Denver is too hot. We got blown by Philly, at home, and Denver beats GS. We've historically been a good road team, but we're one of the worst this year.
mavs pulled a lakers and got BLASTED by philly. guess there's no need to worry about losing the lotto pick.
noel's a pretty good fit. he's got a little more hoop iq than i had seen. his knees and frame concern me, but beggars can't be choosers. they'll have to pay him in FA, but that's better than attempting to pay him and failing. so important to have a big who's a lob threat these days.
How is this okay? Mavs should be fined and lose picks. http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...avericks-tried-lose-being-eliminated-playoffs
I just assume Cuban has gone senile since around Sept of last year. I don't like but at least he's not saying trust the processes. I'd be ok with a couple million dollar.
He's bold enough to say what everyone is doing. Is it ideal? Not at all. It's an area that needs improvement, and should be on Adam Silver's to do list. Tanking is bad for the sport period. It should not be rewarded.
Cuban is saying the truth and he has the balls to say it. I salute him. Many teams have done excessive tanking, including the Lakers. Its the worst kept secret in basketball.
exactly. and really, the mavs didn't do everything they could to lose games. phx did that. the mavs' coaching staff and players were still trying to win; management just sold of assets and didn't pursue short-term improvements at the trade deadline. phx's whole organization looked like they were pointed at losing at all costs. i still think the "trust the process" stuff is a sad joke. they had t-shirts printed with joel embiid showering ping pong balls? really? shouldn't your continued presence in the cellar wholly invalidate said process? contending teams have been stripped and rebuilt in a shorter period of time than "the process" will take to make philly even respectable. point being: dallas's half season attempt at tanking is far less egregious than what several teams are doing (including the lakers, really, who shut down healthy veterans pretty early). furthermore, cuban's honesty may prompt the league to consider their policies. i've seen lots of creative solutions that could help solve tanking, but as silver himself has indicated, it requires systemic changes. simply altering the lotto system will only go so far (and may unfairly punish some teams). tbh, the first thing the league needs to do is find ways to spread out established talent. they always claim they're doing this, but they're really not. removal of the max contract is a great start, but they're too scared that their owners aren't competent enough to manage that. and they're probably right. but if lebron made 60 million per, he wouldn't always have 2 allstar teammates. instead some team that currently has zero would have one, and maybe you wouldn't see a morass of terrible teams trying to out-lose each other for two months every year.
^ The problem you run into there is the Lakers outbidding just about 90% of the teams out there. Small market teams wouldn't stand a chance.
they could still draft a guy and be able to keep him for 8 years like now. that should be enough time to build a team that convinces someone to stay, imo. also, there would still be a soft cap in my scenario. it wouldn't be like baseball. i actually think removing maxes actually gives small market teams a better chance at getting superstar in FA. they could just throw a ton of cash at someone. right now, they're in milwaukee AND it's the same paycheck. if milwaukee offered 10 million per over the lakers' offer...you might take it. particularly if you didn't have to go up against 3 and 4 allstar squads anymore.
players almost never leave until their second contract is finished (RFA), so yes, 8 years. re: dennis smith. i really like him. he was considered a top 2/3 prospect this time last year. his nc state team was s***, much like fultz's washington team. i'm actually not sure what made his stock drop so much. elite athlete, good size, much more skilled than advertised. i think people see steve francis, baron davis, and derrick rose comparisons and think only of the late-career versions of those guys. the teams that drafted them were QUITE happy with their choices.
It's his mentality. Most people don't walk away from his film thinking, "Boy that kid wants to win the game more than anyone else. What a bright young man." He's got all the athleticism in the world, but I'm not sure he wants to bring a title to the Mavs. If he's Eric Bledsoe, it's a good deal. He could be worse.
he could be a lot better. bledsoe hadn't shown that range at the same age. guessing if dsj played with 4 other lotto picks, he'd have won a bunch more games, too.
