Source:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/basketball/mavs/stories/
012109dnspomoore.3ee393a.html
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Dallas Mavericks aren't what they thought they were
12:31 PM CST on Wednesday, January 21, 2009
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All of us make errors in judgment.
Ask those who turned huge sums of money over to Bernie Madoff.
My downfall wasn't a Ponzi scheme. It was basketball. I thought the Dallas
Mavericks team that advanced to The Finals and came back to win 67 games that
next season was special.
It wasn't. It was a very good team that enjoyed a special season. There's a
difference.
The real problem for the Mavericks is that owner Mark Cuban and president of
basketball operations Donnie Nelson also bought into this deception. Their
failure to recognize what this team was – or wasn't – has led the Mavericks
to their current tepid state.
This team is frozen somewhere between championship caliber and mediocrity.
It's too good to dismantle but not good enough to break through with one bold
move.
Is there a trade this team can pursue that will make it better than the LA
Lakers this season? The answer is no.
Can you think of a deal that will put the Mavericks on equal footing with San
Antonio or New Orleans over the next three months and makes sense moving into
the future? Probably not.
That is what makes the days leading up to next month's trade deadline
problematic for the Mavericks.
I know what many of you are saying. You believe it's time to blow up this
nucleus. You believe it's mediocre.
It's not. Milwaukee, the team the Mavericks face tonight in the second game
of this four-game road trip, is mediocre. New Jersey and Philadelphia are
mediocre.
If this team was average at best, the decision would be easy. Tear it down.
But the Mavericks are on pace to win 48 games after a slow start. It's a
significant drop from there to mediocre.
Management can't afford to get this wrong the way it did last year when it
acquired Jason Kidd. The move was made because Cuban and Nelson clung to the
idea of where the team had been 20 months earlier rather than accept what it
had become. The Mavericks had deteriorated to the stage where one player was
not enough to get them back to The Finals.
Reality has sunk in this season. The problem is that it cost Devin Harris and
two first-round draft picks for the Mavericks to have their eyes opened. That
leaves Cuban and Nelson with precious few assets to offer heading into this
trade deadline.
Is this team at a crossroads?
"That's overstated," Cuban said. "You just do the best you can and try to be
opportunistic.
"That's all you can do. There is no magic potion or template."
It sounds good. But how opportunistic were the Mavericks during the
off-season? Cuban and Nelson chose to keep the nucleus intact and blame
former coach Avery Johnson for all the team's woes. Nelson used the team's
mid-level exception to bring back DeSagana Diop, who five months earlier had
been traded to New Jersey in the package to acquire Kidd.
Nelson discovered he could not recapture that championship feeling, and Diop
has been moved again for Matt Carroll and Ryan Hollins.
It turns out the Mavericks never were a special team. I was wrong. Cuban and
Nelson were wrong. The difference is they are in a position to do something
about it.
The question is: what?
There are no easy answers. I doubt Cuban and Nelson can sort through all this
before next month's trade deadline. But it could be worse.
Cuban could have given his money to Madoff.
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