Mark Cuban: Every Bit of Me Wanted to Kick His Ass

As much as I despise Cuban, Mavs definitely improved a lot this off-season. I don't think if anyone had noticed, but Cuban is making his roster moves based on xRAPM.

Lets take a look:



I selected top ten players by order of minutes played (MP). There were four players with negative or close to 0 xRAPM: Calderon, Marion, Delembert, and Blairs.

Guess what happened to them this off season? They are all gone! The only player with + value was 37-year old Carter.

The other players with clear + xRAPM are all still with the team.

The top 4 players (via traded or FA) Cuban acquired all had + value in xRAPM. Even their total minuted played almost matched the players he replaced.

Coincident? I think not!

We can dislike Mavs all we want, but they CLEARLY improved their roster. Every one of their top 10 players will likely have a positive impact on the court.

 

You're considering Felton a net positive, lol

The hilarious part is a lineup of Melo, Felton, JR Smith, Tyson Chandler provides +11 according to xRAPM

 

The difference is that Nowitzki doesn't make the players around him better (really he never has). Harden facilitates the Rockets offense while still scoring more than Nowitzki and he's more efficient than Nowitzki too (.618 TS% vs .603 TS%).

As far as the playoffs, you might want to check the actual numbers. In last year's playoffs Nowitzki averaged 19.1 pts on .480TS% with 8.0 reb, 1.6 ast. Against Portland Harden averaged 26.8pts on .519 TS% with 4.7 reb and 5.8 ast.

Over the course of his entire career Nowitzki has a TS% of .579 in the playoffs while Haren's career playoff TS% is .583.

 

sounds like he put a gun on his head.

 

You're basing your entire logic off of RAPM. RAPM also says that Lebron James is a negative defensively. Do you really believe that?

 

Lebron really coasted defensively last season

 

I have no idea why you randomly pulled up this stat, but according to this stat,

Vince Carter 4.3 xRAPM $4.3mil
Jae Crowder 2.6 xRAPM $0.9mil
Chandler Parsons 2.1 xRAPM $14.7mil

So if what you say is true, then Cuban screwed himself while trying to screw Morey.

 

Relative to the standard that we expect from Lebron maybe. Regardless, there's absolutely no way that he was an overall negative on the defensive end last season.

 

LeBron on/off court last season. Yes, I know not exactly the same, but it is the premise for which RAPM is based on.

On court defense 106.6
Off court defense 104.5

I think you're mistaking LeBron's "ability to play defense" with his actual defense in the regular season. For reference to his "ability to play defense," here are his on/off court stats for the playoffs.

On court playoff defense 108.4
Off court playoff defense 119.0

 

Cuban is a billionaire he can buy anything, the question is? why Parson was't offended that Cuban see him as an overpaid player too?

 

Basically this. The Heat were an elite offensive team with a massive slip on the defensive end mainly because of Lebron and Wade.

 

No doubt that the Heats defense slipped last season but regardless Lebron wasn't a negative on the defensive end.

There's lots more examples just like that too. Do you really think that Gortat (3.7) is a much better defensive player than DPOY Noah (2.5)?

RAPM isn't a great measure.

 

He can't make other players better? Really? I disagree. The defense still focuses in him a lot allowing more open looks for others. Still one of the best shooters in the league.

 

You might want to go back and look at Dirk's stats in that series. All his shooting percentages dropped (8.3% on 3's). He did average 8 boards but that was bolstered by one game in which he had 15. He's still good....not great.

 

Do you think teams are doubling Dirk? Do you think that Dirk is actually passing to open shooters?

Definitely a good shooter but he doesn't command double teams and he doesn't pass well .

 

I've always maintained that there is no good stat to gauge individual defense, at least no public stat we have access to. The on-court-off-court numbers have too much noise to be accurate at all to judge a guy's defensive impact.

I doubt that Cuban relies solely on xRAPM to make his personnel decisions. I think he is more sophisticated than that.

 

Interesting. Cuban and his team won title and kept in playoffs every year, yet he signed chandler parsons for personal reason against Morey? for what?

 

No, no they are not. If anything, they are roughly equal and both teams should fall somewhere in the 4th-8th playoff seeds. If the Mavs do have an advantage it will be at the coaching level when Carlisle makes McHale look like a doorknob.

 

Mark Cuban: Hi. I'm Mark Cuban. I'm full of bluster, bravado, and bull****---the three B's! This summer, when I knew my chance at Carmelo Anthony was virtually nil, I signed Chandler Parsons to a deal that far exceeded his value. You could say I thanked Dirk Nowitzki for his loyalty by stealing six million dollars a year from him and adding it to Parsons' value as a player. But it worked! I screwed over Daryl Morey....and that's all that counts!

Dirk Nowitzki: Was? Sind Sie ernst? Sie tat das alles nur zu Chaos mit Daryl Morey? Sind Sie verrückt? Das war mein Geld!

Mark Cuban: Look, Dirk, who else was I gonna sign with the money, anyway?

Dirk Nowitzki: Eric Bledsoe noch verfügbar ist. Greg Monroe. Jemand, der zeigt zumindest einige Versprechen. Aber nein, man musste Herr Schöne in der Blue Oyster Bar unterzeichnen.

Mark Cuban: Okay, yeah, we signed in the Blue Oyster Bar. So what?

Dirk Nowitzki: Du gehst mir auf die Nerven. Ich wusste, ich sollte Daryl Morey Geld genommen haben. Nein, halt! Ich will nicht zu hören! Ich bin hier raus!