Texas Chuck wrote:Doctor MJ wrote:4. Luka and the Mavs. Won't surprise anyone if Luka emerges as the clear cut best player in the world and the Mavs become a true contender as a result, but I don't like the fact that Luka wasn't able to work with Carlisle harmoniously. The Mavs seem to have now doubled down on just giving Luka whatever he wants, and maybe that will work, but if it turns out that Luka - like basically every other star in history - requires some shrewd team tactics around him to max out his team's potential, going from Carlisle to Kidd is a downgrade.
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Maybe you have access to some credible reporting I don't? I understand the perception is Luka cleaned house in Dallas this year. And I can't say for certain that isn't true. But we do know pretty credibly reported that Dallas did not want Carlisle to leave--that it was a Rick Carlisle decision. Rick made that clear in his statements and the team backed him publicly on that.
Could be spin, I'm not naive about that, but I tend to believe it. And I don't see any reason Luka wanted Donnie out. He and Donnie had a good relationship going back to when he was 13 and Donnie is the guy who engineered Luka to Dallas and was his biggest champion.
And they didn't dump KP at a loss(they couldn't move him for value obviously) when it appeared Luka didn't want to play with him.
I expect Luka's infliuence in Dallas to grow just like Dirk's did. And more quickly just because they always felt good about Dirk's loyalty in a way they shouldn't with Luka. I just don't know that I'm prepared to concede to a narrative that he's already running the team. Kidd definitely comes across as a Mark Cuban decision way more than a Luka decision. Luka doesn't want to play the old school basketball that Kidd keeps talking about in all his public comments.
That said, I don't love that he couldn't get along with Rick either. Or that Cuban allowed Harlabob to have the appearance of having more power than Rick--which seemed to be at a root of a lot of Luka's frustration with the coaching staff.
No doubt this off-season sucked for Dallas and maybe it's all Luka, but I think its much more about Mark Cuban's ego than Luka's determination to call the shots.
So Chuck I'll say up front that I put a lot of stock in your thoughts here. Respect your opinion in general, and this is Dallas we're talking about.
But yeah, the stuff I've heard (none of it first hand), is that Luka was able to effectively berate Carlisle and Carlisle didn't feel he could do anything about it. I don't like any player acting like that, and while I tend to cut more slack to super-intelligent players when it comes to wanting coaches fired, if you're acting out in front of the other players, to me you're behaving in a way that's not wise. So that's my impression of Luka right now.
Re: Mavs haven't just been giving Luka whatever he wants. That's true, but it's hard to imagine Kidd was hired with the message "You're our franchise, and if you need to kick Luka's ass, do it!" Hence, I'd guess they're hoping that Kidd & Luka will just be able to bond together around their super-high-on-court BBIQ and this will make Luka be happy and act like a positive leader.
Re: Donnie? I certainly hope Luka hadn't soured on Donnie, so yeah, to me the cleaning house speaks more to a natural cascade that followed the original change rather than just caving to Luka.
Re: In the end, it's all about Cuban. No doubt, and I used to be a lot more positive about that.
