If Les Alexander and Mark Cuban switched teams, would the Rockets be better?

http://www.troll.me/images/mah-*****/mah-necro-thumb.jpg

 

XX Marks the spot

 

Mark Cuban acts like he single-handedly brought the Mavericks from the desert to a championship. When in fact, all the necessary ingredients for success were there before Cuban purchased the team in 2000.

• Jason Kidd was drafted in 1994 and then traded for Michael Finley in 1996.
• Dirk Nowitzki was acquired in the 1997 draft for Robert Traylor.
• Steve Nash was acquired from Phoenix in 1998.

All these pieces were put in place by previous owner and management, Cuban only benefited from the windfall. In fact, Cuban's crazy demeanor was a major reason why Nash left for Phoenix in 2004 costing the Mavericks a chance to compete for a championship.

Furthermore, since the Mavericks' sole championship in 2011, Cuban has failed to rebuild through the draft, trading away first round picks Zeller, Olynk, and Anderson and grossly overpaying for Parsons, Matthews, and Barnes .

In the same timeframe, Rockets have turned over the entire roster, pulled the most lopsided trade in NBA history, drafted numerous quality picks, dealt with the saga of Dwight, and reinvented the modern NBA offense. Cuban still doesn't a have player to build around.

So in short, Les Alexander is the Godfather to Cuban's childish Fredo.

 

Honestly thats ****ed up. A bunch of us either went to ut or have ties to austin. Not cool at all

 

Buddy of mine used to work for the Rox and later the Mavs. He said Les is just as intent and passionate about winning as Cuban, but Les is much more professional about it, overall. So he's a better rep for the team.

Les also seems to be better about decision-making. Rockets have always found diamonds in the rough at reasonable prices. Mavs seem to go after big names after the hype has inflated their price (e.g., Parsons, Matthews, DWill, Rondo). We found Parson in the second round, let him go when the price was too high, found PBev, knew Harden's value, went after Scola, etc.

Les > Cuban.

 

My point is that he's an owner that knows how to listen to those that he hires. He doesn't have an ego that blinds him from listenig to his people. That's a real leader. Not someone who just likes sports that tries to bogart his team a la al davis.

 

Les hire MDA SO HES better

 

Dude, idk how all this came about and what intent was behind it, but I'm just responding. It was def tragic, and I empathize with the families involved. I hope you (or any of the CF nation) don't think I was marginalizing the events today.

What I will say is, I'm not 100% sure what the purpose of invoking that incident has here. If I've offended people involved or concerned with the matter, than I apologize. But my clarification has nothing to do with that crime.

 

I don't hate Cuban that much anymore he gained a lot of cred with me for truthsaying last year. But I still wouldn't want him as our owner. He likes to play GM and he's not as good at is a real GM like Morey. Mr. Alexander knows how to step aside and let his front office make the calls

 

Les showed his passion this year. But I think it is a wash. Cuban usually got alot of passion.

Cuban could have more championships here than in Dallas but still would not want to have this cry baby here.

If someone let's say like Steve Ballmer, an IT guy, succeeded Alexander, I would be fine with it.

 

To be fair, it has been Morey who found the gems.

Les is responsible for firing of coaches but I will not not go into that. He has been alright this year.

 

Up until last summer I would have said Cuban was the better owner. Who would have thunk that Les's interference finally worked out for once. I guess the broken clock has to be right at least twice a day.

Honestly, to me this isn't about Les, it's about Morey being better than Cuban

For all of Houston's transformation into MDA's offense, people forget a few things that happened in the last year.

Rockets got:

Eric Gordon - whom Morey always wanted
Ryan Anderson - whom Morey always wanted
Nene - signed by Morey
Sweet Lou - a trade orchestrated by Morey

And let's not forget

Patrick BeverlEy - whom MorEy found in Russia
Clint Capela - drafted by Morey
Trevor Ariza - acquired by Morey

And of course - James Harden

The 8 players you see on the court weren't acquired by Les. Les didn't make those choices. Les didn't build this team. It was Morey. If anything, Les has stopped pushing Morey to get guys like Jeremy Lin and lets him do his job.

People talk about how much impact MDA had - but no one talks about the fact that half of our key rotation was acquired this past year.

 

Finding "diamonds in the rough" is Morey not Les.

 

Ok, last time I'll explain this. An owner of any business knows that in order to really succeed, you must know what limitations you bring to the table (e.g., time constraints, knowledge constraints, etc). In order to overcome those things, you need to hire people that make up for those gaps.

Les hired Morey and was influential in hiring MDA. While Morey did the analytics, Les was smart enough to back him up. Les listens to his staff and doesn't try to bogart the GM or any other process. Cuban puts far too much of his own hubris into the Dallas mix, which is what I was explaining.

When you have owners trying too much to shape a team without the proper due diligence, you get the Dallas Cowboys, Oakland Raiders, Dallas Mavs, etc.

In reality, it's always the top decision-makers that are responsible for a team's outcome. Cuban and Alexander approach this quite differently, and there lies the gulf. So my argument still stands. The pen doesn't strike paper unless the scribe intends it.

I still think Daryl is great, but I attribute our performance more so towards Les recognizing the talent that is able to recognize player value. Case in point, Les at one point in his history claimed he would make a trade for any player he perceived as top 50, historically (Scottie Pippen/Charles Barkley). Since those two experiments fell flat, Les has not really taken the wheels on those decisions. In fact, when Dawson retired, Les took on Morey at Dawson's suggestion.

Leaders learn from mistakes and consequently hire and listen to people that he knows has greater ability. That in my mind advances him beyond Cuban and still is attributable to our current 1-0 lead on the spurs.

If Les doesn't hire DM the GM, then you cannot conclude that the Rockets nor whatever team DM is managing really ends up what we are today without that being a market with a "good nightlife".

 

Les hired Morey. If Morey is credited for finding the right players, Les is credited for finding the right management and listening to them. Those trades (and the trades leading up to them) probably don't happen without Morey assuming Dawson's old gig.