Mark Cuban and Jalen Brunson Discuss What Went Down in 2022 FA

[SleepingHero]

I still don't get why our initial offer was substantially less a year than the Knicks had opened up. That never made any sense to me. We knew why they opened up that capspace and that should have been our floor for an offer

If we're to believe Cuban, and there is more evidence now given that JB himself said his agent said Dallas is radio silent, then the Mavs had no idea what the Knicks had offered and didn't even give a chance to counter offer. 


Funnily enough, McMahon said as much last year after the Mavs were on their way to missing the playoffs (funny how he chose that time to drop that story) https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/3608...en-brunson

What Cuban said then: 

We didn't know what the bid was," Cuban said, speaking to the media a day after Doncic said the Mavs missed Brunson "a lot" and bemoaned the decline of Dallas' chemistry this season. "They never gave us a number. Knowing the numbers now, I would've paid it in a heartbeat, but he wouldn't have come anyway. There's just no possible way that it was about money.

"I mean, there was no negotiation. They didn't give us a number. I mean, you would think that when you're the incumbent team and you can match anything, that's the way it works. Right? You have a relationship with the agent and they want to at least give you a chance because you helped develop the player. You had him for four years. OK, let's work together."


Its pretty much what Cuban reiterated here and JB all but confirmed it by saying all communication was through his agent (the literal son of the GM of the Knicks) AND his dad. 

This pretty much confirms to me that as soon as NYK became a viable place, JB was never returning. He burned the Mavs and did so in a roundabout manner. Screw him. The biggest misstep from the Mavs FO was not signing him to that 4/55 deal, despite his terrible playoff performance. Of course hindsight is 20/20. As soon as they saw JB's dad get hired they should've shipped him off to NYK or whatever team for a FRP.