What’s the first rule of climbing out of a deep hole? Stop digging.
Dallas Mavericks ownership and front office are in a hole with their fan base after trading away Luka Doncic and assembling a team that went from the NBA Finals a season ago to likely missing the playoffs entirely this year (to be fair, injuries are a part of that). The Mavericks need to stop digging, yet here is what team governor Patrick Dumont said during a speaking engagement put on by a Dallas-area real estate organization this week:
“This was a decision about the future. If you look at our roster today and who we have, we feel like we’ve positioned ourselves to be incredibly competitive against the best teams in the NBA. And if you’re a fan of basketball — I’ll just throw that out there — you have Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, P.J. Washington, Anthony Davis and either Daniel Gafford or Dereck Lively as your starting five. That’s going to put fear into a lot of teams in the league, if we can get going…
“The objective was, ‘How do we create a roster for the future that allows us to be the most competitive team?’…
“It’s really just about improving the team for the future.”
You can feel the collective eye rolls from Mavericks fans. Tell us again how trading away a 25-year-old top-five player in the world (when healthy) for a 32-year-old great player but with an injury history is a good decision about the future. Stop digging.
Klay Thompson, for his part, is buying into the message.
Former Mavs owner Mark Cuban this week echoed what sources from every corner of the league have been saying since the trade: Even if somehow you talk yourself into the need to trade Doncic, “Just get a better deal.” As great as Anthony Davis can be, as much as Max Christie is thriving, getting just one first-round pick in this trade is mind-boggling, let alone there should have been more win-now talent. The Knicks gave up five first-round picks to get Mikal Bridges last offseason. Cuban rightfully said that if Dallas had gotten four first-round picks with Davis and Christie, the conversation would be different (fans would have still questioned the wisdom of making the trade, but at least that’s close to a fair return). It should be noted the Lakers only had two firsts to trade, so a third and maybe fourth team would have had to come in with much bigger roles than Utah had in the existing deal.
The fastest way out of the hole for the Mavericks is to start winning games (and not jack up ticket prices). However, with the unfortunate ACL injury to Kyrie Irving that will sideline him until at least the middle of next season, it will be a while before the level of winning fans saw with Doncic returns. Until then, stop digging.
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