Mark Cuban felt the heat after he let Tyson Chandler, J.J. Barea, Caron Butler, DeShawn Stevenson go. Brining in Lamar Odom has not worked out as planned and Dallas got off to a rocky 8-7 start after two heartbreaking losses in Los Angeles (veterans Derek Fisher and Chauncey Billups did them with game winners on back-to-back nights).
But Cuban isn’t worried.
He was interviewed by ESPN, something shown before the Mavs tilt with the Clippers Wednesday, and the Star Telegram has the translation (via SLAM).
Basically, he is selling patience.
“We’ve just got to make the playoffs, that’s all I really care about. Honestly, I was telling people if we’re 10-10 I’ll be thrilled to death. And if we were 5-15, I wouldn’t have been shocked, because you can’t just walk into a season and be ready, particularly if you’re a team that bases its defense on precision and team defense, and its offense off ball movement.
“If you’re young, your legs are always in shape, and if you’re an athlete, and you just run by people and jump over people. I think that’s why you saw the more athletic teams get off to great starts and the more ‘team’ teams struggle a little bit.
“I’m always win now, but you don’t destroy the future. I think you can do both, and that’s what we’ve tried to do.
“Yeah, we’ve lost some great players, and yet at the same time we kept a lot of good players, we kept Dirk (Nowitzki), JKidd, Jason Terry, Shawn Marion, so we lost ... but kept basically our top four. So by adding Vince Carter, by adding Lamar Odom, by adding Delonte West, I think literally we can be, I think we are a better team.”
He has to say that. What is he going to say? The man has a product to sell.
I think he makes some valid points. This is a team that will get better as the year goes on, and we’ve already started to see this. Dallas is playing better defense than last year but their offense has struggled. That will change. They will make the playoffs and be a tough out.
But by the second round, the lack of Tyson Chandler in the paint will come back to haunt them. This team is not better, especially when looking at playoff basketball.
