Mavs weigh Nico's Future

[Ssj16]

Lol at fire Nico chants.

[JellosJigglin]

I wonder is this also because Flagg's ceiling may not be as high as ownership may have thought it could be. It's really really early but Flagg looks like he has a high basement and he might only have a top 25 player in the league ceiling and not a top 10 or top 5 player in the league ceiling. People forget but even in his rookie year Luka came out the gate blazing and by his 2nd season he was a top 5 player.

So far, it looks like Flagg is getting a very soft treatment compared to what some other, even lower profiled rookies have gotten for the start of their NBA careers. It's like we all want him to succeed and people don't want to criticize him, especially with the Kidd playing him at PG stuff. Kidd is trying to make a rookie who has never played PG become a PG right at the beginning of his NBA career. Even Lebron who had play a PG role before the NBA had struggle playing PG as a rookie, and they went out and got a PG to help him out that year.

Luka was playing against grown men from the age of 16. His learning curve in the NBA was not as steep as Flagg.

[og15]

I wonder is this also because Flagg's ceiling may not be as high as ownership may have thought it could be. It's really really early but Flagg looks like he has a high basement and he might only have a top 25 player in the league ceiling and not a top 10 or top 5 player in the league ceiling. People forget but even in his rookie year Luka came out the gate blazing and by his 2nd season he was a top 5 player.

So far, it looks like Flagg is getting a very soft treatment compared to what some other, even lower profiled rookies have gotten for the start of their NBA careers. It's like we all want him to succeed and people don't want to criticize him, especially with the Kidd playing him at PG stuff. Kidd is trying to make a rookie who has never played PG become a PG right at the beginning of his NBA career. Even Lebron who had play a PG role before the NBA had struggle playing PG as a rookie, and they went out and got a PG to help him out that year.

I'm not comparing him to Luka, the poster I quoted did, but I'm talking about guys like Scoot, etc, they got more criticism even 4, 5 games in, right now I'm actually surprised at how nice people have been to Flagg. I'm usually shaking my head at over early criticism, but so far, he's gotten a soft treatment, the I actually think that's the right way to assess these players so early.

Luka was playing against grown men from the age of 16. His learning curve in the NBA was not as steep as Flagg.

[Effigy]

Yes yes, let's believe the conspiracies instead of the obvious answer that is right in front of us.

What's the obvious answer? that a guy who is clearly very smart, decided to take a bad trade with only one team because he wanted to get out of the Super max? That doesn't even make a hint of sense. As I pointed out, they'd get out of the super max by trading him ANYWHERE. I understand some people just have to believe everything they are told, but come on, a LITTLE critical thinking isn't too much to ask, is it? Why did the Mavs only talk to the Lakers? Why did they not insist on every first round pick they could offer and Reeves? Why did a very smart guy make a trade that was so bad that it took a team from the finals to the lottery and still keep his job? And the Mavs wound up getting the number one pick right after. Amazing coincidence! The trade happened right before the Lakers got sold, making the NBA's most valuable franchise even more valuable. Another amazing coincidence!

They didn't want to pay him the Supermax, for whatever reasons, so they directed Nico to trade him. Most people chose to forget that AD is a top 10 player and ignored the fact that he was likely the best player they could have gotten for Luka, but I did not. If Kyrie didn't get hurt they could have fielded a pretty decent team last season. They clearly wanted a win-now move, not a package centered on a bunch of 1sts.

If you want to instead believe it's more reasonable that the NBA orchestrated the trade to get Luka to the Lakers and rewarded Dallas with the number one overall pick (which among other things would have required all other NBA teams to be in on it, without any leaks...but at this point that's not too big a stretch), go for it.

Yep, and if you want to obediently believe the official story and never question what you’re told, you do you.

There’s no way that’s the best player or package you could get for Luka. And I don’t agree that 32 year old broke down Davis was the best player they could get either. I’d like to see your source for that. You don’t call one team and just take whatever they offer, lol.

[MrGoat]

I wonder is this also because Flagg's ceiling may not be as high as ownership may have thought it could be. It's really really early but Flagg looks like he has a high basement and he might only have a top 25 player in the league ceiling and not a top 10 or top 5 player in the league ceiling. People forget but even in his rookie year Luka came out the gate blazing and by his 2nd season he was a top 5 player.

Way too early to come to that conclusion. Look up Giannis' rookie season, another one of the very few rookie players in recent years to come in at age 18

[Edrees]

Its moments like these where you just sit back and ask, like what series of events could have possibly happened...to make this real life.

How do people lacking even the most basic common sense stumble into the positions to be able to make these decisions.

I thought ownership had him trade Luka...? Or at least okayed the trade?

If not, then he should've been fired a long time ago.

I want to believe that he was forced, but he did a lot of ground work as a preparation for the trade by stripping away every Luka ally in the the org before finally doing it, this was premeditated.

And why can't it be the owner who did that groundwork? Nobody's, not even nico, is getting rick of Luka because they think it's the right move for basketball reasons. If they premediated getting rid of his allies, that's coming from an owner who simply does not want luka on the team for outside non basketball factors (too expensive, doesn't want pressure of building an expensive team to win, wants to move the team, etc) . why would a GM who only wants his team to succeed , plan years in advance to get rid of his best player?

I simply refuse to believe anyone actually thinks trading Luka for AD was an upgrade. I think it's fair to assume the trade was done for off court/non basketball reasons. And once you make that assumption, it's much easier to believe the owner wants a player gone for non on-court basketball reasons than a GM, and he told his GM to lay the groundwork to do it by getting rid of his allies. Just doesn't make sense to me that a GM would work against his own interests like that.

Honest question.

Let's say Mark Cuban is still the owner of the mavs, and for some reaosn Nico is still GM.

Does the trade still happen?

If no, how come you aren't at least placing 50% of the blame on the owner?

[Mavrelous]

I thought ownership had him trade Luka...? Or at least okayed the trade?

If not, then he should've been fired a long time ago.

I want to believe that he was forced, but he did a lot of ground work as a preparation for the trade by stripping away every Luka ally in the the org before finally doing it, this was premeditated.

And why can't it be the owner who did that groundwork? Nobody's, not even nico, is getting rick of Luka because they think it's the right move for basketball reasons. If they premediated getting rid of his allies, that's coming from an owner who simply does not want luka on the team for outside non basketball factors (too expensive, doesn't want pressure of building an expensive team to win, wants to move the team, etc) . why would a GM who only wants his team to succeed , plan years in advance to get rid of his best player?

Because all the reporting is that Nico was behind these firings, and that he has a personality that doesn't tolerate dissent.
The biggest step was tgebfiring of Casey Smith and it happened immediately once Nico got free reign.
This claim that they didn't want to pay Luka is asinine, AD is already extended at 35% of the cap a year earlier than Luka, which is what the supermax would have given Luka, they didn't save any money by the trade, the opposite, they are more expensive for 3.5 years after the deal.

[Edrees]

I want to believe that he was forced, but he did a lot of ground work as a preparation for the trade by stripping away every Luka ally in the the org before finally doing it, this was premeditated.

And why can't it be the owner who did that groundwork? Nobody's, not even nico, is getting rick of Luka because they think it's the right move for basketball reasons. If they premediated getting rid of his allies, that's coming from an owner who simply does not want luka on the team for outside non basketball factors (too expensive, doesn't want pressure of building an expensive team to win, wants to move the team, etc) . why would a GM who only wants his team to succeed , plan years in advance to get rid of his best player?

Because all the reporting is that Nico was behind these firings, and that he has a personality that doesn't tolerate dissent.
The biggest step was tgebfiring of Casey Smith and it happened immediately once Nico got free reign.
This claim that they didn't want to pay Luka is asinine, AD is already extended at 35% of the cap a year earlier than Luka, which is what the supermax would have given Luka, they didn't save any money by the trade, the opposite, they are more expensive for 3.5 years after the deal.

The reporting is all complete BS. They have no actual reliable source inside the Mavs. They had no idea the trade was brewing, so obviously they have no inside source on the Mavs. If someone knew the inner workings of the Mavs, or had ANY inclination or source inside there, we would have had rumors of this trade before the trade happened like we do with many NBA trades.

You want to believe that reporters who had NO idea the mavs wanted to trade luka to the Lakers somehow know about all the inner workings of the Mavs?

[Mavrelous]

And why can't it be the owner who did that groundwork? Nobody's, not even nico, is getting rick of Luka because they think it's the right move for basketball reasons. If they premediated getting rid of his allies, that's coming from an owner who simply does not want luka on the team for outside non basketball factors (too expensive, doesn't want pressure of building an expensive team to win, wants to move the team, etc) . why would a GM who only wants his team to succeed , plan years in advance to get rid of his best player?

Because all the reporting is that Nico was behind these firings, and that he has a personality that doesn't tolerate dissent.
The biggest step was tgebfiring of Casey Smith and it happened immediately once Nico got free reign.
This claim that they didn't want to pay Luka is asinine, AD is already extended at 35% of the cap a year earlier than Luka, which is what the supermax would have given Luka, they didn't save any money by the trade, the opposite, they are more expensive for 3.5 years after the deal.

The reporting is all complete BS. They have no actual reliable source inside the Mavs. They had no idea the trade was brewing, so obviously they have no inside source on the Mavs. If someone knew the inner workings of the Mavs, or had ANY inclination or source inside there, we would have had rumors of this trade before the trade happened like we do with many NBA trades.

You want to believe that reporters who had NO idea the mavs wanted to trade luka to the Lakers somehow know about all the inner workings of the Mavs?

These things were reported before the trade happened.
I won't blame anyone for not believing this was Nico's decision, but I also am not buying it wasn't and the reasons that continue to be given (like they didn't want to pay him) don't make any sense.

[Ryoga Hibiki]

It will hard to convince me ever that even Nico the GM would have been so stupid to think the trade was a good one for the Mavs. I'm quite sure he knew all along how crazy the trade is and what kind of media havoc it will create. That's why there probably is much more to the story than just Nico being a stupid GM. Another piece of the puzzle was discovered when the Mavs miraculously were handed the #1 pick Flagg. What is wild to me is how the league is not even trying to hide it anymore.

[Ryoga Hibiki]

The delusions in this thread go wild. You guys have to keep in mind that Nico Harrison is the one who single handedly botched Nike's presentation to Steph Curry. The man called him Seth and showed him a presentation that was meant for Kevin Durant. He is a COLOSSAL moron.

He is simply just an idiot that somehow found himself in a place of power. He was baited by the discourse about Luka's weight/defense following the '24 finals (mostly perpetuated by Celtics fans) and fell in love with the notion that "defense wins championships".

Or you guys can just keep thinking that Adam Silver is some evil criminal mastermind that would stain the integrity of the entire league and jeopardize his career for... what reason exactly? To increase the valuation of the Lakers? lol a temporary viewership spike? It's not like millions more are tuning into the NBA this year because Luka is a Laker.

Nico Harrison is a clown. That's all this comes down to.

Sure. He did this all alone and nobody had any power to stop it, right? Only lakers fan want to believe this

the only one with the power to stop him was Dumont. But he didn't know anything about basketball, thought he had a great expert in front of him that he should trust and didn't bother to ask Cuban.
That's why his "friend" Pelinka demanded this to be kept secret, involving only the owners.

[boogiezen]

Are we still focusing on the fall guy?

Exactly. The owners (who greenlit the trade) are still there. The Adelsons should sell the team and get out of the NBA. That's the only way to get Mavs fans back.

The owners specially Pat D has no basketball knowledge. They took Nico's word for it and approved the trade. Heck, he even laughed at the idea. Nico wanted Luka gone, and he succeeded.

[GrindCityHustle]

Was looking up old Laker games and Del Harris and this shows up. I guess the word fire is ingrained into Nico somehow in AI lol

[Lalouie]

JUST FIRE HIM. geeez

[Forbes]

Whoever is hired after Nico has their work cut out for them. All decisions will be scrutinized to the max. But he absolutely has to go, Mavs 100% need a reset.

[Mr Peanut]

Slight tangent but didn't Stephen A predict the Mavs to win the championship this season? He's almost as bad at his job as Nico.

[dirkdiggler4177]

I wonder is this also because Flagg's ceiling may not be as high as ownership may have thought it could be. It's really really early but Flagg looks like he has a high basement and he might only have a top 25 player in the league ceiling and not a top 10 or top 5 player in the league ceiling. People forget but even in his rookie year Luka came out the gate blazing and by his 2nd season he was a top 5 player.

Way too early to come to that conclusion. Look up Giannis' rookie season, another one of the very few rookie players in recent years to come in at age 18

Cooper Flagg is now the youngest player to score 25+ points in an NBA game. This was his breakout game.

Watch on YouTube

[Ssj16]

Slight tangent but didn't Stephen A predict the Mavs to win the championship this season? He's almost as bad at his job as Nico.

Is this true? I'm glad I stopped listening to ESPN years ago. It's become such low quality.

[knicksfan974]

Slight tangent but didn't Stephen A predict the Mavs to win the championship this season? He's almost as bad at his job as Nico.

Stephen A's job is to make outrageous claims to get maximum amount of publicity. He knows how to do this well enough to make 20 million per year.

[Calvin Klein]

Sorry but I've had enough of "poor idiot billionaire had no idea what was going on. He is so stupid"