A harsh title for sure but not as harsh as the reality that faces the Dallas Mavericks.
If you aren’t aware, the NBA Free Agency period began on June 30th at 6 PM EST. Since then billions of dollars in contracts have been agreed on. Of those billions, Dallas has made some noise but not enough. Yes, the Mavericks agreed to bring back Porzingis, Powell, and Barea. They also agreed to terms with Seth Curry on a 4 year $32 million dollar deal. But it all feels very empty and concerning. Since free agency became a big deal (2010 Thanks LeBron), the Mavericks have failed to land a big fish repeatedly. Heck, coming into this off season, they were rumored to have at least a realistic plan A, B, and C. All that went out the window when Kemba Walker agreed to terms with the Celtics, Patrick Beverly agreed to re-join the Clippers, and Goran Dragic (one of Luka’s guys) was basically rejected by the Mavericks because they wanted to hold onto flexibility…
Get the F outta here!!! Flexibility!? (rant coming)
This team finally had a chance to put some interesting pieces around 2 guys who are known to be average to below average at best on defense. How could you not lock up Patrick Beverly who is known to bring some dog on the court. You want a tenacious guy like him for sure. Heck, and if you don’t get him, did you not want a good locker room guy in Goran? Someone who had the veteran savvy to be a decent 6th man and help Luka learn the ropes a little more. Flexibility huh, for what……? What are we holding onto flexibility for? Kawhi, um sure.. KD or Kyrie…. They didn’t even blink in making their decision in joining the Nets. So what flexibility?
Dallas has known to do this in the past. Cuban screwed up getting Deron Williams when he was considered one of the top PGs in the league. Yes, we got him later but he was a shell of himself and wasn’t into basketball as he once was. DeAndre Jordan was kidnapped a few years later and his good buddy Chandler Parsons couldn’t lure anyone to Dallas. We let a guy like Tyson Chandler go twice, and I’m sure that bit us pretty bad in the eyes of other players.
You know what’s scary. The Mavericks cannot get into a room with any of these big time free agents. They are dictating the moves. As an owner who sees this, get your team in front of them as a place to be. Make them WANT to play here. During the season you need to be selling your franchise to other players now. Jimmy Butler was in awe when Miami gave Dwyane Wade his farewell. I guess we were unfortunate that Butler didn’t play in Dirk’s last game here at the AAC. Its unfortunate because we have some good things going with the team. We have a good coach, dedicated owner, and an excellent training staff.
The cold hard truth though with all the nice things, is that the Mavericks will continue to botch free agency. If you look on the flip side, they have an owner who thinks of himself as a star. He actually might be bigger than the team. They have star players who do not connect with the rest of the NBA. Oh and let’s not forget a coach whose a little difficult to play for. I’m not saying clean house one bit, but your telling me that this team cannot land a quality coup at all? Harrison Barnes was a nice signing who never turned into a #1 player. Wes Matthews was something but I don’t even know what the plan was around that signing.
The team had about 20 years to say goodbye to a legend in Dirk, at least they didn’t mess that up.