ATL - Road teams now up 5-0 (Indy, NYK, Den, GSW)

[German Athens]

Yeah, the value of the Grayson trade was a good one, but in hindsight, I’d rather have left that spot open and brought in a Malik, or GTJ than have had Grayson.

Then you could have looked to patch the roster with a different trade.

Easy for me to say now, though, because I can’t remember who the min 2-guard options were back then.

[chonestown]

Bucks have had young guys wearing the green (or blue or black really depends on the time period) that we could have controlled for a dollar and a song like Craig Porter Jr (double Porter Jr lineups?? In this economy???), Whiter Donte, the bearded Huff gentleman but Horts and crew have an affinity for the models creepin' on the come-up for a timing belt replacement. Father Time never loses, the timing belt can never be forsook tryin to incorporate automotive metaphors into my posting despite nothing but a passing familiarity with the wonders of the combustion engine <Life is a Hi-Way slowly amplifies in the background, Bizzy Bone rhymes in triplicate>

[German Athens]

When people react with anger about Giannis, or think he’s the issue with the bucks, or think the issue is he makes too much money, please step away from the ledge.

Look around the league, and see that Tatum, a guy paid just as much as Giannis, who just shot 36% from the floor for 17pts and 2 assists, was on a team that just won by 17.

Or Shai, a guy not paid quite as much because he’s younger and the timing of his extension was early, but would absolutely be paid the same if his contract was up this year, shot 30% from the field en route to a 51pt win.

Having a top talent like Giannis or Jokic is the biggest cheat code, and should make all the other moves, and the pathways to being a top contender, not all that difficult.

[MartyConlonOnTheRun]

When people react with anger about Giannis, or think he’s the issue with the bucks, or think the issue is he makes too much money, please step away from the ledge.

Look around the league, and see that Tatum, a guy paid just as much as Giannis, who just shot 36% from the floor for 17pts and 2 assists, was on a team that just won by 17.

Or Shai, a guy not paid quite as much because he’s younger and the timing of his extension was early, but would absolutely be paid the same if his contract was up this year, shot 30% from the field en route to a 51pt win.

Having a top talent like Giannis or Jokic is the biggest cheat code, and should make all the other moves, and the pathways to being a top contender, not all that difficult.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/2021-nba-finals-bucks-vs-suns.html
Just posted in another thread on the GB, but my god Giannis just covers up so many warts. We had a championship roster with the 4th man in minutes averaging 4 pts a game in the finals. Jrue, who everyone loves, was absolutely atrocious that series with a 44%TS. Bud couldn't decide who was more unplayable between Bobby and BroLo. It is just so frustrating every year we have games where we shoot <25% on 3s as a team but when they are building a wall and everyone blames Giannis for attacking the wall too much and missing FTs. I wouldn't trust those guys either!

[German Athens]

I actually think our inability to shoot in the playoffs is a simpler one.

We just haven’t had a lot of real shooters on our roster. By that I mean guys who shoot well in multiple scenarios whether that’s catch and shoot, off heavy movement, or pull-ups. This roster, if healthy, is our best one at that.

In the past we’ve made guys shooters who just aren’t that talented at it. Brook and Bobby are stand still turrets outside who have slow releases.

Jrue and Bledsoe weren’t high level shooters at all before they got here.

Marvin Williams, ersan, pj, etc.

Wes is exclusively a catch and shoot guy. Even someone like Grayson, who shot well, couldn’t reliably get into looks off high movement or pull-up, because he has a slower release for a guard, and gets little elevation on the shot.

Green and Beasley have been far and away our most valuable movement shooters in the Giannis era. Dame is absurdly good pulling up. GTJ can capably catch and shoot or get into a pull-up jumper.

[Matches Malone]

Read on Twitter

[raferfenix]

Kidd part especially got me.

Interviews with more than a dozen team and league insiders reveal that while the Luka Doncic era officially ended on Feb. 2, it truly began to disintegrate, along with the franchise's culture, 18 months earlier, the summer before the generational talent led the Mavs to the NBA Finals.

Sources said Cuban, who had made Doncic’s happiness his top priority since Dallas acquired the draft rights to the prodigy in 2018 and worked closely with Seager for years before that, volunteered to serve as an intermediary. But Harrison had succeeded in pushing Cuban completely out of basketball operations since Patrick Dumont took over as the team’s governor and didn’t want to cede any ground, sources said

Sources said Nowitzki, who describes himself as a “Mavs fan” now, opted to no longer be involved in the inner workings of the franchise’s basketball operations after Smith’s forced exit. Nowitzki had served as a senior adviser to Mark Cuban, frequently attending practices and providing input when he was in Dallas.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/44704219/inside-end-luka-doncic-era-dallas-mavericks

However, those team sources consistently express belief that Dumont no longer sees Harrison as a figure with irreproachable basketball expertise. Most notably, team and league sources say, Dumont has had frustration with Harrison not warning him — or, perhaps even more damningly, being unaware — of the fandom’s outrage following the trade. Those same sources say it had some influence over Dumont’s decision to make Harrison appear for last week’s closed media event, which Harrison did not want to participate in

While Kidd was understandably frustrated this season with the team’s injury crisis, he also resented the front office’s midseason Luka Doncic trade, multiple team and league sources say, even if he shared some of Harrison’s frustrations with Dončić that led to his trade of him. That Kidd felt he had been asked to reinvent what had been a roster built around one specific star, team and league sources say, led to the midseason exasperation that notably culminated in him skipping a league-mandated post-game press conference in February.

https://alldlls.com/mavericks-nico-harrison-patrick-dumont-rumors-fire-reporting/

[Matches Malone]

Those owners should have just waited for a Vegas expansion team instead of destroying an existing franchise that was just in the Finals. A good portion of that fanbase has turned their backs on them. At this point, just move the team to Vegas already and give Dallas an expansion team. Probably won't happen, but they've done irreparable damage and have become enemy #1.

[mke_design]

Good coaches and gms go out and pluck Jerome and Davion Mitchell out of the scrap heap and turn them into productive players.

Atkinson should have been the hire.

Imagine drafting a guy like some random dude named Sam Merrill. Would be crazy to just give that up.

we got two years of Grayson Allen in our core years for a guy who didn't do anything for years later.....after he was waived twice. it would have been crazy to keep him. if you would've said we missed the opportunity to pick him up twice as a FA....sure. but passing on a win-now trade to wait four years for the guy to be playable is insane. like even now he's a solid 19 mpg but it's not like he isn't replaceable. Hell a vet min like Beasley is just as good

It was tongue in cheek, of course it wasn’t an asset we could keep. There’s lot of these dudes but we seem to always lose the ones who turn out later, and rarely get the ones we need right away.

[MickeyDavis]

Dirk "describing himself as a Mavs fan" was an odd phrase to use.

[Matches Malone]

Just stop talking lmao.

Read on Twitter

[soxperry]

What a complete gd moron

[emunney]

Feels like Fields should have gotten more time. Gueye is a nice find, I find it hard to argue with the Risacher pick, the Murray-Daniels deal was a slam dunk. He's only been there for 2 summers.

[GoldenAntlers]

Just stop talking lmao.

Read on Twitter

The gift that keeps on giving.

[emunney]

It's absolutely wild that Harrison hasn't been fired yet with all these other guys getting canned for mild intra-office tension or whatever.

[emunney]

My guess is they told Fields they were going to hire a POBO with personnel authority and he didn't like that. Maybe they'll poach Doc from us.

[Ron Swanson]

It's absolutely wild that Harrison hasn't been fired yet with all these other guys getting canned for mild intra-office tension or whatever.

I think the only optics worse than keeping him after this disaster would be, ironically, firing him 2-months afterwards. Ownership already seems to be sowing the seeds of Nico as the scapegoat, but they really need him as a human shield for the next 6-12 months to build up that narrative before hitting the eject button.

[paulpressey25]

It's absolutely wild that Harrison hasn't been fired yet with all these other guys getting canned for mild intra-office tension or whatever.

Ownership knows they forced him into this. So he’ll stay on for a bit more.

We can all easily envision Dumont and his mother-in-law Miriam saying “What? This guy wants a $350 million dollar contract? Trade him and get the best you can. Just get it done”.

[Gant]

It's absolutely wild that Harrison hasn't been fired yet with all these other guys getting canned for mild intra-office tension or whatever.

Ownership knows they forced him into this. So he’ll stay on for a bit more.

We can all easily envision Dumont and his mother-in-law Miriam saying “What? This guy wants a $350 million dollar contract? Trade him and get the best you can. Just get it done”.

If only. Instead they traded him quietly, talking to only one team without looking for the best deal.

[raferfenix]

I must say I am an extreme cynic assuming some kind of corruption had to occur for the Mavs to send Luka to the Lakers of all teams on the cheap.

But also everything we've been hearing about Nico makes him seem like a historic level tool as well.