Rob Pelinka Discussion: BBall Ops Pres + GM (AKA: Lucky Rob)

Everyone except AR

 

LOL …. I just figured that out days later this morning on my own.

 

Yes, sorry if I wasn't clear, but I was responding to this part by abeer: "i read a long piece a while back that detailed some of the internal fallout in dallas among the sports medicine/training staff, and i didn't love how this guy was characterized."

I was saying that I don't trust Nico firing this guy and I don't trust any media reports from the time about how the guy was characterized.

I don't have any real opinion, but in the absence of other evidence, I'm assuming that Holsopple is fine or good, having been named as the NBA's top strength and conditioning coach previously.

I guess, if you consider Nico being power hungry "getting into it."


https://sports.yahoo.com/article/nico-harrison-reportedly-fired-mavericks-140309003.html

 

Well… can’t argue with the enablers part, seeing as Luka wasn’t exactly a glowing testament to their athletic training work.

 

yeah, that was the article i think. there was more in there about screaming matches between him and the other dude that was retained, but i think what concerned me about it was that the piece was meant to bash harrison's move when part of me was like...it feels like these were luka's drinking buddies more than the team's trainers. and that culture went back before luka, when casey smith was nash and dirk's drinking buddy (like, for real, they were pals off the court). i think harrison (fairly) viewed that as unprofessional.

i'll repeat again that i think the harrison decision--which was disastrous--really did come down to a real difference in culture between him and luka. he didn't understand him and probably should have tried harder to do so. i'm guessing he's already realizing that with luka getting in better shape, but then again, dr. buss even said that if he knew shaq would get in shape, he wouldn't have moved him. sometimes, it takes something like that to happen for a change in mindset to occur.

anyway, this is all relevant to rob in that it's clear his philosophy is totally different. will it bring different results? we'll see. early returns are good, but i might have been happy to have let nico trim some of the problems for me, if that makes sense.

 

I didn't know much about Casey Smith before today. But apparently he kept Luka healthy for 5 years, averaging 69 games/season (or the equivalent during covid shortened seasons), and little more than a year after Nico fired him, Luka had his most injuries ever and missed the most games of his career. Smith then went to the Knicks, and he and his staff just won the NBA Trainers Association 2024-25 Athletic Training Staff of the Year award for making the Knicks the healthiest team this season, even under Thibodeau. The worst health this past season? The Dallas Mavericks.

All that, and he gets along with your superstars through multiple decades...and Nico wants to try to paint that as unprofessional? GTFOH.

So in the offseason of 2023, Nico decides he wants to fire the guy in person but finds out that Smith is "out of the state tending to his gravely ill mother in the final weeks of her life." So what does Nico do to a 19 year member of the organization with his dying mother? He fires him over video conference, with the reason of "being 'too negative,' according to sources briefed on the discussion who interpreted the vague reasoning to mean Smith wasn't enough of a yes-man."

https://sports.yahoo.com/article/mavericks-employee-fired-nico-harrison-224811030.html

This is probably true, and it's pure arrogance and stupidity on Nico's part. The guy is a buffoon who doesn't understand s***. He doesn't even understand the most basic part of the business and admitted it when he said he "didn't quite know it to what level" of how important Luka was to the fanbase.

 

i'd caution against crediting smith with the knicks's health or saying the mavs's issues were all due to his exit, but yes, he had a good reputation.

to be clear, i think harrison is wrong about luka and wrong about how to build the right culture in general.

if our FO thinks holsopple is bona fide, that's fine. if we hired him to appease luka without being confident about his qualifications, it's less good.