​
# The Reggie Bullock Signing
* Signed a 3-year deal
* Played 1 good year, 1 bad year
* Salary dumped before Year 3
​
# The Porzingis Trade
* Porzingis & 2nd rd pick traded for Dinwiddie & Bertans
* Bertans was one of the worst contracts in the NBA
​
# The Jalen Brunson Non-Extension
* Brunson’s agent asked the Mavs for a max extension before the 2021 season
* Mavs refused to give Brunson the $52M/4 max extension he wanted
* Brunson signed with NYK for $104M/4, and later became an All-Star
​
# The Major Extensions
* Dorian Finney-Smith
* $56M/4 extension
* Extension started in 2022
* Maxi Kleber
* $33M/3 extension
* Extension started this season
* Josh Green
* $41M/3 extension
* Extension will start in 2024
* I’m not including Luka because his extension was a no-brainer
​
# Tim Hardaway Jr. Re-signing
* Signed a new $75M 4-year contract in 2021
* Averaged 16.2 PPG on 58.5% TS in the final 2 years of previous contract
* Averaged 15.5 PPG on 55.1% TS in the first 3 years of new contract
​
# The Christian Wood 1-year Rental
* Mavs traded a first round pick (26th) for Wood
* Banished to the doghouse by mid-season
* Signed a vet minimum contract with the Lakers after the season
​
# The Jaden Hardy Acquisitioion
* Traded two future 2nd rd picks for the 37th pick of 2020
* Drafted Jaden Hardy
* Year 1 – 8.8 PPG @ 57.1% TS
* Year 2 – 8.0 PPG @ 49.9% TS
​
# The Javale McGee Fiasco
* Age 35
* Averaged only 15.9 minutes in the 3 previous seasons
* Averaged only 14.9 minutes in the 10 previous seasons
* Already had a failed stint in Dallas in 2015
* Signed to a $17M/3 fully guaranteed contract
* Averaged 8.5 mpg for 42 games
* DNP for 40 games
* Stretch-waived after only 1 season
* Dead money on Mavericks Salary Cap for the next 5 years
​
# The Kyrie Irving Acquisition
* Mavs acquired the final 3 months of Kyrie’s expiring contract for
* Dorian Finney-Smith
* Spencer Dinwiddie
* 2029 Unprotected Pick
* Two 2nd round picks
* Kyrie re-signed for $77M/2, with a player option for 3rd year at $43M.
* Has been healthy in 62% of Mavs games so far (47 out of 76).
​
# The Dereck Lively Draft
* Mavericks traded down 2 spots to unload Davis Bertans’s contract
* Mavericks drafted Dereck Lively
​
# The Grant Williams & Richaun Holmes Mess
* Complicated transactions spanning 3 trades and 4 teams
* Would’ve gone over the tax line after acquiring Richaun Holmes & Grant Williams
* Had to go back under the tax by salary dumping Reggie Bullock
* Mavs gained and lost multiple 2nd round picks (Net difference is zero after all the moves).
* Here is the Net Result of all 3 the trades:
|Positives|Negatives|
|:-|:-|
|Acquired 24th pick of draft (O-Max)|Turned 1 year of Reggie Bullock into 2 years of Richaun Holmes|
||Wasted most of their $17M Traded Player Exception (TPE) on Holmes|
||Surrendered a 2030 UNPROTECTED swap to the Spurs|
||Grant Williams $55M 4-yr contract (debatable if this is a “negative” or “positive”)|
​
# Other Moves this season
* Derrick Jones Jr
* 1-year vet minimum
* Cannot earn bird’s rights
* Extremely difficult to re-sign after the season
* Dante Exum
* 2-year vet minimum
* Will have Bird’s Rights
* Easier to re-sign
* Healthy for 65% of Mavs games so far (32 out of 49)
​
​
I gathered most of contract & trade data from [Spotrac](https://www.spotrac.com/nba/dallas-mavericks/cap/) and [Basketball Reference](https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/DAL/2022.html).
*^(Edited to include Jaden Hardy)*
​
​
10 comments
He has been absolutely atrocious and yet people seem to think he is doing ok.
This isn’t really an examination. You obviously don’t like Nico and are using hindsight to highlight any moves that didn’t turn out great while glossing over moves that were universally praised at the time or have worked out well for the team.
Feels like you are leaving some stuff out.
The CWood trade was mostly about getting off of 3 guaranteed roster spots for bad players leftover from Donnie (Trey Burke, Justin Jackson, Sterling Brown). They also got a 2nd round pick back and drafted Hardy who they probably would have taken with that 1st rd pick anyway.
I think Nico has been ok, not great. IMHO first year moves kinda all have an asterisk as he came into a pretty bad situation. This TDL will sway me one way or the other. That said…
There was no path to re-signing Brunson and he absolutely would not have become the player he is playing next to Luka in Kidd’s system. I know what Brunson’s Dad said, but that was really all part of the gameplan/tampering. In addition to all of that, his contract situation was a result of Donny.
Wood, horrible move especially when combined with the McGee deal.
GWill and Holmes, horrible moves.
The Brunson fiasco is probably largely on Cuban. We had Brunson’s Bird rights and it’s Cuban’s call on whether to utilize it to it fullest extent. Nico’s hands were tied at the end because it was clear the Mavs/Cuban were not willing to pay Brunson enough over the Knicks offer to keep him.
It’s tougher to tell who was behind trading low on KP. They wanted off on KP desperately. It’s one of the reasons Brunson and DFS were not extended because they wanted them to be trade bait in a package that included KP. DFS ended up extending but Brunson knew his own worth by then and wasn’t going to sign unless it was for a good amount of money.
But ultimately you get judged for the moves that happen during your watch. And there’s no denying that many of the moves Nico has made have not panned out.
I’m going to go out on a limb here, but I’m guessing you don’t like Nico…
There are issues with how you loaded your biases into every move, the DJJ section is the most egregious IMO, summarizing the signing with negative wording such as “cannot earn Bird rights” and “extremely difficult to re-sign” is crazy.
Nico did all the right moves imo. Its pretty normal some stuff doesnt work out. We were all hyped about grant williams ar the start of the season …
Do you want to hurt me even more ? Just stop 🙁
Not extending or re-signing JB and the KP trade are franchise altering fuck ups. We should be perennial contenders if we had a good front office. And Nico is getting too much credit for guys like DJJ and Exum when that should be given to Luka for making them look that good. Luka tricked most of this sub into thinking that Wood deserved a max extension last year too.
lol you had 8 bullet points for Javale McGee!