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2024 - 2025 Dallas Mavericks Season Thread - This time we're not happy to just be here.


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Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, Rex Kramer said:

Yeah I get that. I’m just saying, I thought he was masterful at remaking the roster and getting Luka a lot of help. That’s what makes the return for the trade all the more mystifying. 

This is exactly right. Up until that point, the assets in/out was very much in favor of the Mavs, even with Brunson leaving. He built the roster to win a championship with a healthy Doncic. And then to trade him for maybe half what he’s worth?

Look, I don’t normally do conspiracy theories. I realize the Mavs now have the best (if healthy) front court in the league by far with Gafford/Lively, PJ and Davis, and Max Christie is developing into a legit allstar level player. But considering the impact on the future, and I mean two years out, not 5-10, and the current market, the Mavs should have gotten at least two more first round picks, AND Knecht AND probably Reaves on top of it.  
There are a lot of reasons for Nico and the Adelsons to do the deal as they did it. None of them have to do with the long term viability of the team as a championship contender in the city of Dallas.

Of course the other possibility is that  Nico really doesn’t believe that Luka will ever be that guy, and was willing to lose the trade to get rid of him. 

Edited by Bozo_Casanova
Posted
2 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

This is exactly right. Up until that point, the assets in/out was very much in favor of the Mavs, even with Brunson leaving. He built the roster to win a championship with a healthy Doncic. And then to trade him for maybe half what he’s worth?

Look, I don’t normally do conspiracy theories. I realize the Mavs now have the best (if healthy) front court in the league by far with Gafford/Lively, PJ and Davis, and Max Christie is developing into a legit allstar level player. But considering the impact on the future, and I mean two years out, not 5-10, and the current market, the Mavs should have gotten at least two more first round picks, AND Knecht AND probably Reaves on top of it.  
There are a lot of reasons for Nico and the Adelsons to do the deal as they did it. None of them have to do with the long term viability of the team as a championship contender in the city of Dallas.

Of course the other possibility is that  Nico really doesn’t believe that Luka will ever be that guy, and was willing to lose the trade to get rid of him. 

Agree.  People may not like to hear it but when/if AD is healthy, Dallas might have the best roster in the West or at least the most threatening to the Thunder.  (Yes, that's a big "if."  It's like saying "if" I was married to Scarlett Johansson then my wife would be hotter than yours.)  

Just awful long term, though, and to your point, "long term" means 2-3 years.

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Posted
24 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

Agree.  People may not like to hear it but when/if AD is healthy, Dallas might have the best roster in the West or at least the most threatening to the Thunder.  (Yes, that's a big "if."  It's like saying "if" I was married to Scarlett Johansson then my wife would be hotter than yours.)  

Just awful long term, though, and to your point, "long term" means 2-3 years.

I agree with the roster comment. But the health has neutered their total big man advantage.  

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Posted
3 hours ago, Rex Kramer said:

So your contention is if they had real beef with Luka, they’d be smart to actually release that information, angering Luka and hurting their attractiveness to future players?  That’s a ridiculous strategy. 

I mean, the damage is done. What big name would even think about signing here without a no-trade clause? Going "easy" on Luka ain't helping shit. 

On the flip side, if a Bill Duffy client ever signs here again we'll know right away that this was a hit job by the league. 

 

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Posted
1 minute ago, threesheets said:

I mean, the damage is done. What big name would even think about signing here without a no-trade clause? Going "easy" on Luka ain't helping shit. 

On the flip side, if a Bill Duffy client ever signs here again we'll know right away that this was a hit job by the league. 

 

So you think they ought to be more classless and tone deaf, and maybe hold a presser where Nico painstakingly details just how fat, lazy, and internally toxic Luka was?  Don’t take this the wrong way, but are you retarded?

Posted (edited)
32 minutes ago, Rex Kramer said:

So you think they ought to be more classless and tone deaf, and maybe hold a presser where Nico painstakingly details just how fat, lazy, and internally toxic Luka was?  Don’t take this the wrong way, but are you retarded?

Even more classless and tone deaf, you mean? The ongoing negative whisper campaign isn’t any better. 
In some ways the negative leaked about Luka are an argument that this wasn’t a hit job by the league, and Nico/Dumont really are that dumb.

Edited by Bozo_Casanova
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Posted (edited)
On 2/26/2025 at 10:09 AM, Rex Kramer said:

We would’ve beaten them with just one of our (non-Dwight) big men available or with slightly better shooting. With AD, I don’t think it’s a close one. 

Watching Luka made me miss him, but I was firmly pulling for the Mavs. I will never not do that. Only apathy can set in like with the Cowboys. Watching Luka’s antics made me not miss him. 

Man I'm the opposite, as much as I hate Jerry Jones and the dumbfucks he hires to coach, I can't get rid of my attachment. The trade here might kill my give a fuck for the Mavs. Maybe it's because the Cowboys grabbed me as a kid and I didn't become a Mavs fan until my 20's when I lived in Dallas. Either way, Jerry Jones has never and would never do anything as stupid as this, which is a big difference. He shopped Herschel Walker around and got a shit ton in return. The equivalent would be if he traded Patrick Mahomes from a few years ago for Russell Wilson, a decent WR, and a midround pick 5 years from now. It's just fucking asinine what the Mavs did here, the most jaw dropping of which is the lack of return. When the Thunder traded their stars they got tons of picks in return and have used them to stay at the top of the standings. It just feels like intentionally tanking the franchise. Jerry is dumb but his decisions aren't to intentionally hurt the franchise, and again, even he would never in a million years do something this stupid.

Edited by 'stache
Posted
1 hour ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Even more classless and tone deaf, you mean? The ongoing negative whisper campaign isn’t any better. 
In some ways the negative leaked about Luka are an argument that this wasn’t a hit job by the league, and Nico/Dumont really are that dumb.

I literally said “more classless and tone deaf”.  The ongoing whisper campaign is stupid and I’ve said that multiple times. But it’s better than a smoking gun presser where Nico publicly trashes a player trying to justify the idiotic trade. Again, the problem is a) the trade and then b) the utter lack of relative return for it. There is no c) action that can take any pain away. To reiterate, there is nothing that can be done but let time and hopefully success on the court to heal wounds. So, Mavs, shut the fuck up - don’t have any more press conferences and don’t leak stuff whether true or not. I strongly suspect the whispers have a lot of truth to them, but it does not matter one iota. They gain nothing by letting anything out of their building. 

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Posted (edited)
35 minutes ago, 'stache said:

The trade here might kill my give a fuck for the Mavs. Maybe it's because the Cowboys grabbed me as a kid and I didn't become a Mavs fan until my 20's when I lived in Dallas.

It won’t if they win big. For me, I’ve been a Mavs only fan since NBA consciousness. It won’t go away unless the Adelsons move the team. Which would be a strongly contested move and if successful, one of our billionaires in town will start a new franchise and I’ll root for them. 

Im 46. Boys won Super Bowl year I was born and when my NFL consciousness developed, Boys were on their downslide. I loved as a teenager watching those 3 Super Bowls. We were the team of the 90s. I’ve met Jerry personally twice in small settings, and he’s a charming fun guy. He has mismanaged this team so terribly in various era over the last 25 years, and who he is ethically have me so turned off by him that when the Cowboys do very well, I enjoy it but know they’ll implode in the playoffs because of Jerry.  And when they don’t do well, I truly do not give a shit because it’s Jerry’s failure. I no longer have a vested interest in that team. For the last 25 years, I’ve been a much bigger Mavs, Rangers and Stars fan, and probably in that order. My only two sports heartaches - anything approaching Horns losses to Tech in ‘08, Colorado in ‘01 or playoff losses the last two years - have been the Mavs collapse in ‘06 and moreso the Rangers in ‘11. Any Cowboys loss since San Fran in ‘95 NFC Champ hasn’t sniffed that territory. 

Edited by Rex Kramer
Posted (edited)
41 minutes ago, 'stache said:

Man I'm the opposite, as much as I hate Jerry Jones and the dumbfucks he hires to coach, I can't get rid of my attachment. The trade here might kill my give a fuck for the Mavs. Maybe it's because the Cowboys grabbed me as a kid and I didn't become a Mavs fan until my 20's when I lived in Dallas. Either way, Jerry Jones has never and would never do anything as stupid as this, which is a big difference.

I grew up in Dallas and while the cowboys were obviously king, the Mavs started playing at exactly the right time in my life (I was 7)for me to fall in love with the team, and I had a connection to it I don’t have with the Cowboys. We grew up together. I root for the Rangers and the Cowboys, but I love the Mavericks.
Anyway I disagree that Jerry wouldn’t do anything this stupid. He would. But he wouldn’t and won’t do anything this  painful for the fans, for better or worse, because he’s one of us, and his life is in the city.
I think he understands that even though he owns the Cowboys, the star is bigger than Jerry Jones, and, the star is not The Star without the city and the fans. Thus to hurt the fans and the city diminishes him.
That was even more true with the Mavericks, because there is no national brand. The Mavs are essentially a large market version of the Hornets or Pelicans. Nobody outside of Dallas really cares about the Mavericks, and local ownership from Don Carter through Marc Cuban understood that. And I believe the Adelsons understand it too, which leads them in a very different direction, because they aren’t local to the city. The Mavericks are a piece on a chessboard for them, and nowhere near the most important piece. 

Edited by Bozo_Casanova
Posted
9 minutes ago, Rex Kramer said:

My only two sports heartaches - anything approaching Horns losses to Tech in ‘08, Colorado in ‘01 or playoff losses the last two years - have been the Mavs collapse in ‘06 and moreso the Rangers in ‘11. Any Cowboys loss since San Fran in ‘95 NFC Champ hasn’t sniffed that territory

Agree with all that, but trading Luka this has replaced those for me. It’s not a perfect pass and catch in a close game. It’s not a fragile QB getting figured out and falling apart. It’s not the refs. It’s not just how baseball go. This was a direct fuck you to the city and the fans, straight from the management.  

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Posted
5 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

I think he understands that even though he owns the Cowboys, the star is bigger than Jerry Jones, and, the star is not The Star without the city and the fans. Thus to hurt the fans and the city diminishes him.

Disagree. Partly because of the national brand, and partly due to his ego, Jerry doesn’t see any diminished version of himself if the team performs poorly or he does or says something stupid. Jerry is the Cowboys in his eyes; it is mackbrowntexasfootball.com personified. 

Posted
1 minute ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Agree with all that, but trading Luka this has replaced those for me. It’s not a perfect pass and catch in a close game. It’s not a fragile QB getting figured out and falling apart. It’s not the refs. It’s not just how baseball go. This was a direct fuck you to the city and the fans, straight from the management.  

It hasn’t reached that level for me. I like Luka. Don’t love him - his game has weaknesses and his demeanor leaves a lot to be desired. If this had happened to Dirk in ‘07, I’d be crushed like in Game 6 of the WS. But that’s just me, and I get that.  So I personally could get on board with trading him, but would want a LOT more. And I wouldn’t trade him after a Finals run. 

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Posted

And for the record, Luka is a better player than Dirk, and it’s not particularly close. I just loved Dirk as a Hall of Fame, Top 30 player of all time, even with his weaknesses. Largely because of who he is as a person. As Charles Barkley said, he’s the nicest man ever. 

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Posted

Letting an all-nba player walk away for nothing should be on Nico’s resume as well.

He also got a bit lucky with the Gafford / PJ deals as they were going after Kuzma. If Kuzma says yes, then they have a much different looking team. Kuzma and someone like Plummee aren’t taking the team to last years finals…

Posted

I will always be a Cowboys fan, as much as I’d rather not be. Changing my allegiance for an NFL team feels about as natural as a colonoscopy. I hate them as a franchise, but I’m stuck.

This trade has really made me question my allegiance to the Mavs. I can’t make myself get excited about them - at all. Like most of you - I despise the Lakers - but Ive started following Lakers Twitter accounts and find myself looking for Lakers/Luka updates. No part of me cared if the Mavs won that game two nights ago. Just a few months ago my family had one of our favorite sports memories ever with the playoff run to the Finals.

This ownership/mgmt fucked the fanbase and it’s unforgivable. If AD gets healthy and they make a run - I will watch and hope for the best - but I don’t know how long it’s going to take to get back 100%, if ever.

My priority is Luka continuing his path to being one of the greatest ever.

Posted
17 minutes ago, Fastbreak said:

Letting an all-nba player walk away for nothing should be on Nico’s resume as well.

He also got a bit lucky with the Gafford / PJ deals as they were going after Kuzma. If Kuzma says yes, then they have a much different looking team. Kuzma and someone like Plummee aren’t taking the team to last years finals…

Nico would respond he’s trading him for a 4-time all NBA 1st teamer, 1-time 2nd teamer, a 5-time NBA All-Defensive teamer and a 10-time All-Star. I’m not Nico, so I already know the response to that. On PJ and Gafford, there is luck involved. I think Kidd did a fantastic job integrating those guys and getting Kyrie to play at the highest level without it diminishing Luka’s contributions. That’s why I was so mystified with @dcar00’s confusion on why he still has a job. 

15 minutes ago, wutang75 said:

I will always be a Cowboys fan, as much as I’d rather not be. Changing my allegiance for an NFL team feels about as natural as a colonoscopy. I hate them as a franchise, but I’m stuck.

This trade has really made me question my allegiance to the Mavs. I can’t make myself get excited about them - at all. Like most of you - I despise the Lakers - but Ive started following Lakers Twitter accounts and find myself looking for Lakers/Luka updates. No part of me cared if the Mavs won that game two nights ago. Just a few months ago my family had one of our favorite sports memories ever with the playoff run to the Finals.

This ownership/mgmt fucked the fanbase and it’s unforgivable. If AD gets healthy and they make a run - I will watch and hope for the best - but I don’t know how long it’s going to take to get back 100%, if ever.

My priority is Luka continuing his path to being one of the greatest ever.

I’ll always root for Cowboys, but I don’t care if they lose, and I don’t root for any other team. They lost me in the Garrett years and it’ll probably never resume until Jerry dies. If Mavs win a champ, this’ll be forgotten. I want Luka to do well, but don’t really care about him winning MVPs like I used to. 

Posted

I’m talking Brunson.

He also didn’t sell high on Green and now Hardy is also a negative asset. Those things are a bit tricky, but a good GM sells at peak value. Both Green and Hardy could have garnered 1st round picks. Now Hardy is probably going to get cut.

Posted
24 minutes ago, Fastbreak said:

I’m talking Brunson.

He also didn’t sell high on Green and now Hardy is also a negative asset. Those things are a bit tricky, but a good GM sells at peak value. Both Green and Hardy could have garnered 1st round picks. Now Hardy is probably going to get cut.

I thought Brunson was more on The Cubes. 

Posted

This thread looks like it's going well. 

Ugly win last night but I guess they all count the same. Both teams shot about 40% from the field. I was at a happy hour deal last night and they put the game on. That is seriously the first I've watched the Mavs since the trade. Just hard to get invested in watching this team. 

Posted
16 hours ago, Fastbreak said:

I’m talking Brunson.

He also didn’t sell high on Green and now Hardy is also a negative asset. Those things are a bit tricky, but a good GM sells at peak value. Both Green and Hardy could have garnered 1st round picks. Now Hardy is probably going to get cut.

 

Green and Hardy were in similar situations - flashes of promise backed by oodles of talent.  We did the right thing in extending them to team friendly terms and *not* trading them while they flashed.  Neither of them would have garnered 1st round picks in a trade even in their hottest streaks.  Throw-ins or secondary pieces in a bigger trade, maybe, and that takes a little bit of mental gymnastics.  I think for those two we did the right thing - the risk of trading them early far outweighed the potential reward of what they could have turned in to for what we were paying them.  

 

16 hours ago, Rex Kramer said:

I thought Brunson was more on The Cubes. 

It was a combination of Cuban and Donnie - they'd already set the dominos in motion and while Nico was here that season I haven't heard anyone who was around the team (media guys) say it was anyone's decision but Cuban's.

Posted
27 minutes ago, gsoda3 said:

 

Green and Hardy were in similar situations - flashes of promise backed by oodles of talent.  We did the right thing in extending them to team friendly terms and *not* trading them while they flashed.  Neither of them would have garnered 1st round picks in a trade even in their hottest streaks.  Throw-ins or secondary pieces in a bigger trade, maybe, and that takes a little bit of mental gymnastics.  I think for those two we did the right thing - the risk of trading them early far outweighed the potential reward of what they could have turned in to for what we were paying them.  

 

It was a combination of Cuban and Donnie - they'd already set the dominos in motion and while Nico was here that season I haven't heard anyone who was around the team (media guys) say it was anyone's decision but Cuban's.

That was my recollection 

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