I agree with everything that Gater said. I hate the idea of buying championships. This is why I hate the Yankees...Lakers...and, most recently, the Mav's. Stockpiling talent and trading away players that considered themselves valuable to the team is just not the right way to build a contender. Both NVE and Howard were obviously quite at home in Dallas, and they were made to feel like they were wanted in Dallas. Nick Van Exel was clearly their best player throughout the playoffs, and what does Cuban do with him after the season? Trade his ass for the best available player. And Howard? I would say he was a damn good post presence for them...18 ppg, 7 boards on 48% from the field. I know that the championship is the one thing that everybody wants, but I think that loyalty still has its place in the league, and I am hoping that future FA's remember these deals before they sign with Dallas. Dallas apologists, please don't respond to the loyalty point with Mike Finley's conctract extension or anything of that sort...so he signed his young, athletic 2nd best player to a longterm contract...big deal. Cuban isn't doing anything revolutionary here. It's pretty simple, really...He's just trading for the best available player, regardless of overlapping talent/positions, and just leaves it to Nellie to sort it out. And...trust me, Nelson's gimmicky-ass zone isn't going to work forever. Dirk in the middle? For extended periods of time? Seriously? This is a guy that has previously had issues at PF, which is why they traded for guys like Howard in the past. I am almost looking forward to the day that Cuban finds himself with $120 million worth of contracts to his PG's, SG's, and SF's, and still no rings. It's not so much that I hate Cuban or even the Mav's, just what they represent. I think that their big 3 is one hell of an offensive unit. Dirk is as good an offensive player as their is in the league, and Michael Finley is the ultimate team player, but they should be building around this core, not on top of it.
Thats why Dallas kicked the crap out of the Kings in the first game of the play-offs when Webber was at full speed. If you want to blame the Kings loss to the Mavs (which is obsurd since Dallas spanked the Kings in the first game with Webber) on Webbers injuery then I guess Dallas can claim their loss to the Spurs on Dirks injury. Face it...Dallas has passed the Kings in the Ranking of the NBA's elite. Last years play-offs proved it.
The Kings won the first game, my friend. Not so absurd, I guess? Let's recap last years semi conference finals. Kings win game 1. In game 2, Webber goes down(Played most of the game, but still not even close to the 40 minutes a game that he would normally be playing at this point of the season), and the Mav's manage a win. The series proceeds to go 7 games, even with Webber down for the last 5. The Mav's win in 7. So...The Kings minus their best player(Don't give me the record with Webber vs. record without...he is their best player, and there is no argument against that) almost go on to win the series. If anything, that series proved to me that the Kings retained their #3 ranking of the NBA's elite.
Well he might not have been cheap previously, but as soon as he got whiff of the lux tax he sure did. Didn't sign his own starting SF for an amount less than half what he is paying his back-up 4 (Mo) and back-up 5 (Cato) when not signing him gains you no cap relief. Also, fire sales going on with Jamison and other 2nd tier stars this offseason, not a peep from our front office. Seems plain to me Les is after the most profitable mediocre to above average team he can get--thanks to us lucking into Yao he doesn't have spend much additional money now that the fans have something to be excited about. vc, gater--I don't fault Cuban at all. He is playing by the rules set up by the owners and players. If he fights all efforts to make the rules more equitable that is one thing, but I don't think you can knock him by trying to make his team the best it can be within the system the league set up--we would be fortunate to have an owner like that. How can you fault I guy willing to spend a lot of his own money because above all else he is trying to win. BTW--IMO Sac probably would have cruised through the Mavs and probably won a ring had Webber not been injured. But that was last year, I think the Mavs are probably better now.
I'm still not totally convinced that Antoine will buy into the team concept. During the press conference introducing him and Delk, he was still whining about how there were only 2 good players in Boston and it was hard to beat NJ with only two good players. He said this with Delk sitting right next time and right after Cuban praised Delk for his playing abilities. Antoine's attitude, at least from what I saw in the press conference, was absolutely classless.
vj23k, I hate the lakers and Yankee too, but not because they bought thier championships, but because I don't have one. As for disgusting, how about throwing games to get some of your Hall of Fame Centers that you guys seem to always get? As for Cuban, as a Mavs fan, thank God. I have suffered for over a decade watching game after game of crappy basketball. I don't care how he does it so long as its legal just let me watch great basketball. Stressboy
I don't think anybody can "buy" a championship in the current NBA system, other than the willingness to pay the luxury tax. Cuban is post-lockout. He couldn't "buy" any players. While you may argue that the Lakers bought Shaq, the present Lakers can't buy anybody with money. They didn't buy the services of Payton and Malone. They got them because of the possibility of getting to win a championship together with the glamour of Hollywood. And Phil Jackson's reputation of a great ego juggler doesn't hurt. And I don't agree that it's a loyalty issue either. Dallas is determined to keep their core (i.e. the Big Three). All the other parts are tradable. Howard didn't produce as they wanted. They got rid of him. LaFrentz didn't produce as they wanted. They got rid of him. NVE did produce. But he plays the same position as Nash. His departure was seen as inevitable. Even Nick himself knew it. I don't think you can blame Cuban for any of these reasons. What you may criticize is that the type of team he's putting together. It is debatable whether a shoot-happy team without little inside presence and little one-on-one defense can really compete for champioinship.
LoL, I can tell you hate the Mavs. The Mavs were destroying the Kings in game 2 until the end of the 3rd quarter, when Webber went down. So the Mavs did more than "manage a win". Give me a break.
One thing that I absolutely don't understand: Why the Rockets were able to beat the Kings last season but got blown out by Dallas? Yao generally played well in those games, and went absolutely nuts in the first game at Dallas, yet we still lost by 12.
Mavs would have won game 2 w/wo the Webber injury, but even so that was only get a split at home. That Mavs team had been very poor against a full Kings team as it was much of the first 2 games on the Mavs home court-I don't think too many people think if both teams where healthy Dallas had much a chance. It took the Mavs 7 tough games to beat a hapless Kings team anyway, after losing game 1 at home and with the Kings home court advantage Dallas would have been hard pressed to push the series to 6 if both teams we healthy IMO. This year things could be very different--I suspect the Mavs will be better than the Kings in the regular season and the playoffs. That is hunch, though the Mavs still have some questions.
The Rockets did not throw any games to get Yao Ming. It's just hard to win with most of your starting 5 being injured for significant periods of time during the season. As for Hakeem, I don't recall a huge tank-a-thon, but, regardless, that was a team with a different owner and a different coach. They finished 29-53 that season...certainly not a good record, but not the worst in the league that season either. I really don't hate them. I dislike them, but that is as expected since they are a (potential) Rocket Rival. Sorry...I didn't really recall that specific game, but I knew that Webber went down with time left. I don't remember how close the Kings were, though. It really wasn't the point of my post anyway...
Eh, sorry about the double post(No edit). I am basically saying what DS said. Had Webber not gone down, I don't see the Mav's advancing to the next series, disproving crash's point. When Webber went down, the series would have been tied 1-1, with the Kings owning the home court advantage. When Dirk went down, the Spurs were, IMO, already in control of the series.
