TAKE DAT WIT YOU 8/20

[mavsluvr]

The same one I've had since about a week after free agency started. 

I was pretty excited when the dust cleared, as it seemed like the headlines were "Mavs re-sign THJ and are about to trade for Dragic." Those were both great things, imo, and so the Bullock and SBrown acquisitions seemed like great secondary moves. I would've given THAT off-season a B.

Then, we find out Dragic is probably not happening. 

Then, they give an actual multi-year guaranteed contract, above the vet minimum, to Boban. 

These two pieces of info, especially the first, shine a different light on everything for me, personally. I'd say C- or D+ is where I'd be if the season started today. I like most of what they did, but they didn't do enough.

Honestly, the most significant change of this off-season is probably the downgrade in coach from Carlisle to Kidd. I get the argument that a new voice might help in some ways, and maybe considerably, but until we see evidence of that being the case, I think we have to look at it from the perspective of "which one is the better head coach?" And, honestly, that's a huge no-brainer in a vacuum, right?

Can't argue with any of that. 

I think the Kidd move has to be graded "incomplete," at best. Certainly, the history on paper doesn't provide much reason for optimism. 

I have also been less than overwhelmed with the Nico move, although that has potential to improve with time. In my experience, companies who bring someone in who is much younger/less experienced than the position would seem to call for have a reason for that. They want someone who will be easier to "boss around," and will not provide resistance in terms of aggressively imposing his own agenda. I suspect this was the case with Nico, being brought in when the GM position seemed to cry out for someone who had succeeded in such a position himself and would not be learning the job as he went along. Forcing Nico to admit at his initial press conference that Cuban was the boss said it all. Have you ever seen anything like that before?