Dallas Mavericks: Management In The Mirror

"“I’m so excited about this team!”"

– Mark Cuban at the Mavericks “Meet The New Players” Event in September 2014.

He was excited. Pumped. We all were. I was, you were…we all were.

After three straight off-seasons of losing out on big names like Deron Williams, Dwight Howard and Chris Paul; grabbing consolation prizes like O.J. Mayo and Darren Collison, Jose Calderon and Monta Ellis and centers like Chris Kaman and Samuel Dalembert, it appeared that the Mavs had finally gotten…well…someone that they actually wanted.

Monta’s worked out for the most part, but he was signed out of necessity when Devin Harris‘ original 2013 deal fell apart due to a toe injury.

It was an extreme overpay, but thats what it takes to secure a restricted free agent, especially from a rival. But the Mavericks got their guy, Chandler Parsons.

They also traded for Tyson Chandler roughly three weeks earlier, reuniting the big man with the town and team (well, skeleton of a team) he won a 2011 NBA title with.

Just like the season before and the season before that and even the one before that (the one before that one brought hardware to Big D) Mark Cuban and Donnie Nelson were putting together another makeshift roster of free agents

and draft picks

. Except this time they actually liked what they brought on board.

Richard Jefferson was absent from this presser, but Al-Farouq Aminu, Greg Smith, Jameer Nelson and Raymond Felton joined both of the Chandler’s to help present the first edition of the 2014-2015 Dallas Mavericks.

A new point guard, acquired not long after, signified the end of the first and the beginning of the second edition. And it wasn’t J.J. Barea.

Of course not, because it was Rajon Rondo.

And despite the trade with Boston being “Worth The Risk”, it indicates the problem in Dallas that nobody seems to want to point out.

Since June 12, 2011, our front office has been bad.

Management tore apart a championship team to free up cap space.

Tyson was allowed to leave in free agency, even though he was the first impact center Mark Cuban’s Mavericks had ever had.

Caron Butler also signed away (Clippers), Barea got a big payday from the Timberwolves, ironically bringing him back two seasons later via buyout/waiver claim, DeShawn Stevenson was let go (Nets), Corey Brewer was traded along with newly acquired Rudy Fernandez –who himself was just acquired for the Mavs first round pick (Jordan Hamilton) –to Denver for a 2nd round pick.

Or as Brewer put it, “a bag of chips.”

He’s not wrong. He was right on the money. Ah, money. The Mavericks saved it wherever and whenever they could in a fool’s quest to bring in a franchise player.

That never happened, and the next few years consisted of a playoff sweep, the first playoff miss since 1999-2000 and then an entertaining seven game series with the Spurs that was refreshing, but also a series none ever expected Dallas to win…even up 2-1 after Vince Carter’s winning buzzer beater in Game 3.

The Mavericks obviously weren’t helped by the injury to Chandler Parsons, but my biggest gripe with this team is something that Parsons isn’t responsible for bringing to the table even when healthy.

Sure, he’s a quality shooter, streaky and better at other things, but quality nonetheless.

Photo Credit: Dallas Morning News

But whatever Mark Cuban and Donnie Nelson had in mind when building this roster, they forgot a key ingredient, one that has made the San Antonio Spurs the envy of basketball development the past 18 years, made the Golden State Warriors and Atlanta Hawks one seeds and heck, look no further than the dominant Mavericks teams –especially the 2011 Championship squad–to find this all-of-the-sudden- elusive ingredient to a basketball team.

Shooting.

The Mavericks best outside threats in crucial moments were…Richard Jefferson, Charlie Villanueva and Dirk?

Dirk’s got plenty of other things to be worried about and RJ and Charlie V are painfully one dimensional and if the 2014-2015 Mavericks roster was built with any sort of shooting threat they wouldn’t be needed at all in the rotation.

Alas, that rotation has been filled with players the past couple seasons that wouldn’t even make the roster of a serious contender.

Delonte West, Mike James, rookies Jae Crowder and Bernard James, Elton Brand, Dahntay Jones and even a slew of D-League call-ups have comprised a serious whoopsie of an era in an otherwise annual contender status that is Dallas Mavericks basketball.

And we haven’t even mentioned Lamar Odom, even though that one is more on Odom than the Mavericks. Still, with the extreme thinning out in preparation for free agent searching, the Mavericks counted on Lamar Odom to fill a key role off the bench.

Much like they counted on Rajon Rondo to put the 2015 squad over the top, fixing some incredibly futile defensive problems along the way.

Eventually, you have to look at the Management in the Mirror.

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