Hey Mark Cuban!

By Migs


Hey Mark Cuban! Wake up!

My friend Jeff and I are huge Dallas Mavericks fans. I have been a follower of the Mavs for 11 years now, and Jeff, for almost just as long. The Mavs have lost 8 of their last 10 contests, and while the losses of Caron Butler and Dirk Nowitzki (who has recently returned from a knee sprain) have contributed to Dallas' recent slide, great teams win against the odds. The Mavs just haven't been able to score enough to be relevant.

Around 7 years ago, Don Nelson was the Mavericks head coach, and as any basketball fan would know, Nellie let the Mavs play. He let them run, run, and run some more. Nick Van Exel scored to his heart's content. Raef LaFrentz made it to national television. Mike Finley, Steve Nash, and Dirk Nowitzki was a big three that scored and was as entertaining as any the league's ever seen. Eduardo Najera would moonlight as Dallas' center. You get the picture.

And oh, we can't forget Shawn Bradley. The svelte preacher man was a filler center at best during his years in Dallas. Wow, Dallas has a soft center? Again, go figure. Maverick eclair. That's right. That's who they were.

After Nellie had issues with Cuban and left town, Avery Johnson took over, and the team began their ascent towards becoming a decent defensive squad. Steve Nash, like Nellie, had skipped town, and morphed into an MVP level player. Jason Terry, formerly of the woebegone Hawks, was now the starting point guard. Erick Dampier was acquired from Golden State to be the team's starting center, representing an upgrade over Shawn Bradley- "upgrade" like a run down Toyota Prius is an upgrade over a run down Honda. Not much of a push upward there.

With Avery, came the 2006 finals meltdown, the 2007 first round self-destruction at the hands of an upstart Warriors team, and pre playoff game partying from the likes of Josh Howard in 2008. By the end of 2008, Johnson was out the door, and Cuban then handed the reins to former Piston and Pacer coach Rick Carlisle. Carlisle was a good choice then considering his experience dealing with adversity (he was the guy on the sidelines for Indiana during the Brawl at the Palace in 2004), and his "players first" attitude which contrasted Avery Johnson's overbearing style. The Mavs have made decent runs at the playoffs during Carlisle's tenure, but if you asked me, the team is a bit fragile still. Sure, they've lost Caron Butler (maybe forever), and Dirk's been hurt recently, but to go 2-8 in that span is inexcusable. Brendan Haywood, in true Cuban style, was overpaid, and is currently underachieving. He is pretty much the next Erick Dampier. He is untradeable, and I can't see why any squad out there would want him for the money he's raking in. Jason Terry is still effective, but streaky. He's not getting any younger, and he's still being paid a lot of cash. He too is not likely to be dealt because of his contract. Cuban keeps sticking to crowd favorite JJ Barea as his backup point man off the bench. While Barea is quite the dynamo, he's not a pure point guard, and, in an offense that tends to be as slow and perimeter oriented as Dallas', his penetration skills work to the teams advantage- and disadvantage. He tends to forget he's dime and a few quarters tall, and he is turnover prone. That isn't good when you're a team that doesn't have too many possessions to work with during games. The Mavericks have no first round picks, and are over the luxury tax threshold.

Mr. Cuban, is this good ownership? You overpay veterans who have worn out their respective welcomes and do not fancy developing young talent. Dirk is an MVP-caliber cager, but, he needs help, and I for one believe that championship teams are built from the ground up, and not through transplanting arms and legs. Sure, one may argue that Pau Gasol was the jet fuel that helped propel LA to a title in 2009, and that Rasheed Wallace catapulted Detroit to its unlikely 2004 championship, but then, those two squads possessed solid cores before Pau and 'Sheed came on board. Those cores had been with each other for a while, and were balanced, through and through. The Dallas core for these last few years has been Kidd, Terry, and Dirk, with other parts grabbed off fire sales or supposedly "blockbuster" trades. The Mavericks' core is old, and is, in a way, not dynamic enough to take over games on the defensive end. The addition of Tyson Chandler was a good move, but beyond that, what? Ajinca? Stevenson? Cardinal? Those guys are one dimensional players who are second stringers at best.

Once Dirk and Kidd retire, and Terry shoots his last decent 3-ball, fixing up the financial mess that Mark Cuban's made in Big D will take a while. If the chance to make deals on draft day presents itself, I say go for it. The Mavs need to prepare for the inevitable while trying to win now. The Spurs have been successful at doing that, and so have the Lakers. The Mavs need not follow the business/basketball model of the 2006 Heat who whooped them in the championship round. The Heat of that era mortgaged all its cap flexibility to get the likes of Antoine Walker, J-Will, Gary Payton, and Shaq to help Dwyane Wade reach NBA nirvana. We all know how long it took for Miami to become relevant again after that.

So Mr. Cubes, learn from what's happened around you, be shrewd, and savvy. Changes must be made. Drastic ones.

Fans don't really care whether you get a Landry, Iguodala, or maybe even a 'Melo. Anything is better than trying to plug this huge leak with Sasha Pavlovic.

Let's go Mavs, but then, that cheer needs to be amended a wee bit. We'll cheer for the team, the players, yes, we shall. Cheering for the team's management? Well, that's a whole other ballgame.

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