@"mavsluvr", I hope you'll laugh with me here. Last night when I saw "by: mavsluvr" beside "last post" I thought "here comes the 'Cuban is actually the boss' post!"
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Yes, I have thought that Cuban hired Nico to be the actual GM and that Mark intended to attempt to allow his GM to be the GM. If I consider what evidence there is for your view or mine, I admit that the past weighs in on your side quite heavily. However, I saw and heard things in the early press conferences and interviews that made me think that Mark may have decided to hire a real GM. That doesn't mean that I don't think Cuban won't use his final approval and veto authority (wow, a triple negative!) that comes with being the owner of a business. I certainly could be wrong about all of that, and Nico could simply be the former shoe salesman, staff organizer that you have described.
My working, barely educated guess is that the former situation, where Donnie (the "GM") was simply one voice among many giving input to the owner (and real GM), was an organizational dysfunction that Mark intended to fix with the hire of a new GM. I believe that an owner can have final approval and veto power and get high level input from a board of directors (Dirk, etc.) while still honoring a healthy organizational structure. A healthy organizational structure can even have a leadership team (Cuban, Nico, Fin, Kidd, etc) that has discussion together, but still honor the organizational structure.
I actually think Cuban is attempting to honor an actual organizational structure and that he is actually allowing Nico to run this franchise. Again...I could be wrong!! The old free for all structure where organizational structure means almost nothing could still be in place. Or Cuban could have set out to correct the dysfunction and then failed to keep himself from reintroducing the dysfunction.
So, most of our difference of opinion in this thread about what Nico is tasked to do stems from the interpretive choices each of us has made given the past, the press conferences and interviews since Nico was hired, and bits of opinion given by various writers on the topic.
I don't think they're a package deal either. The question came to mind because it sounds like Nico and Kidd came to the Mavs as a bit of a package deal. So I was playing with what that might mean for their future. But as I turned it over I came to the same conclusion as you.
(11-30-2021, 09:12 PM)mavsluvr Wrote: Your questions carry the underlying assumption that Nico is the one who is going to be primarily assessing Kidd and making decisions about whether he stays or goes.
I would be really surprised if Nico has the authority to fire Kidd. (In that respect, I would be surprised if any GM in the league had the authority to fire the head coach without the owner's approval.) I think Cuban will be the one to decide whether and when he has had enough.
Yes, I have thought that Cuban hired Nico to be the actual GM and that Mark intended to attempt to allow his GM to be the GM. If I consider what evidence there is for your view or mine, I admit that the past weighs in on your side quite heavily. However, I saw and heard things in the early press conferences and interviews that made me think that Mark may have decided to hire a real GM. That doesn't mean that I don't think Cuban won't use his final approval and veto authority (wow, a triple negative!) that comes with being the owner of a business. I certainly could be wrong about all of that, and Nico could simply be the former shoe salesman, staff organizer that you have described.
(11-30-2021, 09:12 PM)mavsluvr Wrote: I don't know if Nico has enough authority for Cuban to hold him responsible for the assembly and development of the roster and performance of the team. My strong impression is that Cuban is still heavily involved, and that Nico is not the only guy he is accepting material input from. (We know, for example, that he is consulting with Finley, Dirk, and various other guys in the organization, and maybe even out of it.)
My working, barely educated guess is that the former situation, where Donnie (the "GM") was simply one voice among many giving input to the owner (and real GM), was an organizational dysfunction that Mark intended to fix with the hire of a new GM. I believe that an owner can have final approval and veto power and get high level input from a board of directors (Dirk, etc.) while still honoring a healthy organizational structure. A healthy organizational structure can even have a leadership team (Cuban, Nico, Fin, Kidd, etc) that has discussion together, but still honor the organizational structure.
I actually think Cuban is attempting to honor an actual organizational structure and that he is actually allowing Nico to run this franchise. Again...I could be wrong!! The old free for all structure where organizational structure means almost nothing could still be in place. Or Cuban could have set out to correct the dysfunction and then failed to keep himself from reintroducing the dysfunction.
So, most of our difference of opinion in this thread about what Nico is tasked to do stems from the interpretive choices each of us has made given the past, the press conferences and interviews since Nico was hired, and bits of opinion given by various writers on the topic.
(11-30-2021, 09:12 PM)mavsluvr Wrote: If Nico and Kidd are a package deal, then we know this front office is a pit of weirdness and dysfunction.
Nico is a guy who has never been a GM before, or even worked for an NBA team before. Kidd is a guy who has a negative history as a head coach. Neither one of these guys has anything close to the stature and credentials necessary to impose highly unusual and material conditions like this in any kind of professionally run organization.
I think they are almost certainly not a package deal. (And if they are, then we've really gone down the rabbit hole, and I wouldn't even know how to speculate on the ramifications of that.)
I don't think they're a package deal either. The question came to mind because it sounds like Nico and Kidd came to the Mavs as a bit of a package deal. So I was playing with what that might mean for their future. But as I turned it over I came to the same conclusion as you.