How on earth has Donnie Nelson kept his job for so long??

[RPGxGOAT]

He was right about Luka and he deserves credit for that. Beyond that, can anyone tell me what he has done specifically to keep his job for so long? Does he have dirt on the Cubes? This offseason we downgraded at shooting guard and made no other moves. We've made no effort to gain back any draft capital lost in the trade for KP signaling that we're just going to back to not giving a **** about the draft. He signed KP to a massive deal before he ever played here, also signed this deal as soon as free agency started negating the cap space we had that offseason to sign some B/C level players because we all know good and damn well no star is ever going to sign here in free agency. What am I missing? Does he get credit for Dirk or his Dad because that was also 20+ years ago. Are we happy to hit on like 2 out of 20+ draft picks in Josh Howard and Jalen Brunson? People credit his international scouting yet besides an obvious lottery talent like Luka he's brought in... Maxi Kleber and Salah Mejri Our current roster is Luka, an inefficient 7'3 often injured guy who thinks he's Steph Curry making all star salary, three really good role players in Kleber, THJ and Brunson and 12 borderline end of bench guys.

What am I missing here? Does one good move in drafting Luka make up for years and years of other poor decisions? Do we think he is a mastermind because he wanted to draft Giannis? If he really wanted him that bad why didn't he convince Cuban to simply free up the 600k in cap space we gained by trading down by attaching a 2nd rounder to a player with high salary and taking him anyways at pick 13? I realize he hasn't done anything OVERTLY stupid but how does being consistenly average to below average at your job get you this many years as GM?

Sorry, long rant I know and maybe I'm off base. Can anyone defend this guy? Does anyone expect Luka to stick around given the ineptness of the front office because I sure dont.

[Mavrelous]

What exactly did Donnie pay for KP/THJ?
Mavs suck at signing centers, ever since Dampier and LaFrenz days, Chandler trade was a fluke.
Mavs can, if they want to, have no one on their payroll but rookies this offseason, and sign whoever they want to.
It's not as bad as you think, no one thought they'd be PO ready by 2nd year of Luka.

[dirkforpres]

I think he should’ve been out of here a year ago. His last decade has been horrendous.

- Trading for low character guys like Odom, Noel, Rondo
- Huge contracts to below average to average players like Parsons, Barnes, Powell, Matthews
- Reputation around the league of not caring about players (trading Barnes at halftime)
- Inability to sign marquee free agents, despite having a top 5 player and top 10 market

It’s not a good look and trading for Luka shouldn’t give him this much leeway to be a bad GM before and since

[fuller4379]

Luka isn’t going to stick around if he continues to be surrounded by stiffs. Luka needs help. The only three good draft picks in the last decade - Brunson, Luka, and Crowder.

[arkuo]

Top management has been riding the 2011 wave for too long.

It's 2021. You cant play the "but we won in 2011 with little to no talent" card anymore. Besides, 2011 was more of Dirk going bananas and unstoppable on the court than anything else to be honest.

[Archx]

Top management has been riding the 2011 wave for too long.

It's 2021. You cant play the "but we won in 2011 with little to no talent" card anymore. Besides, 2011 was more of Dirk going bananas and unstoppable on the court than anything else to be honest.

Oh come on, 2011 team was very well balanced Sure Dirk was crazy good but they also had everything they needed. A ton of experience, toughness, leadership, defense, rebounding etc...

2011 run was impressive because they beat Kobe's Lakers and the big 3 in Miami.

[Teffer10]

Who would you replace him with?
Always easy to get rid of someone but an upgrade replacement isn't always so easy to procure.

[arkuo]

Who would you replace him with?
Always easy to get rid of someone but an upgrade replacement isn't always so easy to procure.

The new guy just has to be a yes man to Cuban. Or a girl friday. Cuban has the tendency to micromanage and still vetoes stuff. He's better off just signing an intern to be a GM if he just vetoes Giannis.

[dirkforpres]

Who would you replace him with?
Always easy to get rid of someone but an upgrade replacement isn't always so easy to procure.

I don’t think it would be hard to find someone to replace Donnie with. Hell, the only reason he has that job in the first place was because his father was coach. It definitely wasn’t because he was the most qualified person

[mxr2000]

He is black mailing Cuban with a picture of him the Orange one huging each other.

[tomlite770]

....

[HMFFL]

10+ years ago on this board many of us wondered the same.

Sent from my SM-N975U using RealGM mobile app

[SOUNDCHASER]

he almost got us Giannis and should have but the Luka thing has him here for a while.

[mabundo_nagumbe]

he almost got us Giannis and should have but the Luka thing has him here for a while.

Lika any other GM would not go for Luka in Dallas' spot

[leolozon]

What exactly did Donnie pay for KP/THJ?

Too much considering they gave him the max. If they got him for free, giving him the max would still have been a mistake. They gave the equivalent of 3 FRP for him considering that the Knicks would have given a FRP to dump their "bad contracts". I would have gladly taken the Knicks FRP to free their cap space.

Even if no good players come out of those picks, the Mavs could still have used those picks to make trades. It would have been better than what KP is bringing to this team considering it's not even clear if the team is better when he's on the floor.

[bartlettbear]

We need more bad character guys on this team we need Morris, Hareell type players, but those guys wont play for RIck becuase Rick did Rondo dirty, we need Kidd,

[fuller4379]

he almost got us Giannis and should have but the Luka thing has him here for a while.

Lika any other GM would not go for Luka in Dallas' spot

Phoenix, Sacramento, Atlanta, and Memphis could have had Luka but chose not to have him.

[Absinthe]

he almost got us Giannis and should have but the Luka thing has him here for a while.

Lika any other GM would not go for Luka in Dallas' spot

Phoenix, Sacramento, Atlanta, and Memphis could have had Luka but chose not to have him.

Atlanta has done a much better job of building around Young. It’s not even close. That team is young a deep. The Kings are a joke. Phoenix looked like idiots for taking Ayton over Luka but that pick doesn’t seem as foolish in hindsight because of how they’ve built the team. Memphis also has a brighter future than Dallas as far as how they’ve built the team.

[41Dirk41]

Fire him. Right now.

The supporting was awful all season and what was his respond? Trade for a Youtuber.

[Lord Cuban]

Donnie Nelson and the front office are not good at their job. Drafting Dirk and Luka almost 20 years a part is nothing to be congratulated for. They were extremely lucky with Dirk that he didn't bolt. Luka will if they get it together.