stilldropin20 wrote:
SD,
I appreciate your unbelievable enthusiasm for Luka. It's great for you that you have felt that connection because at the end of the day sports are just another form of entertainment. And this guy is pure art in motion.
With that said, do double check some of the things you say and what your expectations are, because considering you think so highly of him, you will be a very easy target for others (specifically on the general board).
For instance, "Let me be clear: Luka Doncic is a once in a lifetime generational type player like Bird, Magic, MJ, Lebron, Kawhi, Steph, KD. He is that good right now...which make him a "win now" type of player."
This kind of statement will inevitably generate A TON of push-back and leave you in a tough spot with all the quotes you will generate.
As for your trade, I think the value is really really really far off. The Mavs don't really have the assets to trade for Butler. Don't even entertain that idea to be honest, unless there was another falling out with Butler and his current team. But if that happened, you'd basically be saying "we are going to get a guy who was a bad presence on two teams and we are going to hand him a huge contract as well, 140 million - 190 million, into his thirties".
The Kawhi ideal is at least possible if you believe the Mavs can do what they have never been able to do and land a big fish in free agency.
LIENT wrote:
You know, Rondo did pop up in my head lately with this thing. Obviously, things are very different, he was a veteran 'floor general' with a winning pedigree. DSJ is a raw young player. But yeah... I have mellowed down slightly on the Rondo thing. By the way, I uploaded a video on youtube when Rondo had that game against the Rockets where "he quit".
Just checked, 6 million views. Just hilarious to me how I still get notifications of comments and discussion on it - I never checked them. I just remember how early in the game I saw Rondo's body language and attitude, I immediately could tell he was purposely not giving his best effort.
DSJ - labelled a chucker, ball hog among other things by various "experts" around RealGM has never generated any sense in me that he was a bad guy, malcontent or even selfish. I have watched every single minute of his NBA career. So until I see something different, I will give him that credit and I fully understand how tough it must be to see that your team does not really do much to prevent rumours from circling around with your name attached all year. And it culminates with the woj tweet.
By the way, I can't say I ever saw RC show signs of "not liking" DSJ or "treating him badly". So the whole thing is really confusing to me. My "ideal scenario" would have bee if DSJ's camp just wanted to go somewhere else since they see the writing on the wall in Dallas. If that is not the case and the guy was actually buying into working on his game to complement Luka's while they were on the floor together, I really have a tough time seeing an angle where the Mavs come off looking well on this. DSJ didn't have a ton of value to begin with, so it always made more sense to work with him.
As you say, it's pretty much pointless to speculate at this point, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't upset with how this whole thing has been handled. I will revise this situation when it 'ends', because this team hasn't really done a good job "rebuilding" or having a philosophy about what they wanted to do. They redeemed themselves with the trade with the Hawks, but in the recent years, they made so many mistakes and had the team literally in the middle of nowhere, that a thing like this, where they tank the value of their 18' #9th pick is alarming. For those fans who have witnessed all these recent 'bad season', it is not fun to see that one year you see a team promoting a young guy and the next they just kick him to the curb without properly investing, evaluating and giving him a fair chance. Not a good sign for the future 'management' of this team.
This is why I have always wondered how the decision making worked with the Mavs and if every 'branch' bought into the plan. We all remember how we were playing old folks when we should have been playing young players and enhancing the odds at the lottery, so I always wondering if the HC was buying in to the rebuilding plan or not --- that was the time to move in a different direction at HC, going with a fresh new mind that was committed to the plan.
Tl; dr no point reading more on this soap opera. I quit like Rondo did.
