Dirk Nowitzki on the Dallas Mavericks:I feel bad for my Mavs fans

[MrGoat]

are we still pretending this trade was decided by Nico

I don't think Adam Silver made Nico trade Quentin Grimes for Caleb Martin

[FarBeyondDriven]

are we still pretending this trade was decided by Nico

lol right? So cringe

[durden_tyler]

their two best players aren't playing and their third best player is still 18 y/o. Not a soul would think the Mavs with the roster they put on the floor at this point would be good. Any prognostication about them being sneaky good was assuming full health if they snuck into the playoffs somehow despite Kyrie being out until the 2nd half. And that remains true. If AD and Kyrie are healthy and with Flagg having a season under his belt that could be a sneaky team if they made a play-in. Can we stop pretending otherwise? There's no shame in losing to the Thunder, Rockets, Spurs, Pistons and scrappy Grizzlies. Relax

But Nico traded for a player who is usually injured so you can definitely criticize how bad they are when you consider if you swap Luka with Flagg and AD, they are in the playoffs hunt right now as a darkhorse contender.

Ugh, such a downgrade though, from potential title contenders to just darkhorse contending playoff hunters.

Dallas misses Luka so much, i think they will recover eventually, and make the playoffs after 15-20 years.

[MrGoat]

their two best players aren't playing and their third best player is still 18 y/o. Not a soul would think the Mavs with the roster they put on the floor at this point would be good. Any prognostication about them being sneaky good was assuming full health if they snuck into the playoffs somehow despite Kyrie being out until the 2nd half. And that remains true. If AD and Kyrie are healthy and with Flagg having a season under his belt that could be a sneaky team if they made a play-in. Can we stop pretending otherwise? There's no shame in losing to the Thunder, Rockets, Spurs, Pistons and scrappy Grizzlies. Relax

But Nico traded for a player who is usually injured so you can definitely criticize how bad they are when you consider if you swap Luka with Flagg and AD, they are in the playoffs hunt right now as a darkhorse contender.

Ugh, such a downgrade though, from potential title contenders to just darkhorse contending playoff hunters.

Dallas misses Luka so much, i think they will recover eventually, and make the playoffs after 15-20 years.

The curse of the Bambino lasted 86 years, and they at least had legitimate financial reasons to do that trade. Seeing the way AD and Kyrie went down with injuries after the trade this is going to be one hell of a curse on the Mavs

[dirkdiggler4177]

That was actually starting to turn around. We all know how dreadfully the Mavs wasted the pay cuts Dirk gave them in free agency. Klay Thompson actually chose the Mavericks over the Lakers which seemed unthinkable considering the Mavs' free agency history. Luka actually had some free agency pull at this point. I bet Klay wants that decision back now and I wouldn't be surprised if he's already asked for a trade out judging by what I've seen of him this season. To get anybody to come to Dallas in free agency now will take overpays

What free agents did the Mavs lose out on? I remember everybody made a big deal about it, but it was very few, and there were no good reasons for them to join the Mavs over the other candidates they had.

The most consequential free agency miss would have probably been when they went all out to try to sign Dwight Howard in 2013. Howard's decision to choose Houston over Dallas probably cost himself and Dirk at least one ring. They ended up with Jose Calderon and Monta Ellis instead.

There was the failed attempt at Deron Williams before his decline because Cuban was too busy with Shark Tank, they ended up with Darren Collison and OJ Mayo instead. They made a serious attempt at Carmelo Anthony and ended up maxing Chandler Parsons instead. There was the whole DeAndre Jordan saga which ended with them maxing out Wes Matthews. The year after that they had max room again and tried and failed to get Mike Conley and Hassan Whiteside, they ended up maxing Harrison Barnes instead. They whiffed on Kemba Walker when he was still an All Star too hoping to pair him with Luka and KP and signed a poo poo platter instead.

I don't understand why Dwight would join the Mavs. The Lakers' situation looked much better imo. Dirk was 35 and had averaged 17 points the season before; meanwhile, Kobe was putting up 27, had a 32-year-old Gasol, with Metta, and what looked like a solid Nash.

I won't bother to check the other situations, but my impression has always been that the free agents joined better situations than the Mavs. Like with Deron Williams, he got more money in Brooklyn; they had just signed Joe Johnson, and the Mavs roster was gutted with a clearly declining Dirk. I would also have stayed in Brooklyn.

Even with Klay, the Mavs' situation was better for him than the Lakers.

DeAndre's situation, though, there he was going to a more impactful situation for himself, but the Clippers literally trapped him