Mark Cuban Doesn’t Envision “Chasing Big Fish” This Summer

Mark Cuban spent Valentines Day talking on the Ben & Skin Show in Dallas where he talked tanking and free agent plans this coming offseason.

Mark Cuban made an appearance on DFW popular radio, The Ben & Skin Show, where he halfway admitted to tanking this season.

“We are tanking. People don’t get it. We are playing our youngs. How do you tank? You play your young players. Who are we not playing?”, Cuban said. “We are playing our young guys a lot. They are getting better a lot.”

If you need a soundbite or clickbait, here is your quote. But in all honesty, it’s the same story he has been preaching for a while now. In regards to playing the young guys, I get what he is saying, but who else is supposed to play?

It’s not like they have a Boris Diaw type of player out there logging 35 minutes over Finney-Smith. There really isn’t that many options because sitting Dirk and Wes simply isn’t happening, and rightfully so.

“We are not going to set Dirk because that would be disrespectful. We are not going Wes because we want him to set the tone…guys on the court learn from him.”

For Cuban, it seems simple. In the nicest way possible, he recognizes that their best effort still results in them “tanking” in a way.

"“We are tanking while we try to win.”"

Cuban went on to discuss how other teams around the league, outside of the playoffs, are in a similar boat as them. Besides specifically mentioning Brooklyn, most of the other teams looking at the playoffs are still trying to win.

The tanking comments didn’t surprise me as much as much as Cuban’s comments on their free agent strategy this coming offseason.

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“I don’t see us going after the big fish this summer. I think everything is changing. Too much money to stay with your incumbent team. I’d almost rather be a team with a ton of cap room into the regular season to take players off people’s hands. If I am below the salary floor, we just pay that money to existing players. Means everybody on the roster gets more.”

When it comes to chasing big fish in free agency, there isn’t a team that makes that their goal every year more than the Dallas Mavericks and it typically doesn’t turn out like they had planned. Now, with the new CBA in place, it looks like those days might be behind Cuban.

As far was looking at players who could be targets this coming summer, “I’m watching college games. I’ve never watched a college game other than Indiana prior to the Final Four in 17 years,” Cuban said.

Next: Dallas Mavericks Mid-Season Forward Grades

You can listen to the full interview HERE. Mavericks fan or not, I highly recommend the full hour interview as he talks Harrison Barnes, Shark Tank, politics and more.