go:
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Posted by Bryan Gutierrez on June 13, 2013 under Commentary |
This week, The Two Man Game will start looking at what the Mavs could do as another pivotal summer is upon them. Mark Cuban has said there are different ways or “permutations” to ensure the Mavs won’t have a failure of a summer if they are unable to land a big fish acquisition.
Dirk Nowitzki said Cuban is “all-in” on this summer, and committed to bringing the franchise back to where it belongs. There are traditional ways to do that but there are also outside the box ways of doing that. We’ll look at five potential angles the Mavs could work that would be considered outside the box.
There is a big fish in Dwight Howard that has mainly been linked to three teams: the Los Angeles Lakers, Houston Rockets and Dallas Mavericks. While both Dallas and Houston have been linked, Los Angeles is still in the driver’s seat when it comes to landing Howard as they have the extra year and nearly $30 million dollars that they can offer the prized big man.
The one thing that Houston has on their side is a situation that’s suited for Howard to where he can slide right in and join a team that is already built to make a run in the playoffs. He would just be a major enhancement. It would be a situation where he’s going to help build something, not fix it.
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Posted by Bryan Gutierrez on June 12, 2013 under Commentary |
This week, The Two Man Game will start looking at what the Mavs could do as another pivotal summer is upon them. Mark Cuban has said there are different ways or “permutations” to ensure the Mavs won’t have a failure of a summer if they are unable to land a big fish acquisition.
Dirk Nowitzki said Cuban is “all-in” on this summer, and committed to bringing the franchise back to where it belongs. There are traditional ways to do that but there are also outside the box ways of doing that. We’ll look at five potential angles the Mavs could work that would be considered outside the box.
The Phoenix Suns have not made the playoffs over the last three seasons. That includes last season where they had the worst record in the entire Western Conference. They’re presently a team without a star, that really doesn’t have a direction or vision on how to improve their situation. They’re a mess.
They do have two intriguing pieces in Goran Dragic and Marcin Gortat that could be of some use to the Mavs. Dragic likely appears the less realistic due to his contract. Dallas already had hesitations about him as a point guard (which I still don’t exactly understand), so I’m guessing they wouldn’t want to bring him on under the deal that Phoenix signed him to. That leaves Marcin Gortat.
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Posted by Bryan Gutierrez on June 11, 2013 under Commentary |
This week, The Two Man Game will start looking at what the Mavs could do as another pivotal summer is upon them. Mark Cuban has said there are different ways or “permutations” to ensure the Mavs won’t have a failure of a summer if they are unable to land a big fish acquisition.
Dirk Nowitzki said Cuban is “all-in” on this summer, and committed to bringing the franchise back to where it belongs. There are traditional ways to do that but there are also outside the box ways of doing that. We’ll look at five potential angles the Mavs could work that would be considered outside the box.
Times are tough for many teams around the league in a new CBA world. There are two teams in the Eastern Conference who find themselves in a bit of a bind but in two very different ways.
The Boston Celtics are a team with a bloated payroll (giving Jason Terry a three-year, $15.675 million dollar deal is an example of how money can add up in a hurry). They did hit an unfortunate break in terms of an injury during the month of January as it was announced the Rajon Rondo suffered an ACL injury and would be out of action for the duration of the season. Boston is getting older and teams around them are getting better.
The Toronto Raptors are also a team with a bloated payroll. To make their situation worse than Boston’s, they flat out stink. The Raptors tied for the worst record in the Atlantic Division. They have just over $27 million committed between Rudy Gay and DeMar Derozan. They also still have someone impersonating a basketball player in Andrea Bargnani as he is collecting a salary of $10.7 million this coming season. The only thing worse than being in a cap bind: being in a cap bind and being terrible.
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Posted by Bryan Gutierrez on June 10, 2013 under Commentary |
This week, The Two Man Game will start looking at what the Mavs could do as another pivotal summer is upon them. Mark Cuban has said there are different ways or “permutations” to ensure the Mavs won’t have a failure of a summer if they are unable to land a big fish acquisition.
Dirk Nowitzki said Cuban is “all-in” on this summer, and committed to bringing the franchise back to where it belongs. There are traditional ways to do that but there are also outside the box ways of doing that. We’ll look at five potential angles the Mavs could work that would be considered outside the box.
The Indiana Pacers continued their development with their new core this season as they took the Miami Heat to seven games in the Eastern Conference Finals. They were able to do that without the services of Danny Granger. Granger missed the first half of this season with patellar tendinosis after undergoing a second injection to treat the injury back in October. He played for a brief stint of only five games back in February, only to see the injury flare up again. He ended up having surgery on the knee and was out for the remainder of the season.
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Posted by Bryan Gutierrez on June 6, 2013 under Commentary |
The questions are the answers! Okay, maybe they’re not, but we have more questions that need to be answered. Based off the last set of questions, you have to look at the negative (likely more realistic) outlook of chasing the big fish. I also look back at the playoffs and determine who caught my eye in terms of potential targets for the Mavs.
Let’s go.
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Posted by Bryan Gutierrez on June 5, 2013 under Commentary |
Here are another batch of questions and answers regarding the Mavs and this offseason. With free agency less than a month away, it’s really time to start getting down to business. This round starts to look at the nuts and bolts of the concept of going after the big fish this summer, Chris Paul and Dwight Howard. It also digs a little deeper into the new plan or window that Mark Cuban announced in the last few weeks.
Let’s go.
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Posted by Bryan Gutierrez on June 4, 2013 under Commentary |
It’s time to answer some more questions in regards to the Mavs. This week, we’ll be covering different angles of the offseason for the Mavs, via the questions and answers format. Again, questions can be sent via the comments section and on Twitter.
We start this batch of questions with a specific theme and that will be Jason Kidd. This week, the point guard of the championship roster of 2011 decided to call it a career after 19 seasons of NBA duty.
Dirk Nowitzki took to Twitter @swish41 to react to the news of Kidd’s retirement.
Kidd certainly means a lot of Nowitzki as the acquisition of the veteran point guard back in 2008 was instrumental in building the championship squad that won the title in improbable fashion over the Miami Heat.
With his career now over and the clock starting with his announcement as a Hall of Famer likely to be announced in five years, let’s look at five questions and answers in regards to J-Kidd.
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Posted by Kirk Henderson on June 3, 2013 under Commentary |
It’s been a slow and frustrating descent for the Mavericks and their fans since climbing the championship ladder in 2011. The quality of team play dropped as fan favorites left for different opportunities, while new faces mostly failed to live up to expectations. To recall how the Mavericks got to this point, it’s illuminating to look back to an email sent from Mark Cuban to Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas on December 8th, 2011:
“The reality is that in the new system, cap room will have far more value than it had in the past…
The rules are different now, and while it makes it tougher this year because of the affection we have for many of the guys that are leaving, if we want the Mavs to be able to compete for championships in future years as well, it’s a hard decision, but I believe the right decision.”
Cuban has been consistent with his desire to construct a winning team within the constraints of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. During a May 28th radio interview with ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM Cuban said, “If we don’t get the big name, we want to start building that base of a team that can start having some continuity of playing together.” Despite Dirk Nowitzki being on the final year of his contract, it’s been generally understood that the Mavericks are trying to build a team around or with Dirk, while also building a team capable of being successful after Dirk retires.
But there’s been an elephant in the room that has not been acknowledged: What if those goals are mutually exclusive?
Mark Cuban has been very careful in what he’s said to the media over the last few years, mentioning how important cap flexibility is in the long term while also giving attention to Dirk’s dissatisfaction with the last two seasons. If Cuban and Mavericks general manager Donnie Nelson are able to land either Chris Paul or Dwight Howard, then this point is moot. But what if they don’t?
The remainder of the talent in the 2013 free agent pool either doesn’t fit with Dallas’ plan, like Josh Smith, or represent risky gambles, like Brandon Jennings or Andrew Bynum. Signing one or more of the second tier free agents might benefit Dallas in the short term by making the team more competitive. However, it’s hard to imagine any 2013-2014 Maverick squad without Paul or Howard being a “championship” or “top-seeded team,” which Cuban insists is possible.
Any influx of talent might make Nowitzki happy as he heads into his final years in a Mavericks uniform, but at what point is doing something for Dirk detrimental to Dallas long term? He turns 35 on June 19th. Dirk’s offensive game remains amazing, but he’s also expressed a desire for someone to share the load. Do any of the non-superstar free agents really strike the Dallas front office as the kind of players they can build around after Nowitzki retires?
On the flip side, if Dallas elects to sign a roster full of project players and single-year contracts again, they’re essentially wasting a third straight year of Dirk’s career. For many Mavericks fans, Nowitzki is the alpha and omega when it comes to Dallas as a franchise, and putting together a competitive team while he finishes out his Hall of Fame tenure is an utmost priority. After all, when Nowitzki re-signed with the Mavs at a discount in the summer of 2010, he did so with the understanding that the front office would do its best to surround him with high-caliber players. The lockout and ensuing CBA changed the landscape drastically, and in the process limited Dallas’ team-building options. Yet another lost year for Dirk would be tough to swallow for all involved, even if such a course proves to be best for the Mavs’ greater efforts to construct a contender.
Nowitzki has long been a good soldier for the organization, despite playing with the least talented teammates of any superstar from his generation. While he’s on the record saying he’s willing to take a hefty pay cut when he re-signs after next season, another wasted season could change his internal calculus. Loyal though he might be, Nowitzki’s re-signing in that scenario would first require that he endure another year on the “mediocrity treadmill” without losing faith or interest in the Mavs’ rebuilding efforts. Dallas has been a step above bad for two seasons, held together mainly by Dirk’s brilliance. As he ages, he can’t be expected to carry a .500 team in a Western conference that only seems to get better each season. Nowitzki has seen the peak, and to trudge through the lowlands with a middling team through his slow decline would seem a painfully unfulfilling turn.
As the Mavs attempt to thread the needle in building a team for the future that will simultaneously make the most of Nowitzki’s twilight years, the front office is flirting with disaster. Despite all assurances to the contrary, Dallas’ plan seems to be to land Paul/Howard or bust. The Mavs are reportedly shopping this year’s pick for salary cap space, as has become something of a trend; Dallas traded away younger assets like Corey Brewer and Jordan Hamilton only to make cap space in the past, and the bid to have max-level cap room has left the Mavericks’ cupboard alarmingly bare. If Dallas strikes out with Paul and Howard, it’s quite possible the 2013-2014 Mavericks will be a bad team with a murky future. Despite trying to place themselves in the best possible situation for this off season, the Mavericks are left at the mercy of the decision-making of others.
It’s an uncomfortable situation with meager chance for positive resolution. Yet this is the lot of a team rebuilding around an aging star owed $22.7 million in single-year salary, left only to rely on the long-shot landing of Paul or Howard. For now, acquiring either superstar remains a vague possibility for a franchise in need of hope. Yet come July, the overwhelming likelihood is that both Paul and Howard will sign elsewhere, leaving Dallas to face difficult questions with few — if any — encouraging answers.