08-18-2025, 10:05 AM
(08-16-2025, 10:00 PM)david75090 Wrote: Nelson had the franchise turned around. Dirk, Nash and Finley were in place. Cuban's infusion of money helped. His meddling hurt, like when he brought in Rodman to sell tickets. Cuban's ego is a negative, in my opinion. He caused Nash to leave for nothing. Probably also spurred Nash to improve his conditioning to prove Cuban wrong. Cuban's thinking he knew more about basketball than he did, turned me off.
IIRC, Nash was an all star guard for sure, but there were some doubts about his defensive capabilities and some insinuations that his lack of athleticism was detrimental. Or at least that was the public face of why Cubes was trying to negotiate a lower salary with Nash. PHX, by all accounts, came in with a max deal that was take-it-or-leave-it, but make your decision RIGHT NOW, so he took it rather than deal with Cuban's BS. The real hurt was losing Nash for no return.
I credit Cuban for re-invigorating the front office (granted, there appears to have been some unaddressed cultural issues). He also created a positive image for the team overall, for example, insisting that all seats get filled even at deep discount prices. Which in turn help awaken the fan base. A string of 50-win seasons didn't hurt either.
I guess you could say every owner's tenure has at least one questionable contract decision. The key is how they manage around the mistake. I'd say Cubes did pretty well, DAL was a perennial contender, 2 NBA finals and one championship.