The Mavericks were one of five teams Dwight Howard met with during his free agent tour, but for whatever reason, they were eliminated from contention fairly early in the process.
Now that Howard is with Houston, and Dallas has been forced to fill in its roster with many smaller pieces that may or may not help the team return to the playoffs, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that the spin from the team’s owner Mark Cuban is going to be a positive one.
From ESPN Dallas:
Cuban might be right about his team being better off in the shorter term without Howard and with the players the Mavericks were able to sign instead. But that logic only makes sense for one season.
Even with Howard in the fold and a healthy Dirk Nowitzki next year, no one would have Dallas near the top of their list of favorites to compete for the title. The sales pitch to Howard, and why it might’ve made sense to strongly consider Dallas as a destination, had to do with the future, beginning with the 2014 season.
Nowitzki’s current contract would be up by then, and he’s already gone on record saying he’ll take a substantial pay cut in his next deal in order to maximize his team’s chances of signing the talent necessary to return the Mavs to a championship-caliber squad. With Nowitzki and Howard in place, Dallas would immediately have become an attractive destination for the biggest names in free agency to consider.
Once Howard was out of the picture, Dallas signed Jose Calderon and Monta Ellis, and added Samuel Dalembert, as well. Those pieces might help the team more immediately than Howard would have given what the rest of the roster might have looked like, but it’s impossible to buy what Cuban is selling regarding his team being better off overall without Howard in place.