(11 hours ago)Dirknows Wrote: So how are they going to navigate possible trades? Finley or Ricardi find a trade and take it to Dumont to sign off?
(8 hours ago)mvossman Wrote: I'm concerned about this myself. I get the hesitancy over one guy running the show based on recent events, but I don't think a committee is very effective in these kinds of things. I'm afraid they get very little if anything done this TDL if they don't have a real GM in place.
I know you guys are probably seeing such a setup as a bad thing, but imo it would actually be a huge step forward in improving their negotiating results.
Cuban, by participating directly in negotiations as the person leading the talks, could never get the best deal, because he could never say, "I have to ask the boss" and then come back and say "The boss needs just a little bit more." OTOH the other team could (and would) do that very thing, and would get more and more assets at the margins. Cuban was always a patsy, the whole league knew it, and would take advantage.
We even heard Cuban talk to reporters about negotiations as always going in this manner, and bemoaning the fact that other teams' execs "always have to talk to owners and they they can't pull the trigger on deals" - not realizing he was exposing his naivete' as a negotiator.
Nico got pantsed by Pelinka in this same manner. When Nico asked for the moon for Luka, Pelinka told him that his owner would need X and Y, and at other times he had to check with his owner who wanted a bit better deal, and all along Pelinka was his "friend" trying to help him, and gradually he whittled the ask for Luka down to almost nothing. OTOH Nico spoke for the Mavs as the one who controlled the bottom line - but Pelinka never spoke for the Lakers. Pelinka, of course, made his reputation as an expert negotiator (he was a top player agent, before he was a GM) while Nico's background was one of getting along with others and making them like him. Guess who won, and who got crushed?
By injecting the necessity to ask permission, to get approval, to see what the boss says, the Mavs would accidentally take a huge leap -- and even better if the guy at the top realized what he had, and had the ability to work it to his advantage. Put a used car lot manager or a timeshare sales manager on the payroll to create and navigate the negotiating process, and the gain would be massive. (Unfortunately Cuban's ego made him have to be the point man, so under Cuban they had no way to play the game.)