(06-22-2021, 07:58 PM)KillerLeft Wrote: I'm surprised so many people are ledge jumping over this. Things haven't really changed. I guess I was holding out a little hope about Ujiri or someone else who's serious, but honestly, even if Dallas was interested, I feel like the first person someone like that would call to get a sense of what it's like to work here is Donnie Nelson, their long time colleague with whom they have a relationship.
We might think it was time for him to go, and it probably was. But, there's getting fired, which happens all the time, and then there's...whatever just happened here in Dallas.
I speak from no inside knowledge on this, obvs, but just based on my own life experience I can't imagine Nelson (or Carlisle, for that matter) have too many nice things to say about the front office approach in Dallas right about now, whereas in a more traditional firing I'm sure most professionals are reluctantly complimentary of certain areas of the franchise on the way out the door pretty often. Idk, but I just have a sinking suspicion this was a scorched earth breakup.
Won't matter to a cheap, up and comer, just looking for an opportunity. If Stein's correct, that's what Cuban wants, anyway.
And speaking of cheap, don't completely dismiss the notion that a desire to keep front office payroll manageable might be part of this thinking. We'll see - maybe they'll add three new positions instead of just paying one high profile guy the whole bag. But it could be that Cuban literally doesn't want to pony up for a guy like Ujiri.
It's not so much that I wanted Ujiri or anything like that. It just tells me that Cuban is the GM and will continue to be so. Finley as a player I love. But, let's not pretend that Finley in the front office isn't just the face of Cuban's dumb moves. He's going to be a yes man, the fall guy. I had thought that the last 3 years with tanking and picking up Luka, etc was him letting Donnie be the GM then we find out that's not the case.
It's just disheartening to know that the status quo will remain as long as Cuban owns the team. Maybe it will turn out great. Who knows. I have a feeling it's going to turn back into Cuban trying to smooze top FA and money whip guys to come. He probably thinks that Rick and Donnie held him back from snagging a top FA. I guarantee he thinks they will come now. That's the plan. It's plan powder part II with FA smoozing every offseason. Forget the draft. Those picks aren't worth his time.