Dallas won the NBA title in 2011. But they were not built like the Heat team that they knocked off, nor the up-and-coming Thunder — teams of improving superstars. The Mavs had their aging superstar and a supporting cast that came together perfectly for them. It would have been difficult for Dallas to repeat.
So owner Mark Cuban looked at the roster, looked at the coming changes in the NBA’s new CBA — stiffer luxury taxes and limits on flexibility for high spending teams — rolled the dice and broke up the band. Tyson Chandler was gone. Jason Terry, Jason Kidd, and other keys to the Dallas title run were gone. The goal was to have cap space to get a superstar last summer.
Didn’t work. So Dallas built a team of short-term contracts so they will have cap space the next couple summers to chase another superstar. But in the short term Dallas is 13-21 overall and 2-8 in their last 10.
Which had Dirk Nowitzki questioning the plan to break up the band in the first place. From ESPNDallas.com.“It’s going to be tough now,” Nowitzki said after the Mavs’ home overtime loss to the Western Conference cellar-dwelling New Orleans Hornets. “I always liked to think you don’t want to build your franchise on hope.
“We hoped for Deron (Williams) last year. We hoped for Dwight (Howard). Why would he leave the Lakers? To me, it makes no sense. He’s in a great situation. Why would (Chris Paul) leave? (The Los Angeles Clippers are) the best team in the league probably right now. They’re probably the deepest team. So are you going to hope that we get something?
“Maybe Cuban has something up his sleeve. Maybe you have to take a chance on a bad contract to get him in here and make something happen. I mean, I don’t know. That’s something we’ll have to see this summer. We’re going to play out this season. I’m going to get better and better, hopefully from game to game, so I can actually close out some of these games. And then we’ll see what happens.”
Losing sucks. The Mavericks aren’t used to it, they have gone to the playoffs 12 years in a row under Cuban. But that streak is about to end.
Cuban’s plan was a bold gamble. The thing about gambling is you don’t always win. And losing sucks.
