RealGM

Everybody considers Nico a horrible GM, but he made some really great moves when you ignore the Luka trade. This team is very talented and does not have a hole anywhere except point guard till Kyrie comes back in late January.

Vets: Kyrie, Anthony, and Klay.
Prime: PJ Washington, Daniel Gafford, and Naji Marshall.
Young and upcoming: Cooper Flagg (18), Dereck Lively II (21), Max Christie (22) Jaden Hardy (22) and the undrafted prospects Miles Kelly (22 – 2-way) and Ryan Nembhard (22 – 2-way)

This is what the Mavs look like today. Hopefully, they sign Dante Exum:
PG: Kyrie Irving (33), D’Angelo Russell (29), Brandon Williams (25)
SG: Klay Thompson (35), Max Christie (22), Jaden Hardy (22), Miles Kelly (22 – 2-way)
SF: Cooper Flagg (18), Caleb Martin (29), Naji Marshall (27), Ryan Nembhard (22 – 2-way)
PF: Anthony Davis (32), P.J. Washington (26), Kessler Edwards (24)
C: Dereck Lively II (21), Daniel Gafford (26), Dwight Powell (33)

Nico Harrison has really done a good job for a long time. Flipped KP for Dinwiddie (who played great in that playoff run), then later turned Dinwiddie into Kyrie, who was elite next to Luka. Tanked smart and landed Dereck Lively, a perfect fit who changed their defense. At the deadline, he grabbed Gafford and PJ Washington—no Finals without them, they totally changed the team chemistry. Added Klay Thompson, got Naji Marshall on a great value deal (8M/year), and brought back Exum from Europe, who became a key guy.

definately got a squad in Mavs

Yes the Mavs look good.

But take Flagg out of the lineup and what does it look like then? Not so good anymore, huh? You are crediting Niko for 100% lucking into the best prospect of this decade.

Yes, I like this team on paper, but I do not believe you can win with AD as best player, I think that would be very hard.

Also, can Nico shut up about his vision, like the vision was to win draft lottery, or does he just admit that it is rigged? Dude, you got lucky on 1.8% odds, shut up and f you, you made worst trade in the history of the league still.

Interesting spin. Kyrie is out until January at the earliest. AD is gonna miss 20 games like usual. And nothing else matters after that.

A few years from now, Flagg might be developed enough to carry a team, but that's not even a guarantee at the moment.

I don't know how much I'd be selling on the PRESENT state of the Mavs. If Flagg pans out, then they will RECOVER from the Luka trade reasonably well, but they've got some old, injured star players who will have major availability issues and be into their decline.

This almost feels like a "LEAVE BRITTNEY ALONE" post for Nico...

dirkdiggler4177 wrote:PG: Kyrie Irving (33), D’Angelo Russell (29), Brandon Williams (25)
SG: Klay Thompson (35), Max Christie (22), Jaden Hardy (22), Miles Kelly (22 – 2-way)
SF: Cooper Flagg (18), Caleb Martin (29), Naji Marshall (27), Ryan Nembhard (22 – 2-way)
PF: Anthony Davis (32), P.J. Washington (26), Kessler Edwards (24)
C: Dereck Lively II (21), Daniel Gafford (26), Dwight Powell (33)

I looked at this rotation for a good fifteen seconds trying to figure out what on earth the minutes distribution meant... why only 18 mpg for Cooper Flagg? How does any of this work?

And then I realized it's the players' ages

Optms wrote:Yes the Mavs look good.

But take Flagg out of the lineup and what does it look like then? Not so good anymore, huh? You are crediting Niko for 100% lucking into the best prospect of this decade.

UcanUwill wrote:Yes, I like this team on paper, but I do not believe you can win with AD as best player, I think that would be very hard.

Also, can Nico shut up about his vision, like the vision was to win draft lottery, or does he just admit that it is rigged? Dude, you got lucky on 1.8% odds, shut up and f you, you made worst trade in the history of the league still.

Totally agree, but part of being a good GM is being lucky
Like Boston has to tear things down because of an Achilles. Mavs got Luka because 4 other teams were stupid. etc

dirkdiggler4177 wrote:

Optms wrote:Yes the Mavs look good.

But take Flagg out of the lineup and what does it look like then? Not so good anymore, huh? You are crediting Niko for 100% lucking into the best prospect of this decade.

UcanUwill wrote:Yes, I like this team on paper, but I do not believe you can win with AD as best player, I think that would be very hard.

Also, can Nico shut up about his vision, like the vision was to win draft lottery, or does he just admit that it is rigged? Dude, you got lucky on 1.8% odds, shut up and f you, you made worst trade in the history of the league still.

Totally agree, but part of being a good GM is being lucky
Like Boston has to tear things down because of an Achilles. Mavs got Luka because 4 other teams were stupid. etc

I think to be successful GM, you need to be lucky. I disagree you need luck to be good GM. Some good GMs were always unlucky, they didn't win or something went terribly wrong, but I do not think that made them bad GMs. We evaluating the game, we say - judge the game when the ball is in the air, same should be applied here. Dallas winning a literal lottery didn't make Nico a better GM, it made him lucky GM, he is lucky moron, unless NBA is trully rigged and the trade was AD plus rigged lottery for Luka. But even then, it is pretty bad return for Luka.

dirkdiggler4177 wrote:Everybody considers Nico a horrible GM, but he made some really great moves when you ignore the Luka trade.

This is like 'he was a pretty good guy if you ignore him stabbing his mother in law 27 times in the back' type of opinion.

Yeah, Mavs won lottery with 1.5% odds with borderline generational prospect on board, so yeah, they went from terrible situation to pretty decent one. There's no need to sugarcoat it on Harrison's behalf though. They were in terrible situation prior to the lottery: old roster, multiple draft picks traded, Kyrie with torn ACL.

Fortune favors the bold.

Fortune favors the Nico

Flagg is still an 18 year old kid he is going to put up stats but a big impact on winning won’t happen until year three or four right when AD and Kyrie likely really fall off. Timelines don’t really match up.

I think my main concern is whether they can make playoffs in West or not, with Kyrie probably missing half the season. If they were in East, then I'd have been lot more confident but in West which is so much stacked, making playoffs is not a guarantee if any of your stars are missing considerable amount of time

bstein14 wrote:Flagg is still an 18 year old kid he is going to put up stats but a big impact on winning won’t happen until year three or four right when AD and Kyrie likely really fall off. Timelines don’t really match up.

They are probably looking for Chet-like contributions from Flagg. Chet was pretty good from the jump, but his usage is limited due to other options.

Fortune favors the guy who helped the Lakers

UcanUwill wrote:

dirkdiggler4177 wrote:

Optms wrote:Yes the Mavs look good.

But take Flagg out of the lineup and what does it look like then? Not so good anymore, huh? You are crediting Niko for 100% lucking into the best prospect of this decade.

UcanUwill wrote:Yes, I like this team on paper, but I do not believe you can win with AD as best player, I think that would be very hard.

Also, can Nico shut up about his vision, like the vision was to win draft lottery, or does he just admit that it is rigged? Dude, you got lucky on 1.8% odds, shut up and f you, you made worst trade in the history of the league still.

Totally agree, but part of being a good GM is being lucky
Like Boston has to tear things down because of an Achilles. Mavs got Luka because 4 other teams were stupid. etc

I think to be successful GM, you need to be lucky. I disagree you need luck to be good GM. Some good GMs were always unlucky, they didn't win or something went terribly wrong, but I do not think that made them bad GMs. We evaluating the game, we say - judge the game when the ball is in the air, same should be applied here. Dallas winning a literal lottery didn't make Nico a better GM, it made him lucky GM, he is lucky moron, unless NBA is trully rigged and the trade was AD plus rigged lottery for Luka. But even then, it is pretty bad return for Luka.

I can agree on that, but when you look at the rest of the roster, that was not built on luck. Like nobody cared about PJ and Gafford before. Everybody considered Kyrie the worst. He was able to convince Klay to come to Dallas instead of the Lakers. He drafted Lively, and there was nobody after that that he really missed out on because he drafted him. He also signed players like DJ, Naji Marshall, and Exum, who have all been very positive players. The only really bad signing he did was Grant Williams, but he was able to get PJ for him. Like that is consistent, solid moves. Yea, he also traded Hardaway for Quentin Grimes. Now we will see if it was a bad move not to sign him to the amount Quentin asked for.

So overall, he has been very solid and consistently good. So he got lucky with Flagg, but if he were a bad GM, the roster would not look like that.

They were in the finals last season with a 26yo franchise player and mostly young team, and turned that into an old mid-30s team that didn't make the playoffs this year.

For Nico to even get back to neutral, they need to make the finals. For him to be considered good, they need to win it all.

Likely lottery team in the West. Maybe they steal Memphis' spot.

bstein14 wrote:Flagg is still an 18 year old kid he is going to put up stats but a big impact on winning won’t happen until year three or four right when AD and Kyrie likely really fall off. Timelines don’t really match up.

Nah, Nico has planned for this. In 2028, both Irving and Davis come off the books, giving the Mavs a lot of freedom. This means they can win for 3 seasons and then restart the team with Flagg in his prime. And obviously, this team does not look like a championship team, but we said the same thing about the last Mavs team. Pacers this season, too. You never know.