PS. W22_STREAK will you change the first letter in your username to "L". It might give us luck for option 1. 0-22 Baby!
Cuban=No Championships... Want to talk about how Morey outsmarted Cuban and his GM and got Martin when no one thought he was available. And if Morey thought adding an additional player at a deep position was necessary, he would still do it. He brought in Artest when Battier and McGrady were still here. And he brought in Brooks when on paper he was the 4th pg on the team behind the Point Guard equivalent of Chandler and Haywood in Alston, James, and Francis.
Cuban has gone further than the Rockets ever did in the last decade. The results speak for themselves. Yea, as I have said in OP, I commend Morey greatly for the Martin trade. But look at it in another perspective...Butler and Haywood isn't bad for a consolation prize. No? I think the some people view that Battier is a star on the team. But really its not like we were bringing in Howard when Yao is still here. Battier is solely a role player and Artest was meant to be a star. No conflict of interest there... Its very accurate to say that Morey doesn't spend as much to acquire talent as Cuban does. Hence our team can't be improved through a rich owner spending money on talent.
Cuban does do salary dumps. He broke up the Dallas-Big 3 of Nash, Finley and Dirk. He waived Finley with the Allen Houston rule(allows the waived player's guaranteed salary to not count against the cap). If money was no object, Cuban would have paid the luxury tax on Finley. Spurs signed Finley and got another ring. He let Nash go, because he was asking for too much money.
I think he fails to realize that the Mavs are a playofff feeder team with 1st round exist also. They have been eliminated 3 out of the last 4 seasons in the 1st round. Same animal, but different stripes. They have a higher playoff seed, but they still are gone in the 1st round.
Eventually the go for broke pay for everything strategy is going to catch up with the Mavs. They are paying for a bunch of older players to try and help Dirk win a championship now. Houston's strategy has changed. They are shifting already from a build around one guy strategy to developing a deep team. One that can grow together. Houston is developing its talent to grow together while trying to bring in role players to fill in the mentor roles. Almost like the Yankees of the 90's and the Patriots of this era. Develop through the draft and through trades while staying away from the big splash free agent signings. Cuban is mimicking what Jerry Jones is doing. Pay for the high priced talent and hope it meshes well in the playoffs. The people of Dallas pay for name brands. They want to win but also like to just be in headlines.
They have gone further than the Rockets in the last decade. They went to the Finals with Dirk, Finley and Nash. After Cuban dumped Finley and Nash, they have never been back to the Finals. They are perennial 1st round exits like the Rockets.
THey were in the finals in 06. If Dwayne didnt get those superstar phantom calls, the Mavs probably would have pull that one off. While Im so glad they didnt win it, hate aside, they were a elite team.
With all the crappy defense, rotation problems and contract issues, we've lead in the 4th of EVERY game. We are about to get healthy vs some trash, i'd give this team till new years before I make any assumptions on where the team is going. Saying that, they do need to decide what style they want to play because going back and forth isn't going to work.
Ok, I didnt say you were wanting a first round bounce. But by the looks of your post you seem to imply that this current team is okay and we will get 45-50 wins and you are happy with that. I'm not depressed about the losses per se...I'm just depressed about the way the current franchise is going. Its one thing for the Miami Heat to go 0-5, its another entirely different story when this team goes 0-5. 0-5 is a good reflection of the current squad's ability..we are not 0-5 bad, but we are not that good and we are not going to get better as of right now. If the Thunder went 0-5 I'd be like, "great no problems Durant/Westbrooks is gonna get better each year and this team is going places". But if a veteran team goes 0-5 you know something is wrong.
I think thats exactly the problem with this team. When you think about it, how many blowouts occur in the NBA? All the lottery teams hang around with the top teams for most of the game before losing the plot in the final stages of the game. Unless its Lakers vs the Wolves, many many games between a playoff team and a lottery team stays see-saw and balanced until the final stages when the playoff team takes over. Thats the difference between a playoff team and a lottery team. E.g. The Raptors hanged around with the Lakers in LA last night and it wasn't until the final couple of minutes or so that the Lakers were able to pull away. And thats the worst team against the best team in the league on the homecourt of the best team.
I missed one. The fact still stands that they are perenennial first round exits like the Rockets. Changing our model to fit theirs, just makes us a first round exit with a higher seed. If the Rockets are trying to find a model for winning rings, they need to go with the Lakers, Spurs, Heat, and Celtics. Cuban's method of salary dumping all-stars will not take the Rockets to another ring.
QUOTE=W22_STREAK]..morey screwed up when it mattered the most---battier for gay and lee for ariza. these 2 trades ruined the franchise and ruined yao ming's career.[/QUOTE] can you please explain this quote from the other thread...i'm having a hard time taking anything you say seriously after reading it. Sounds like you're knee jerking pretty heavily.
Well, if you were to label the Mavs as first round fodder like the Rockets, then you could almost say every western team is playoff fodder to the Lakers. The Mavs, while I hate them, have a much higher chance of upsetting the Lakers than we do. I'm saying Cuban's strategy is a very good one to improve the team, and I stick by that. They went to the Finals, and almost won that, and every single Rockets fan would be very happy if any Rockets squad achieved that accomplishment. You may say since Dirk's MVP run they've just been playoff fodder just like us, the fact remains Cuban's strategy has gotten them a nice MVP title and a Finals trip. They had the best record in 06-07 and you cannot possibly use the Warrior's upset of them as an argument against this. You see, I'd LOVE LOVE LOVE to be in a situation like the Spurs/Celtics/Heat had. If I had the best PF of all time, a hall of famer with the ability to being able to afford to tank a season to get a top 5 pick, or a payroll that I could afford to slash to 0, I'd do that. But with Yao Ming on this team, we cannot go that way. We got Yao Ming and we are running out of time and we have to win win win no matter what. Hence Cuban's strategy is probably one of the most viable options for us. We cannot afford to tank and we CANNOT tank. Our players are too good. We cannot get any good draft picks either. We don't have a Durant or a Westbrook that we can legitimately see internal growth from. Our stars have reached their ceiling and our role players are not star-quality players and will never become a star. I thought we had a GREAT thing with Brooks Martin Ariza being our backcourt and being so yonug and being able to develop together and reach their prime in a few years time for a legit push at a title, but Morey traded away Ariza and we barely have a SF now. So in Cuban's case, he'd spend loads of cash and bring a SF in no matter how much over the lux tax he is. But Morey and Les won't do that. We saw that with the Ariza salary dump. So thats another year wasted and another season of Brooks/Martin/Scola/Yao's prime years wasted. Mavs can actually get a top 3 seed. That alone guarantees entry into the 2nd round and with another trade at the trade deadline they could even go further. Even Robert Sarver is spending to win. I really think we should seriously look at spending some serious cash before its too late. Bring in some veterans, its all gain no loss. What we got to lose? Capspace?
Three of the games came to last second plays and easily could have gone the other direction. All of the teams are good. It's disappointing, but not disastrous. Whether we are 0-5 vs. 5-0 wouldn't make me think we were a contender - it's not our record that's really the problem.
