We’ve defended the work of the Dallas Mavericks’ front office quite a bit in these pages since the team went through a mini-rebuilding in the wake of their 2011 NBA championship. Owner Mark Cuban and team president Donnie Nelson decided against keeping certain high-priced semi-stars around in order to gear up cap space in the attempts at landing a major free agent in both the 2012 and 2013 offseasons. Those pursuits failed, but the Mavs can’t be blamed for individual free agents making individual decisions.
The Mavs, and more specifically Mark Cuban, decided to fall on their own sword in advance of the team’s Wednesday evening meeting with the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks are a young team partially led by the wonderful talent that is Giannis Antetokounmpo, a player the Mavs had a chance to select in the 2013 draft – the team’s first appearance in the draft lottery since Mark Cuban became owner, not counting the season he took over midway through.
Cuban revealed that Nelson badly wanted to draft Antetokounmpo, but was ultimately talked into making a cost-cutting move in order to free up cap space. From Eddie Sefko at the Dallas Morning News:
“He’s making us look bad for sticking to our plan,” Cuban said Tuesday. “That was Donnie. That (taking Antetokounmpo) is what Donnie wanted to do and I said we should stick to the plan. The whole point was that I wanted to stick to the plan and Donnie was like, this guy’s going to be good. I’ll risk everything that he’s going to be good. I said, I believe you Donnie.
“But still, what if all of the sudden we find out that so-and-so (free agent) is dying to come to the Mavs and now you don’t have the cap room. That’s why we put together a plan and our consolation wasn’t too bad.”
Again, we’ve supported the Mavericks’ moves over the years, but this is a tough one to swallow.
Dallas moved down in the 2013 draft in order to free up more cap room in an attempt to sign Dwight Howard, or others. In trading Antetokounmpo’s larger rookie salary for Shane Larkin’s deal at the 18th spot, the team lopped about $200k off its books for the next year. The team also dealt Jared Cunningham to Atlanta in the move, knocking his guaranteed $1.2 million ATL’s way. Larkin, who struggled in an injury-plagued rookie year, was traded to the New York Knicks earlier in 2014.
So, losing out on Giannis Antetokounmpo in order to pad some salary cap room with just under $1.5 million, salary that did not go to any knockout superstar. That hurts.
Cuban’s admission that some sort of lusted-after free agent was giving the team signs that he wanted to come to Dallas (while still, in June, under contract with his old team) may come off as self-serving in retrospect, but I suppose it’s possible that Dwight Howard did send out those sorts of feelers. Perhaps.
The Mavericks owner also did point out that the Mavs have recovered nicely. Not Dwight Howard-level “nicely,” but good enough. The team signed Monta Ellis and Jose Calderon that summer, and during the last offseason they turned Calderon and Shane Larkin into Tyson Chandler. It’s true that Chandler was the boffo free agent that Dallas didn’t want to pay big money to into his 30s all the way back in 2011, but that’s how these things turn out sometimes, and Dallas is currently running with a historically-great offense and 14-5 record.
Still, this is a case of when minding every little penny goes terribly wrong. Dwight Howard did indeed leave money on the table to go from Los Angeles to a team in Texas, but it’s hard to imagine (had he truly wanted to join the Mavericks) that $1.5 would get in the way of him choosing Dallas over Houston.
It’s a tough gig, in retrospect. If you take this sort of chance, the big fish needs to come through, the guy you passed up on can’t pan out, and your consolation pick can’t struggle. The Mavs whiffed on all three of those pitches.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
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