MAVS hire Masai Ujiri as new team President

[Smitty]

So where does Welts fit in the new hierarchy? Isn't he CEO? Will Masai report to him? If so, wouldn't it be strange to have the Alternate Governor reporting to the CEO, who then reports to the owner/Governor?

Welts runs the business side of things. Masai runs the basketball operations side.

[Smitty]

@dallasmavs
Welcome to Dallas, Masai.

[F Gump]

Smitty Wrote:[url=https://www.mavsboard.com/showthread.php?pid=270058#pid270058][/url]

Masai Ujiri is expected to name a General Manager to work alongside him, per @TheSteinLine.


I will try to be more precise since it apparently wasn't clear from the context of the rest of my post:  I don't see how you keep both if one is elevated to GM.

Thanks. I see what you're saying. You may be right. I suspect there might be a lot of shifting and changes in the next few weeks or more.

[Smitty]

https://www.mavsmoneyball.com/mavericks-...onship-run

[F Gump]

Not a ton here but footage of Masai trying to trade up Giannis.  Sort of fitting, masai was trying to trade up while Cuban was trading down.

Question- why did he not call Dallas.  If he did, wasn’t in this video
https://youtu.be/Ficds0wx8bY?si=YRnR2n5QkeQmT0vz

TOR didn't have a pick. He had to find a team that was willing to trade completely out of the draft. No takers.

As I understand it, the Mavs were trying to move down only a few picks (they ended up going from 13 to 16) and then pick Giannis - the agenda being to pick up a side asset and also have a rookie contract that was a bit less expensive. They could be sure that the team they traded with didn't pick him at 13, and they only had to sweat out 14 and 15. They didn't realize that MIL at 15 was eagerly waiting for a chance to grab Giannis, but Cuban was so eager to reduce payroll that he probably would have done the same thing if he had known.

[Chicagojk]

following along twitter, but they said Masai stopped short of guaranteeing Kidd returning as coach.  Said he will look head to toe throughout organization.

Also said mavs have to get better with their medical team and has studied this across the league over the past year.

Mentioned building around Flagg.  Also mentioned Christie, Lively and surprisingly Nembhard.

[dirkfansince1998]

following along twitter, but they said Masai stopped short of guaranteeing Kidd returning as coach.  Said he will look head to toe throughout organization.

Also said mavs have to get better with their medical team and has studied this across the league over the past year.

Mentioned building around Flagg.  Also mentioned Christie, Lively and surprisingly Nembhard.

That's a good thing. House cleaning is the top priority right now. From coach to janitor. From franchise player to euro-stash. Figure out who fits into whatever vision you have. Move on from the rest.

Not sure if I Would include Christie and Nembhard but focusing on young talent and Flagg's timeline is a good starting point.

[Winter]

Press Conference here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljp6vcUQdas&t=26s

[Smitty]

Masai Ujiri on the Mavs with Cooper Flagg following the Luka Doncic trade:

"When kings go, kings come... a king went, and we have a little prince here who we’re going to turn into a king."

[Smitty]

Masai Ujiri on Kyrie getting to play with Cooper Flagg next season:

"I dream like you dream... I want to see that... I'm excited to see that. We all are... he’s experienced and a championship player… I think it's going to be pretty cool, and it's going to help Cooper."

[Smitty]

“You gotta come with something in your pocket to convince me that I need to beat these guys (Wemby, Luka, Ant, Shai, Jokic) over the next 5, 10, 15 years to get me to join. And he (Dumont) came with Cooper Flagg.” - Ujiri on what helped convince him to come to Dallas

[KillerLeft]

More (positive and clever) quotes from one press conference than Harrison had his whole time here.

This was why I didn't want it to be Riccardi in charge. He might have the acumen and hunger for it, but you need a larger than life BOSS type of personality. It might not be absolutely crucial, but to my thinking it sure helps.

[Chicagojk]

I have been fooled often about winning the press conference but it was so refreshing hearing realness.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/nHjDiC6lpZ


Supposedly he was asked if he would have taken the job without Copper. He answered it magically. Nico would have had 3 HR disasters if he tried to answer a question like that

[Chicagojk]

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/Iw9BjqpH6I

[cow]

following along twitter, but they said Masai stopped short of guaranteeing Kidd returning as coach.  Said he will look head to toe throughout organization.

Also said mavs have to get better with their medical team and has studied this across the league over the past year.

Mentioned building around Flagg.  Also mentioned Christie, Lively and surprisingly Nembhard.

I'm out on Ujiri then.

[Chicagojk]

sort of a sneaky nice trade is the Kings and Raptors trade in 2024.  Kings wanted to clear room.   They took on Jalen McDaniels (the bad brother) and the Raptors got Davion Mitchell, Sasha Vezenkov (who then argreed to be waived) and two seconds (one being Jamal Shead).  Mitchell did not stay long in Toronto and was traded in the summer to Miami where he has regained his standing as a good rotation player.   Shead is a really tough player.

[F Gump]

sort of a sneaky nice trade is the Kings and Raptors trade in 2024.  Kings wanted to clear room.   They took on Jalen McDaniels (the bad brother) and the Raptors got Davion Mitchell, Sasha Vezenkov (who then argreed to be waived) and two seconds (one being Jamal Shead).  Mitchell did not stay long in Toronto and was traded in the summer to Miami where he has regained his standing as a good rotation player.   Shead is a really tough player.

Something like this ^ is what I am saying I would like to see, and it's a good sign that Masai has experience with this skill in his bag.  

In this example, a team (SAC) wanted to dump some salary (needing room to be able to do something else with it). He was sitting on some room, so he took a useful player (Mitchell) from them, sent back a less useful player with a lower salary, and picked up 2 picks for the help. At the next TDL, he sold Mitchell to MIA and netted yet another pick.

It doesn't matter to me whether the picks were special or not. Just that he turned "cap space" into assets. That's the sort of thing that adds up, over time. And it's how I would hope they use the TPE.

FWIW they have multiple Exceptions they can use this way - in round numbers, 21M, 15M, 6M, 5M, 3M. That's a lot of ways to do something, if teams are looking for cap room help (and it seems like someone is, almost every year). They  need to find ways to add assets at the margins after The Idiot gave away their franchise perennial all-NBA superstar for almost nothing.

[loki]

I've had nothing but criticism for Masai for a while now. I do think he's capable and will put a professional organization together, but he's going to have to change his approach a little. Now isn't the time to be overpaying role players (or holding on to them too long). His track record in the draft is pretty strong, especially with less than premium picks.

I'm hopeful this signals the eventual end of Kidd as the head coach. I'd love to see Masai identify a better fit and make the move within the next few years.

[RoyTarpleysGhost]

Masai Ujiri on the Mavs with Cooper Flagg following the Luka Doncic trade:

"When kings go, kings come... a king went, and we have a little prince here who we’re going to turn into a king."

His answers from the press conference are bangers.  

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1t..._from_the/

[F Gump]

I've had nothing but criticism for Masai for a while now. I do think he's capable and will put a professional organization together, but he's going to have to change his approach a little. Now isn't the time to be overpaying role players (or holding on to them too long). His track record in the draft is pretty strong, especially with less than premium picks.

One of the things we have to consider - part of the context he was working in - is that if TOR didn't re-sign their own starters, at whatever it would take, they were going to have a hard time finding a replacement in free agency. Good free agents don't tend to sign there, ever. Not sure they were EVER able to sign an MLE-caliber player. 

So it's not a good negotiating position to be in - they get good players by draft-and-develop, or by trade, or by re-signing the guy they already have.  

They had to trade away quite a few of their good ones before they got to that point of re-signing, and hope to get a way to replace them.  A few got away. 

I think being in DAL might make that easier, which then changes how you have to negotiate with the guys you have. Of course, every team has to navigate that issue with players in the middle tier (perhaps overpay, vs see them walk).

One of the good things is that he seems to have a knack for finding good talent in the draft. Or via UDFA finds. If he can do that and ALSO has opportunity to get some free agent help at times, it should be good.