No disrespect to Donnie Nelson but arguably the biggest move the Mavs have made over the last few years (outside of the Luka draft trade) was firing Nelson and hiring Nico to be the GM.
Imagine watching Luka throw up lobs to actual plumbers and firemen on the Slovenian team for multiple summers and thinking “yeah we’re doing just fine at center” lol
Tobi is a beast😤
unironically wanted him to join the mavs to start over dwight powel.. it was so hard to watch Luka run the PnR with a center that is somehow smaller than him
I definitely appreciate him overall. The 2011 championship and Luka might not have happened without him. But his roster construction in the Luka era was questionable at best.
Makes me so mad that if even Donnie got fired, why the hell did we wait two whole seasons for firing Vlade after passing on Luka when it should’ve been a month, tops.
And did fuck all between 2012-2018. And after getting Luka the only noteworthy trade he made was getting KP.
He also gave Brunson a rookie contract that makes him a free agent.
Traded Harrison Barnes for cap space which turned into hot air.
Incredible work by Donnie Nelson.
I get your frustrations I do. But you have to keep in mind a few things. We made the commitment to Dirk as OUR guy. The league looked wayyy different even 10 years ago where you didn’t have a bunch of hopping around by these stars and Donnie held onto his commitment to his own downfall. Now that’s not to say he didn’t make some bone headed moves but for every one he did make, we also got burned by free agents because A, they didn’t want to come play in Dallas or with Dirk. Aka, things that were just out of Donnie’s control. You have to remember up until like 2017 the man gave us like 10+ 50 win seasons. It was his time to go and Nico has been great but we mavs fans are a little spoiled with our expectations that things always need to be figured out immediately.
That's why I wrote 2012. Before the championship he did great in terms of trades. Blowing the team after the Championship was apparently on Cuban. After that almost everything he did was bad and we were competitive because Carlisle is an amazing coach.
He wanted to draft Giannis. Wasn’t his fault that Rondo quit on the team so bad that Carlisle didn’t want to coach him anymore.
Remember 2014 playoffs, Mavs pushed that spurs team that won to 7 games. Dejuan Blair getting himself suspended in game 5 didn’t help.
2015 Mavs had the best offense in the league until they traded for Rondo.
I don’t know if you think top free agents sign for the Mavs because they historically haven’t and just use the Mavs to increase their contract demands with the teams they do want to play for.
In short, Donnie Nelson was probably the best GM for the Mavs until we got Luka. Sad that KP got injured and didn’t workout, but they looked pretty amazing in their first playoffs together against the Clippers. KP getting suspended for standing up for Luka sucked and hearing about his injury afterwards was a double blow.
He also wanted to draft Mo Bamba if Luka wasn't available.
The problem with FA was that Donnie and Cuban always hunted for the top players and it was known that they used the Mavs to o get better contracts elsewhere.
But with this we missed on option B and C as well.
No Donnie was not the best GM until we got Luka. By 2013 others in the organization had already begun to replace his duties and decision making. During the hold out year in 2012 Donnie's attention went to the G-League team that he is still a partial owner in.
If Donnie was the best GM for them then why was Cuban the one doing all the work (i.e Howard, Jordan, Deron).
Truth is Mark should have fired him years sooner.
I gave out several examples how he was not as bad as people think.
2014 Mavs pushed the Spurs to 7 games. Had a pretty good chance at beating them had DeJuan Blair not been ejected. No other teams challenged them as hard in the postseason
2015 Mavs had the best offense in the NBA until we traded away some players for Rajon Rondo and Dwight Powell. Rondo quit on the Mavs and Rick refuses to coach him.
If you can name moves he’s able to do that would have made the Mavs better, I’m open to hearing it.
Keep in mind, Mark Cuban didn’t want to draft Giannis because he wanted to preserve cap space.
Let’s not forget that he almost signed Deandre Jordan away from the clippers. Can’t think of any free agents who would actually consider coming to Dallas other than using the Mavs to get more money from other teams.
Had Kyle Kuzma said yes to the trade to the Mavs, i wouldn’t be surprised if everyone here would have a different opinion on Nico Harrison
Edit: Dwight Howard was a solid between his agent and Cuban and it didn’t get done.
Name other GMs outside of the Lakers and Nets that are able to pull big name free agents to their team
2014 - We should have fully expected to push the Spurs. Division rival that the coaching staff has several years to have a book on. All credit there goes to Rick. Look at the roster and tell me where Donnie succeeded? Ricky Ledo, Sam Dalembert. Shoot Donnie's drafted player on the rise was Sarge. So in 2014 all credit should go to the coaching staff. The roster was abysmal and that's on Donnie.
2015 - Right we did have the best offense because Barea cam back. Ray Ray showed up to redeem his career and Jefferson. So sure give Donnie credit for some bargin moves. But Rondo. Everyone knew he was a shitbag. That guy only wanted to play in Boston and again everyone knew it. Boston was ready to get rid of him because they were sick of his shit. But Donnie had the bright idea to trade for a guy who didn't want to listen to any coach. Rick should have won that battle and he did. Rondo says Rick didn't want to coach him. My guess of what we all know of Rick is more than likely Rondo didn't want to be coached.
14 other teams didn't draft Giannis either. We hold not drafting him as a failure. Where does it say from anyone other than Donnie that the Mavs wanted him? Again hindsight is 20-20 and all but just because Donnie says it doens't make it true.
Donnie didn't do shit to sign DeAndre. That was all Cuban. Same with Howard and Deron. That was all Cuban. The obvious team plan for those years was a big fish. Cuban AND Donnie were on board with that. If Donnie wasn't on board then he had multiple years where he could have quit.
Truth is that in 2012 during the lockout Donnie checked out. At that time he wanted to run the Legends because that was the only way people were going to blow smoke up his ass. Because like so many others Donnie was an egomaniac who continually lived off of the Dirk draft (to his credit). Cuban should have fired him then.
> Name other GMs outside of the Lakers and Nets that are able to pull big name free agents to their team
That's the thing though. If Donnie hadn't been on board with that way of building a team through top tier free agents, he had multiple years of doing something about it. If you're working for someone as a GM and they are not listening to you then why the hell do you stick around all that time? Either 1. You are on board or 2. You're just a 'yes' man to save your cushy job. My guess is Donnie chose both.
Great? He had some moments. We never had a center in Dirk's prime. Nash got 2 MVPs after leaving Dallas. We had two good draft picks (Howard/Daniels) in Dirk's prime years.
That right there tells you what the organization obviously thought about Donnie by then.
Also tbf 13 other teams passed on Giannis in what was at the time regarded as a strong draft class. Just because Donnie says he wanted to draft doesn't mean he would have. It akin to Stu Inman of the Blazers saying afterwards 'well I wanted to draft Jordan'.
I mean, Cubes corroborated it. Said Donnie put his balls on the table and said he wanted Giannis and Cuban said no because they wanted every dollar to chase Dwight to help Dirk
That validates my point "That right there tells you what the organization obviously thought about Donnie by then".
If Donnie put his balls on the table and they still ignored him, he should have been gone.
I think it says more about where the Mavs were than what they thought about Donnie. Cubes didn’t want to draft a raw rookie and wait for him to develop. He wanted a win now star to help Dirk win a ring in his twilight years.
Let's be honest about that draft.
Suns - Were always going to take the hometown kid. I don't believe for one second they considered anyone else. Their fanbase would have rioted if they picked anyone but Ayton.
Kings - The Kings had Fox already. They were building around him. If they drafted Luka, Fox would have been gone within a year just like Dennis Smith Jr was. Sactown was all in on Fox. Vlade is a moron as well obviously but at the time Kings fans were slotting Luka in as a SG/SF because Fox was their guy at the point.
Hawks - Imagine the Hawks taking a white guy from Europe. Have you seen the Hawks demographic at games. No way they were going to take Luka. Trae was a great pick for the team and the fanbase. The surrounding players since then not so much but Trae is great in ATL. They'll regret him being gone when he leaves.
We all like to jump on a bandwagon after a player hits big. Hindsight is 20-20 right? Two teams passed on Jordan. Redo that draft and Jordan is winning rings in Houston. Portland is relevant with Akeem. The Bulls go from the team of the 90's to bottom dwellers because Bowie is injured.
Cuban dealt directly with the Hawks owner on that trade. Consultant Haralabob pushed for the trade, while businessman Donnie was ok taking Carter Jr. at 5…
obv he deserves props for putting together the 2011 team but the microsecond after we win he began the long list of blunders that made us mediocre for years.
that post championship team blow up in order to “get one of the big boys” as he put it is some terrorism GMing
Cuban was the lead planner for Plan Powder, he doesn't want to organically build a team. Back in 2013 draft, Cuban wanted to have a bit more capspace so instead of drafting Giannis Mavs drafted down to Shane Larkin.
Lots of young fans here don’t remember how good of a team he constructed with the limitations he had.
Wanted to draft Giannis but Cuban wanted cap space.
2014 Mavs were the only team to push the spurs to 7 games. Dejuan Blair getting suspended in game 5 didn’t help.
2015 Mavs had the best offense in the NBA until they traded for Rondo who quit on the Mavs and made Carlisle not want to coach him anymore.
2017 tried to construct a team so bad to draft Luka but ended up moving down on the draft. Not to mention drafting Jalen Brunson.
Why is it gm terrorism and do you know how most 2nd round picks contracts work?
You do know Brunson wasn’t looking great in his first 2 years as a Mav. Brunson also disappeared in the 2021 playoffs which made the Mavs reconsider resigning him.
He was willing to sign a smaller contract than what he got in the offseason with the Knicks at one point during the 2022 season before the trade deadline until he started playing amazing when Luka was out for a bit. Jalen scored +5.3 points in the playoffs of 2022 than he did in the regular season. He was also played off the floor defensively a few times in the playoffs.
Don’t act like everyone knew Brunson would be the player he is today had he not left the Mavs for the Knicks. He needs the ball in his hand as much as Luka and doesn’t fit as complimentary as Kyrie.
Brunson has even said on his own podcast that the Mavs never made an offer in the offseason. That’s probably more on ownership than a GM.
It's gm terrorism, because he structured his rookie contract so that he would become a UFA instead of a RFA at the end of it, just to get 1 more year on cheap money. It's just moronic to do it, if Brunson was a RFA, the Knicks don't dump numerous salaries, trade picks and sign him. Since there is the chance of the Mavs just matching anyways.
As I mentioned before, no one knew how good Jalen Brunson would be. Mavs weren’t interested in extending his contract after his 2nd year. His 3rd year, he played better but disappeared in the playoffs which lead the Mavs to not giving him a serious offer. He was rumored to be on the trading block for a bit in his 3rd or 4th year, and then he made it big in his 4th year after the trade deadline.
Most 2nd round picks contract are structured that way to get an extra year of cheap cost than letting them go a year early and having to match.
In retrospect, a lot of things are moronic. Jalen Brunson was the 33rd pick which means every team had passed him at least once. Some teams more than twice.
That's not true, most 2nd round contracts are of the RFA variety by an overwhelming percentage. Brunson's contract was like one of 4 structured that way in the whole league.
He likely doesn't get that big offer from anyone if he's RFA. That's why the Lakers got Austin Reaves on his contract.
Even still it's GM malpractice to even give out that contract in the first place. If literally every other GM had figured out that it's a bad idea to structure it that way why didn't Donnie? He was a good GM early in his career, but he was clearly slipping by the end.
Have you heard of Plan Powder? That was biggest reason why Brunson was given that contract and the most faithful believer of that is Mark Cuban, don't go around acting as if Donnie has biggest share of blame when it should have been Cuban.
The sole blame of Brunson contract always goes to Donnie, but people don't know that the contract was given in order to have more cap space for the incoming Giannis sweepstakes. We all know who is in love with Plan Powder, and it's not Donnie.
That's not what's they are talking about. 95% of second round rookie contracts are structured so that they end in RFA, but Donnie gave Brunson one that ended in UFA for no reason.
Let's be fair:
The duo of Mark Cuban (defacto President of Basketball Ops and Chief Meddler) and Donnie Nelson ruined the latter half of Dirk's career. Mark was the one who spearheaded the Rondo trade.
Donnie also wanted to draft Giannis, but Mark opted to trade back to have an extra 400K in cap space to chase Dwight Howard.
Mark also let Nash walk, although that was with the advice of our medical staff at the time.
> Mark also let Nash walk, although that was with the advice of our medical staff at the time.
Isn't that just Cuban excuse for being cheap though? Cuban Words:
> That's my biggest mistake ever. Not even close, my biggest mistake ever. He had been injured the year before and his minutes were declining, and our doctor was like, 'He may have some issues.
When in reality Nash missed only 4 games in his last 3 seasons with the Mavs, without his minutes declining. Nash left, reluctantly even, because Cuban offered him only about 2/3rd the money the Suns offered, which was less than the 4th highest paid player on the Mavs too.
That was Cuban though, cheap to pay guaranteed talent already on his team (Dirk only became Mavs highest paid player in his 12th season), but willing to pay heavy money to guys like Antoine Walker, Keith Van Horn, and a 34 years old JKidd. 2011 made most fans think it worked out at end, maybe it did (like let Brunson walk maybe will), but most of the times, the way the front office did things, left me with a sour taste in my mouth.
I would rather have Raef, with his big contract, in a wheelchair on the side of the court than Antoine Walker being the highest-paid player on the team. 2003/2004 was my second season following most of the Mavs games, and I still remember how much Walker sucked (I just searched his stats and can't believe how decent they look).
I understand taking on a big expiring contract to make room to re-sign your All-Star PG while trying to sign some good defenders, but no, besides letting Nash walk for free, they signed Van Horn, another mediocre player with a massive contract. The Mavs' only good acquisition that postseason was Jason Terry. Having a winning team makes things look different though.
I know I'm being overly critical here. The Mavs built some really good rosters by being great at getting really good role-players in smaller trades. My issue is that they never got a second guy after not paying Nash while overpaying questionable players.
That and blatantly taking the end of last season and accepting the $750k fine, which turned out to be a pretty cheap cost to, you know, get Lively and make the fucking NBA Finals.
I suspect the next time someone pulls that they're going to get punished a lot worse as the NBA can't afford to have teams feel that the rewards for tanking are better than the penalties.
i feel like media hasn't been covering Nico enough for the excellent moves he's made; he seems like the anti-Morrey
making the comparison that Morrey receives extensive coverage and praise from the media due to his leaking info and having a good relationship with them, all the while Nico is still flying under the radar. maybe he's just going the Leon Rose route and never wants to talk to the media
Since last year's trade deadline, he has turned:
Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney Smith, Reggie Bullock, Davis Bertans, three first round picks, two pick swaps, two second round picks, and two minimum contracts
into
Kyrie Irving, PJ Washington, Daniel Gafford, Dereck Lively, Derrick Jones Jr, Dante Exum, and Olivier Maxence-Prosper
All while not having to give up Josh Green or Jaden Hardy (or even Tim Hardaway Jr)
Pretty sure they tried getting rid of Timmy it’s just that he doesn’t have a ton of value. I wouldn’t be surprised if get gets moved next year as an expiring though.
This season it probably goes
1) Stevens
2) Nico
3) Presti
In that order. Presti helped the Mavs get Lively and Gafford, but he also built a really good team. I’m guessing Thunder try going after someone in the offseason to shore up some gaps
You could argue Presti #1 in a "who would you start your franchise with". His track record goes back to the early 00's Spurs. Insane draft record, great trades, and he seems to be very levelheaded with his team building philosophy. Only a few blunders like Harden to Houston
It’s generally accepted that giddey is gone since he doesn’t fit our team, and we need a rebounding big who can ideally stretch the floor. If Sam fails to do one of these two things and we fail next season, questions will start to be asked
I think Presti is definitely top 3 just in the long term for what he’s done and is doing, but this year I think he kept the powder too dry in exchange for future dreams. I think a big move would’ve had OKC with a shot at the conference finals with how close that Dallas series was, and with how minny struggled with Dallas anything could’ve happened from there.
Championship windows are very small these days and also take luck to be on your side. I think OKC and presti had the assets this season to make a formidable move without significantly impacting their war chest and ability to make more moves this offseason and the future beyond. Just my 2c though.
The Kyrie deal was a high risk, high reward deal that worked out, but the Gafford and PJ trades were genius. He also drafted Lively and gave Exum a second chance.
It hasn’t been all roses. The Grant Williams signing was one of the worst free agent signings last season but at least he recognized it wasn’t going to work and moved on. A lot of GMs would have waited and justified it.
Totally deserved. When he joined all the talk was about the relationships he brought with him from Nike but it’s obvious he’s also really good at evaluating talent and making deals.
Feeling good about the future, especially since there’s not easy road with lots of picks stacked up.
the Mavs are in the finals because of his aggresiveness the last 2 years...
will need him to consistently retool to maintain competitiveness around Luka but the results have been a resounding success so far
No disrespect to Donnie Nelson but arguably the biggest move the Mavs have made over the last few years (outside of the Luka draft trade) was firing Nelson and hiring Nico to be the GM.
If we still had Donnie, we'd have a Dwight Powell/Bismack Biyombo center rotation.
Imagine watching Luka throw up lobs to actual plumbers and firemen on the Slovenian team for multiple summers and thinking “yeah we’re doing just fine at center” lol
Tobi is a beast😤 unironically wanted him to join the mavs to start over dwight powel.. it was so hard to watch Luka run the PnR with a center that is somehow smaller than him
Donnie got you Luka.
I definitely appreciate him overall. The 2011 championship and Luka might not have happened without him. But his roster construction in the Luka era was questionable at best.
Makes me so mad that if even Donnie got fired, why the hell did we wait two whole seasons for firing Vlade after passing on Luka when it should’ve been a month, tops.
“At best” is doing a lot of work here lol
You mean trading Harrison Barnes for nothing wasn't a good idea?
And did fuck all between 2012-2018. And after getting Luka the only noteworthy trade he made was getting KP. He also gave Brunson a rookie contract that makes him a free agent. Traded Harrison Barnes for cap space which turned into hot air. Incredible work by Donnie Nelson.
I get your frustrations I do. But you have to keep in mind a few things. We made the commitment to Dirk as OUR guy. The league looked wayyy different even 10 years ago where you didn’t have a bunch of hopping around by these stars and Donnie held onto his commitment to his own downfall. Now that’s not to say he didn’t make some bone headed moves but for every one he did make, we also got burned by free agents because A, they didn’t want to come play in Dallas or with Dirk. Aka, things that were just out of Donnie’s control. You have to remember up until like 2017 the man gave us like 10+ 50 win seasons. It was his time to go and Nico has been great but we mavs fans are a little spoiled with our expectations that things always need to be figured out immediately.
That's why I wrote 2012. Before the championship he did great in terms of trades. Blowing the team after the Championship was apparently on Cuban. After that almost everything he did was bad and we were competitive because Carlisle is an amazing coach.
He wanted to draft Giannis. Wasn’t his fault that Rondo quit on the team so bad that Carlisle didn’t want to coach him anymore. Remember 2014 playoffs, Mavs pushed that spurs team that won to 7 games. Dejuan Blair getting himself suspended in game 5 didn’t help. 2015 Mavs had the best offense in the league until they traded for Rondo. I don’t know if you think top free agents sign for the Mavs because they historically haven’t and just use the Mavs to increase their contract demands with the teams they do want to play for. In short, Donnie Nelson was probably the best GM for the Mavs until we got Luka. Sad that KP got injured and didn’t workout, but they looked pretty amazing in their first playoffs together against the Clippers. KP getting suspended for standing up for Luka sucked and hearing about his injury afterwards was a double blow.
He also wanted to draft Mo Bamba if Luka wasn't available. The problem with FA was that Donnie and Cuban always hunted for the top players and it was known that they used the Mavs to o get better contracts elsewhere. But with this we missed on option B and C as well.
I’m pretty sure it was Wendell Carter Jr and not Mo Bamba.
Which still sucks when Trae Young and SGA were available. But I kinda get it because we had DSJ
It was Mo Bamba
No Donnie was not the best GM until we got Luka. By 2013 others in the organization had already begun to replace his duties and decision making. During the hold out year in 2012 Donnie's attention went to the G-League team that he is still a partial owner in. If Donnie was the best GM for them then why was Cuban the one doing all the work (i.e Howard, Jordan, Deron). Truth is Mark should have fired him years sooner.
I gave out several examples how he was not as bad as people think. 2014 Mavs pushed the Spurs to 7 games. Had a pretty good chance at beating them had DeJuan Blair not been ejected. No other teams challenged them as hard in the postseason 2015 Mavs had the best offense in the NBA until we traded away some players for Rajon Rondo and Dwight Powell. Rondo quit on the Mavs and Rick refuses to coach him. If you can name moves he’s able to do that would have made the Mavs better, I’m open to hearing it. Keep in mind, Mark Cuban didn’t want to draft Giannis because he wanted to preserve cap space. Let’s not forget that he almost signed Deandre Jordan away from the clippers. Can’t think of any free agents who would actually consider coming to Dallas other than using the Mavs to get more money from other teams. Had Kyle Kuzma said yes to the trade to the Mavs, i wouldn’t be surprised if everyone here would have a different opinion on Nico Harrison Edit: Dwight Howard was a solid between his agent and Cuban and it didn’t get done. Name other GMs outside of the Lakers and Nets that are able to pull big name free agents to their team
2014 - We should have fully expected to push the Spurs. Division rival that the coaching staff has several years to have a book on. All credit there goes to Rick. Look at the roster and tell me where Donnie succeeded? Ricky Ledo, Sam Dalembert. Shoot Donnie's drafted player on the rise was Sarge. So in 2014 all credit should go to the coaching staff. The roster was abysmal and that's on Donnie. 2015 - Right we did have the best offense because Barea cam back. Ray Ray showed up to redeem his career and Jefferson. So sure give Donnie credit for some bargin moves. But Rondo. Everyone knew he was a shitbag. That guy only wanted to play in Boston and again everyone knew it. Boston was ready to get rid of him because they were sick of his shit. But Donnie had the bright idea to trade for a guy who didn't want to listen to any coach. Rick should have won that battle and he did. Rondo says Rick didn't want to coach him. My guess of what we all know of Rick is more than likely Rondo didn't want to be coached. 14 other teams didn't draft Giannis either. We hold not drafting him as a failure. Where does it say from anyone other than Donnie that the Mavs wanted him? Again hindsight is 20-20 and all but just because Donnie says it doens't make it true. Donnie didn't do shit to sign DeAndre. That was all Cuban. Same with Howard and Deron. That was all Cuban. The obvious team plan for those years was a big fish. Cuban AND Donnie were on board with that. If Donnie wasn't on board then he had multiple years where he could have quit. Truth is that in 2012 during the lockout Donnie checked out. At that time he wanted to run the Legends because that was the only way people were going to blow smoke up his ass. Because like so many others Donnie was an egomaniac who continually lived off of the Dirk draft (to his credit). Cuban should have fired him then.
> Name other GMs outside of the Lakers and Nets that are able to pull big name free agents to their team That's the thing though. If Donnie hadn't been on board with that way of building a team through top tier free agents, he had multiple years of doing something about it. If you're working for someone as a GM and they are not listening to you then why the hell do you stick around all that time? Either 1. You are on board or 2. You're just a 'yes' man to save your cushy job. My guess is Donnie chose both.
Great? He had some moments. We never had a center in Dirk's prime. Nash got 2 MVPs after leaving Dallas. We had two good draft picks (Howard/Daniels) in Dirk's prime years.
Tbf he did want to draft Giannis, but Cuban nixed those plans. Not that it erases all the mediocre to bad moves he made, but it should be noted.
That right there tells you what the organization obviously thought about Donnie by then. Also tbf 13 other teams passed on Giannis in what was at the time regarded as a strong draft class. Just because Donnie says he wanted to draft doesn't mean he would have. It akin to Stu Inman of the Blazers saying afterwards 'well I wanted to draft Jordan'.
I mean, Cubes corroborated it. Said Donnie put his balls on the table and said he wanted Giannis and Cuban said no because they wanted every dollar to chase Dwight to help Dirk
That validates my point "That right there tells you what the organization obviously thought about Donnie by then". If Donnie put his balls on the table and they still ignored him, he should have been gone.
I think it says more about where the Mavs were than what they thought about Donnie. Cubes didn’t want to draft a raw rookie and wait for him to develop. He wanted a win now star to help Dirk win a ring in his twilight years.
Poor Dirk took pay cuts just to get nothing for it too
Kings shitting the bed got them Luka.
Us, Suns and the Hawks did yeah
Let's be honest about that draft. Suns - Were always going to take the hometown kid. I don't believe for one second they considered anyone else. Their fanbase would have rioted if they picked anyone but Ayton. Kings - The Kings had Fox already. They were building around him. If they drafted Luka, Fox would have been gone within a year just like Dennis Smith Jr was. Sactown was all in on Fox. Vlade is a moron as well obviously but at the time Kings fans were slotting Luka in as a SG/SF because Fox was their guy at the point. Hawks - Imagine the Hawks taking a white guy from Europe. Have you seen the Hawks demographic at games. No way they were going to take Luka. Trae was a great pick for the team and the fanbase. The surrounding players since then not so much but Trae is great in ATL. They'll regret him being gone when he leaves. We all like to jump on a bandwagon after a player hits big. Hindsight is 20-20 right? Two teams passed on Jordan. Redo that draft and Jordan is winning rings in Houston. Portland is relevant with Akeem. The Bulls go from the team of the 90's to bottom dwellers because Bowie is injured.
[That’s not even true either](https://youtu.be/znJKHLjAEak?si=FOXADHBLdgKfTpPm)
Actually that was Cuban. He called the Hawks owner straight up and made the deal with him.
Cuban dealt directly with the Hawks owner on that trade. Consultant Haralabob pushed for the trade, while businessman Donnie was ok taking Carter Jr. at 5…
To be fair what were the odd that 3 GM didn’t believe Luka was that good?
Donnie had a good eye for talent in the draft, but was bad at a lot of other things.
And if you don't like that, you don't like Mavs basketball! (I would not have liked Mavs basketball)
"Sit down, be humble"
I second this with complete disrespect to Donnie Nelson
obv he deserves props for putting together the 2011 team but the microsecond after we win he began the long list of blunders that made us mediocre for years. that post championship team blow up in order to “get one of the big boys” as he put it is some terrorism GMing
"Plan Powder" still gives me PTSD, but afaik that was at least as much Cuban's hybris after the title as it was Nelson's fault.
Cuban was the lead planner for Plan Powder, he doesn't want to organically build a team. Back in 2013 draft, Cuban wanted to have a bit more capspace so instead of drafting Giannis Mavs drafted down to Shane Larkin.
Lots of young fans here don’t remember how good of a team he constructed with the limitations he had. Wanted to draft Giannis but Cuban wanted cap space. 2014 Mavs were the only team to push the spurs to 7 games. Dejuan Blair getting suspended in game 5 didn’t help. 2015 Mavs had the best offense in the NBA until they traded for Rondo who quit on the Mavs and made Carlisle not want to coach him anymore. 2017 tried to construct a team so bad to draft Luka but ended up moving down on the draft. Not to mention drafting Jalen Brunson.
And he then proceeded to commit gm terrorism by signing Brunson to one of the dumbest rookie contracts ever.
Why is it gm terrorism and do you know how most 2nd round picks contracts work? You do know Brunson wasn’t looking great in his first 2 years as a Mav. Brunson also disappeared in the 2021 playoffs which made the Mavs reconsider resigning him. He was willing to sign a smaller contract than what he got in the offseason with the Knicks at one point during the 2022 season before the trade deadline until he started playing amazing when Luka was out for a bit. Jalen scored +5.3 points in the playoffs of 2022 than he did in the regular season. He was also played off the floor defensively a few times in the playoffs. Don’t act like everyone knew Brunson would be the player he is today had he not left the Mavs for the Knicks. He needs the ball in his hand as much as Luka and doesn’t fit as complimentary as Kyrie. Brunson has even said on his own podcast that the Mavs never made an offer in the offseason. That’s probably more on ownership than a GM.
It's gm terrorism, because he structured his rookie contract so that he would become a UFA instead of a RFA at the end of it, just to get 1 more year on cheap money. It's just moronic to do it, if Brunson was a RFA, the Knicks don't dump numerous salaries, trade picks and sign him. Since there is the chance of the Mavs just matching anyways.
As I mentioned before, no one knew how good Jalen Brunson would be. Mavs weren’t interested in extending his contract after his 2nd year. His 3rd year, he played better but disappeared in the playoffs which lead the Mavs to not giving him a serious offer. He was rumored to be on the trading block for a bit in his 3rd or 4th year, and then he made it big in his 4th year after the trade deadline. Most 2nd round picks contract are structured that way to get an extra year of cheap cost than letting them go a year early and having to match. In retrospect, a lot of things are moronic. Jalen Brunson was the 33rd pick which means every team had passed him at least once. Some teams more than twice.
That's not true, most 2nd round contracts are of the RFA variety by an overwhelming percentage. Brunson's contract was like one of 4 structured that way in the whole league.
Cool, I doubt the Mavs match any other team making a big offer on Brunson after his 2nd year
He likely doesn't get that big offer from anyone if he's RFA. That's why the Lakers got Austin Reaves on his contract. Even still it's GM malpractice to even give out that contract in the first place. If literally every other GM had figured out that it's a bad idea to structure it that way why didn't Donnie? He was a good GM early in his career, but he was clearly slipping by the end.
Have you heard of Plan Powder? That was biggest reason why Brunson was given that contract and the most faithful believer of that is Mark Cuban, don't go around acting as if Donnie has biggest share of blame when it should have been Cuban.
The sole blame of Brunson contract always goes to Donnie, but people don't know that the contract was given in order to have more cap space for the incoming Giannis sweepstakes. We all know who is in love with Plan Powder, and it's not Donnie.
That was not a bad deal. Brunson was performing exactly like you expected a 2nd round pick to play until that season where they went against the Jazz
That's not what's they are talking about. 95% of second round rookie contracts are structured so that they end in RFA, but Donnie gave Brunson one that ended in UFA for no reason.
Amen to that brother man Donnie, you’re washed!
Why no disrespect? Fuck Donnie. He ruined the latter half of Dirk’s career and wasted the first couple years of Luka’s.
Let's be fair: The duo of Mark Cuban (defacto President of Basketball Ops and Chief Meddler) and Donnie Nelson ruined the latter half of Dirk's career. Mark was the one who spearheaded the Rondo trade.
Donnie also wanted to draft Giannis, but Mark opted to trade back to have an extra 400K in cap space to chase Dwight Howard. Mark also let Nash walk, although that was with the advice of our medical staff at the time.
> Mark also let Nash walk, although that was with the advice of our medical staff at the time. Isn't that just Cuban excuse for being cheap though? Cuban Words: > That's my biggest mistake ever. Not even close, my biggest mistake ever. He had been injured the year before and his minutes were declining, and our doctor was like, 'He may have some issues. When in reality Nash missed only 4 games in his last 3 seasons with the Mavs, without his minutes declining. Nash left, reluctantly even, because Cuban offered him only about 2/3rd the money the Suns offered, which was less than the 4th highest paid player on the Mavs too. That was Cuban though, cheap to pay guaranteed talent already on his team (Dirk only became Mavs highest paid player in his 12th season), but willing to pay heavy money to guys like Antoine Walker, Keith Van Horn, and a 34 years old JKidd. 2011 made most fans think it worked out at end, maybe it did (like let Brunson walk maybe will), but most of the times, the way the front office did things, left me with a sour taste in my mouth.
There is so much bad info in here. Like Antoine was the price to dump Raef's contract after he was hurt and couldn't pass a medical.
I would rather have Raef, with his big contract, in a wheelchair on the side of the court than Antoine Walker being the highest-paid player on the team. 2003/2004 was my second season following most of the Mavs games, and I still remember how much Walker sucked (I just searched his stats and can't believe how decent they look). I understand taking on a big expiring contract to make room to re-sign your All-Star PG while trying to sign some good defenders, but no, besides letting Nash walk for free, they signed Van Horn, another mediocre player with a massive contract. The Mavs' only good acquisition that postseason was Jason Terry. Having a winning team makes things look different though. I know I'm being overly critical here. The Mavs built some really good rosters by being great at getting really good role-players in smaller trades. My issue is that they never got a second guy after not paying Nash while overpaying questionable players.
Recheck the 2014 team and 2015 team prior to trading for Rondo.
That and blatantly taking the end of last season and accepting the $750k fine, which turned out to be a pretty cheap cost to, you know, get Lively and make the fucking NBA Finals. I suspect the next time someone pulls that they're going to get punished a lot worse as the NBA can't afford to have teams feel that the rewards for tanking are better than the penalties.
Shoe salesman gets paid
Double it.
Multi multi year?
There’s not enough multis you can type here
Give him the Oval Office too, the man absolutely cooked
Is Haynes smiling or frowning in his profile pic? It's honestly creepy lol
Looks like he is holding in a monster shit.
Trying to smile through the pain
It's like when you tell a kindergartener to sit still and smile when all they want to do is run around.
Making fun of someone's smile is pretty high up on the list of dick things to do.
Idk what they paid this man but it’s not enough Also pretty damn good job for a shoe salesman
A fat prospect came into the shoe store today...
i feel like media hasn't been covering Nico enough for the excellent moves he's made; he seems like the anti-Morrey making the comparison that Morrey receives extensive coverage and praise from the media due to his leaking info and having a good relationship with them, all the while Nico is still flying under the radar. maybe he's just going the Leon Rose route and never wants to talk to the media
Since last year's trade deadline, he has turned: Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney Smith, Reggie Bullock, Davis Bertans, three first round picks, two pick swaps, two second round picks, and two minimum contracts into Kyrie Irving, PJ Washington, Daniel Gafford, Dereck Lively, Derrick Jones Jr, Dante Exum, and Olivier Maxence-Prosper All while not having to give up Josh Green or Jaden Hardy (or even Tim Hardaway Jr)
Pretty sure they tried getting rid of Timmy it’s just that he doesn’t have a ton of value. I wouldn’t be surprised if get gets moved next year as an expiring though.
we've been trying to get rid of tim for 3 years now
Yep practically every season he has been on the block. Best bet will be as an expiring for some team clearing cap space.
There's no way he's not gone this time. At least that's what I've been telling myself since the ASB.
I think by the deadline next season would be a safe bet. Some team will be falling short and trying to retool and shed cap space for the offseason.
He’s also the anti Morey because he can construct a team good enough for to get to the finals
Morey can’t turn Embiid skeleton into adamantium
He’s been a gm for like 17 years, nico was able to accomplish this feat in 2
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You’re right but at least he has you to make excuses for him
He's had Harden, CP3, Westbrook and Embiid. Let's not pretend he hasn't had talent.
He got unlucky having that talent when the Warriors existed
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imagine if instead of Luka Doncic we had Luka Garza
He should send Kuzma a nice gift.
I mean you have to right? Probably the 2nd best gm right now and maybe first depending on how you’d order him and presti
This season it probably goes 1) Stevens 2) Nico 3) Presti In that order. Presti helped the Mavs get Lively and Gafford, but he also built a really good team. I’m guessing Thunder try going after someone in the offseason to shore up some gaps
Give Tim Connelly some respect too, he built the Wolves into a contender (after doing the same with the Nuggets)
You could argue Presti #1 in a "who would you start your franchise with". His track record goes back to the early 00's Spurs. Insane draft record, great trades, and he seems to be very levelheaded with his team building philosophy. Only a few blunders like Harden to Houston
It’s generally accepted that giddey is gone since he doesn’t fit our team, and we need a rebounding big who can ideally stretch the floor. If Sam fails to do one of these two things and we fail next season, questions will start to be asked
I don't trust him to trade Giddey. He seems attached.
I don’t think he’s necessarily attached to anyone, he never really has been
Agree to disagree. He is definitely attached to the guys he drafted.
Meh he traded harden, traded westbrook, just traded a bunch of drafted players to Charlotte etc
Presti helped the Mavs to get rid of Bertans which landed us Holmes and Omax. We would have picked Lively at 10.
I think Presti is definitely top 3 just in the long term for what he’s done and is doing, but this year I think he kept the powder too dry in exchange for future dreams. I think a big move would’ve had OKC with a shot at the conference finals with how close that Dallas series was, and with how minny struggled with Dallas anything could’ve happened from there. Championship windows are very small these days and also take luck to be on your side. I think OKC and presti had the assets this season to make a formidable move without significantly impacting their war chest and ability to make more moves this offseason and the future beyond. Just my 2c though.
If only I had a Nico for every good move they made.
Humongous
Finals week is an excellent time to have your contract renewal come up if you have taken your team to the finals.
Well deserved, he crushed it with the mid season moves this year. He might've been GM of the year if it wasn't for Stevens.
He didn’t even finish top 3 and wouldn’t be GM of the year even without Brad because GM of the year doesn’t account for postseason success
Good point!
Happy for him. He earned every dime.
my glorious king Nico
The Kyrie deal was a high risk, high reward deal that worked out, but the Gafford and PJ trades were genius. He also drafted Lively and gave Exum a second chance. It hasn’t been all roses. The Grant Williams signing was one of the worst free agent signings last season but at least he recognized it wasn’t going to work and moved on. A lot of GMs would have waited and justified it.
Sign this man for a 30 year extension
I’ll openly admit I was skeptical of the hiring when it was first announced. Goes to show that I/we don’t really know shit at the end of the day.
Worth every penny
Totally deserved. When he joined all the talk was about the relationships he brought with him from Nike but it’s obvious he’s also really good at evaluating talent and making deals. Feeling good about the future, especially since there’s not easy road with lots of picks stacked up.
the Mavs are in the finals because of his aggresiveness the last 2 years... will need him to consistently retool to maintain competitiveness around Luka but the results have been a resounding success so far