BIG Changes Coming For The Dallas Mavericks | The Hoop Collective

BIG Changes Coming For The Dallas Mavericks | The Hoop Collective

Guess the player. I’m going to read another stats. Guess the player. Okay. Okay. What do we got? 7.6 points a game. 31% um or actually 26% on threes on six a game. Come on, man. This is Klay Thompson. Damn. You’re You’re hot. Yeah. No, he’s cold and you’re hot, brother. and and he was sick in Washington uh one game after being scoreless in Memphis, which was his second game coming off the bench. And the decision to bring Clay off the bench has gotten buried by all the feces that’s flying around the Mavericks right now. But dude, it was like, dude, I’m just telling you, man, that was a big big thing. And um you know, he said the right things afterwards. I wasn’t at that game, but uh the Dallas Morning News talked to him. You know, he said all the right things, but we all know, everybody who knows Clay knows how much pride he has. And man, coming off the bench for Golden State, he was miserable and he was pissed. Now, he really they and the Mavericks recruited him to Dallas, which by the way, that contract uh he’s owed about 34 mil this year. next year. It’s looking rough. Um, but they recruited him to Dallas, got him, you know, they couldn’t offer him as much as the Lakers did with the promise that he would be coming off the bench. And in his defense, one of the major reasons promised he’d be starting, I think. I’m sorry, my bad. Promised they Yeah, promised that he’d be starting. Promised that he would have a starting job. And he started the first 79 games he played for the Mavericks. 81 if you want to include the playing games. So, it was like I knew they were thinking about it, but it this was a big decision for JK to make because frankly, you risk just flat out losing Clay mentally. It’s going to be a challenge for him to stay in the mentally, but he was so bad. They had to make this move. Now, Daniel Russell, uh, serves, he was minus 18 in a win over the Washington Wizards. He’s had one good shooting game for the Mavericks, but just to get a point guard on the floor to take that burden off of Cooper Flag after what I saw in that game against New Orleans, I kind of support it. No, you you had to take they had to take the burden off of Cooper Flag shoulders in terms of being the primary facilitator. Um Clay just the the production was so bad and honestly his best game this season was his first game off the bench, but that was a big big deal. Um, but man, there’s just like dude, there’s a whole lot of things that ain’t good with the Mavericks. And and hey, at this point, I believe it is a matter of when, not if, Nico Harrison will be fired. And I I there is a very very strong likelihood that will be mid-season. Maybe they can get things turned around. Maybe his heat can go from sizzling to, you know, a more normal temperature. But, you know, I always say like, dude, every time I think that they’ve hit rock bottom, they find a, you know, they they find a way to drill deeper. They almost lost to Washington. They won. That would have been drilling. That would have been drilling all the way down to Hades. And that’s about how hot Nico’s seat is right now, fellas. Well, their two best players are out. Okay. Breaking news. They knew Kyrie was going to miss the first half of the season or so. And your your big move this summer was to go to get D’Angelo Russell replace him on a temporary basis. Also, why do they have such a void for playmaking and and offense creation on this roster? I mean, come on now. It’s blown up in in his face. It’s blown up in Patrick Dumont’s face after that Luca trade. Patrick Dumont, one of his infamous quotes was in Nico We Trust. I’m just telling you, the trust is disintegrated at this point. Anthony Davis wanted to play Saturday in Washington. He’d been gearing up to that practice Thursday. Doubtful then sat Friday in um in Memphis upgraded the questionable that you know that we all see that that’s the normal track to bringing a guy back from injury. There was internal disagreement about whether that was a good idea and there was a lot of opinions voiced in that. Ultimately they decided to hold him out in Washington. We’ll see if he plays Monday against the Bucks. He’s questionable. Again, one of the opinions that was I don’t know if it was a veto. I don’t know how heavily this opinion weighed in, but one of the opinions that was involved here was Patrick Dumont’s. Patrick Dumont went from blind faith in Nico to now weighing in on whether a star can come back from injury. That’s a pretty significant Well, it’s because last year he tried to play through the injury when he came back when he when he played to play his first game and it was borderline and he made it worse. I mean I mean I’m not saying I don’t know about the owner being involved. I’m just saying like I I might ask some questions too, right? And and so let me ask you this. Why do you think Anthony Davis rushed back last year to play in that home Rockets? Okay. Why would he rush back right now? Well, pretty bad idea. I I see what you’re Why would he do that? So, especially, dude, we’re talking about a calf strain. You don’t with those things. And my understanding is that there were people with the Maverick’s medical staff that were saying, “We cannot rush this guy back.” that Dumont certainly agreed with that and that ultimately I was told by the end everybody was on the same page you know okay ultimately they decide to hold off at least another couple of days but again the fact that Patrick Dumont is involved in that sort of decision-m is a major major development let me ask you this asking a lot of questions no I’m just asking since they went to the finals which personnel moves moves that the Mavericks have made have worked. God, what feels longer ago? I’m asking. Mavs. No, hold on. I’m going to ask a question cuz you said that. What feels longer ago? The Mavs making the finals or the Pistons lo 29 in a row? I’m not sure which feels farther away right now. Seriously. But like, you know, we just mentioned Cooper Flag with the number one pick. That was I would say I would say the plan of getting Cooper Flag in the lottery worked out great. I would say that’s favors the bold. You’re starting to see. I would say uh I would say Brandon Williams. Nice pickup. Okay. I would say uh trying to think of what what are my other options since the finals? Uh Klay Thompson. That didn’t I don’t like that. Um the Luca trade. Well, I mean, sure. The worst history of the league. I don’t like that. Trading trading Quinton Grimes for Kayla Martin who I don’t like that. who physical, you still went through with the trade and then you couldn’t as your team’s falling apart sign guys even to a 10day because you got so bumped up to the apron. I don’t like that move. You know, I guess the Naji Marshall one’s been okay. But that’s a good move. I like Naji Marshall. That’s good. My point is there’s been some pretty epic disasters here. By the way, Caleb Martin’s averaging like But they lost Derrick Jones when they got Naji Marshall. I I liked I like that Naji Marshall deal. I thought that was okay. I I think that’s a good move. I’ll give him that. There’s been some massive Brandon Williams and Naji Marshall. Good. Luca Donuch bad and some other ones. Yes, they had some other ones. Um, now who’s going to run the Mavericks trade deadline? Well, listen. Wait. We got three months until the trade deadline. Let’s not start doing that. What is the Mavericks trade assets? Here’s here’s one. Anthony Davis. They should trade Anthony Davis tomorrow. Well, and and listen, what are you what are you shaking your head about? What are you shaking your head about? You’re still going to argue this point? I heard No, I’ve heard your rationale vacuum. Hold on. Hold on. Nico would never ever Nico would never ever do that. But they are in year two of in his own definition a three to fouryear contending window. God, that was one of the most that that that press conference. That press conference in Cleveland, that was one of the craziest things of all time. This is year two. Yeah, we have a three to four year window. So, year two light this thing on fire, right? And bro, you lucked into getting Cooper Flag. At some point, I would say pronto, the focus of the franchise has got to be pivoting around Cooper Flag. Because let me just remind you in successfully building a finals team around five time first team allNNBA before entering his prime face of the franchise Luca Donuch. You gave up control of your draft your first round draft picks 27 28 29 and 30. You’ve got this year’s and then you don’t have your own again. They have this year and I look forward to this year the Mavericks getting AJ Deansa, Cooper Flag, Cameron Boozer, somebody at the top of the draft cuz that’s going to happen and the internet’s going to break and then it’s going to be Cooper and another star. I don’t want to be a defense attorney here in this case. I just want to point out in fairness that when he did the press conference in Cleveland, he didn’t know Kyrie was tearing his ACL within days. It doesn’t matter. You traded a guy. Again, uh we don’t need to reitigate the whole thing, but they traded a guy who’s 25 and announced that they had a three-year window. That That’s my point as the rationale for the trade. When they go on and tell us about that was a championship caliber team on the court for those two quarters. I’m not going to do anything. I just need to point it out. I have another matter. Doesn’t matter. My point is this though. Do you want a GM whose job security is very tenuous and because of that has a very short-term view plus his windows three to four years. Do you want him making long-term decisions for a franchise that just has an eight just locked into an 18-year-old potential superstar? I think we know I think we know what the focus of the Mavericks franchise is right now and it’s on Cooper Flag and I would be very surprised if this season trades are made that go against the timeline of Cooper Flag. That would be my guess. They can’t be they cannot be approved. I I understand that. That’s my point. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know who’s going to run the team in terms of the trade room or who’s going to be in charge or whatever, but I would bet based off of the way things have gone over the past several months that the Cooper flag timeline is the one that Dallas would be looking at. And again, I look forward to the internet breaking next May when Dallas after a very bad season jumps up in the lottery and gets a guy to go with Cooper. And whoever’s running the team can say it was also part of the plan. Just like jumping up to get Cooper in the first place. All part of the plan. It’s all part of the plan.

Brian Windhorst is joined by Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to talk the continuing struggles for the Mavs including if some changes may be on the horizon in the Dallas front office.

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