I think Cuban will take an approach a bit like Ainge and go with a bunch of vets on 1-2 year deals that coincide with the end of Dirk's and Marion's contract to make 2 more runs. I'd look for him to sign Nash (first choice, but Dragic or Lin if he can't land Nash), then try to sign Camby. He'll amnesty Haywood, and try to add some more vets that one to make a run with Dirk, Marion (and possibly) Nash. Then the slate will be clean in two years.
If Mavs fans are on suicide watch, then Rockets fans are already dead and burning in hell fire for eternity.
If Mavs are all-in for Howard then how do they chase Dragic and/or Nash and/or Lin? Don't they chase Kidd instead? To get HoHo they need to take back 1 or 2 bad contracts and give talent and cap relief to Oh!lando.
As a Dallas hater, I have to admit I smiled with the news about Deron Williams and Jason Terry today. However, I also think they made the right play in sacrificing Chandler for a shot at both D-Will and Howard. Even if Chandler came back, this team was not going to win the title again. OKC, Miami, and SA would have all been better. And there's no way Chandler is worth $15 mil/yr for 4 years. They had the best chance to land Williams out of all the other teams in the NBA. Ultimately, money spoke louder than hometown discount and near-term shot at the title. And, now the Mavs can feel the pain of "almost" like we've been feeling the last few years.
Why the comparison with the Rockets? If you want to make a historical Rockets comparison, it would be like letting Clyde, Horry, and Elie go after the 95 season on the prayer of signing Gary Payton in 96. And then Payton decides to re-up with the Supersonics in 96 leaving the Rockets Hakeem and nobodies. Rockets didn't give up anything for DWill because they never had anything in the first place. Dallas gave up DPOY and some other pieces.
The Mavs sacrificed a season of Dirks career for this Dirk, Howard dream. What a stupid mistake by Cuban. He was so arrogant that he thought this was going to just fall on his lap. I can laugh all the way to the Morey asset swollen bank because Orlando will not trade Howard to Dallas. No reason to. Let's hope Orlando takes 3 mid first rounders instead of garbage from Dallas or ATL.
But.....Dallas won a Championship?? Doesn't that trump everything else?? I'm pretty sure there are plenty of Rockets fans who would be willing to put up with 2-3 years of crappiness (is that really worse than being mediocre?) if it meant winning a 'Ship.
No, the Chandler non-signing was a really stupid move. Think about it this way: how often does a team like Dallas get a player of Dirks' caliber? How often did they have a center that fit as well with Dirk as Chandler? You just don't throw away the last few years where your superstar is good enough to have a shot at a a championship for a 50% chance to sign at a player like Deron. And what makes it worse: the free agent class after Deron really is quite bad, so they have little chance to recover. The most sensible thing to do would be to trade Dirk for picks to a place he agrees with and where he has a shot at another ring. What they probably will do is sign a few mediocre players to expensive contracts to placate the fans. Which of course won't make them a contender now and will only delay the inevitable rebuild with a few years of mediocrity.
Winning the championship went to Cuban's big head and instead of having a legit chance of repeating, he chased a rainbow. He deserves credit for outlandish spending over the years to keep the Mavs relevant and finally cashing in last year in a magic carpet ride. But once on top, the rarefied air made Cuban lose his mind. If Dirk were 5-10 years younger, letting Chandler leave to wait on someone else might have made a little sense. But now Dirk is 34 years-old and sliding in the wrong direction. Their days as a contender are officially over. When the window is open, you don't get cute; you jump.
They are toast. There is no Dwight in your future either. Yes that is Dirk when you saw a guy with his walker taking jumpshots from behind the arc. Oh well their lone championship was fun to watch and lasted less time than anyone elses in history. LOL!
Cuban squandered his Championship cred on a very questionable gamble, and now we're reminded of the fact he let Nash slip through his fingers.
Nice insight. I agree. It's a shame that these superstar players do not examine the Rockets roster and notice how good the depth is. If 2 of the superstar players came here they could find themselves with teammates that are both young, talented, and with upside. They wouldn't have a team (out of 15 guys) that contains between 5 to 8 stiffs on it because there's no money left. These young Rockets players are on rookie contracts so they can be both talented while being lower paid. The team isn't filled up with mostly vet players with little or no upside making the vet minimum. Maybe what Les needs to do is sell part of the team to someone who's considered "cool"... someone the star players would wanna hang with and "work" for... if you know what I'm driving at. Who exactly this person might be, I do not know...
I guess? I mean, technically speaking, had the Rockets traded away Hakeem for a bag of beans after their first championships, they'd still have a championship... but would it make the move any less stupid? Yeah, but Dallas didn't mortgage the future for that championship. Their choice was not mortgaging the future to repeat. The situation you're speaking of would be more like Miami's first championship where they got Walker, White Chocolate, Shaq, etc. to surround Wade.
Heck, I hated Dallas before moving here (previously, hated Dallas from the SF Bay Area as a 49er fan). That said, folks have been predicting the Utah Jazz and San Antonio Spurs demise for years. And every year, just like Michael Myers in the Halloween movies, the corpse of the Jazz and Spurs sits up and continues to wreak havoc in the NBA. I suspect the Mavs will do so as well.
