I'm out on the 2023-24 season ....

[omahen]

I love what you mentioned about NBA championships being won by MEN.  I completely agree. Except that Luka is different man. Thats the only way to describe him. That MAN is built different. He was born to win championships. He will go down as one of the all time greats. And i'm talking top 10 all time greats.  He's accomplished so much at a young age, setting records no one could imagine.  His game is ready, but his mind isnt.  You have to surround him with the right complimentary pieces and the right staff. And the right handlers.  He needs a couple of Bobans on his team. He needs even more around him and the team daily. 

But with all that said, i'm almost out on Luka. And as early as this off-season i'd look at making a franchise shattering / NBA shattering trade.  It would probably have to be Luka to OKC because they are the only team i can think of that has the draft capital and young players to pull off a Luka trade. 

Now of course, our relationship with Luka could crash and he could force a trade. Which i think would lower his value. Agents get involved, other powerful people in the league get involved, and Luka basically gets traded to wherever he wants and we get shorted on assets.  

But if you trade him now. On your timeline, we can maximize his value.  I love thinking of hypothetical Luka trades. Because no matter what, you look at it and think that team just gave up their entire franchise for Luka. Then you look again and realize its probably not enough.

Not sure you realize how difficult it is to get a player as good as Luka. How many tanking and rebuilding jobs don't work. The only job of the FO should be to put the right pieces around him. Playing quality wise and personality wise. My claim is, Mavs never did that before perhaps a year ago. Irving is the first respected vet Luka played with after Dirk. Irving is not a player on his last legs like guys like Reddick were. Or even Dragic, if that deal ever happened. Irving might not be a perfect running mate because of defensive limitations, but getting him showed how easier life can be with another star on the team. Exum and DJJ also showed what kind of players flourish next to Luka and make team play really well on both ends. 

I said that many times - Luka was best player on championship team (Real), but he was surrounded by battle hardened vets. They were the ones keeping his personality in check, leaders of the team. Europe is also not a player driven league, coach is god. No way a player can survive not being in line with coach, unless the coach loses whole locker room and results suffer. Mavs never gave him that. Luka was thrown into the leader role after Dirk retired. In a franchise that is a mess culture wise. They gave him a young co-star which backfired badly. A hard nosed star that had to fight for everything he got in his career walked for nothing and Mavs never seemed to value him. I also pointed it out many times in the past - what kind of role model is Cuban for a guy like Luka? Cuban seems to be 10 times the child Luka is. Owner and GM "wanna be" who behaves as a typical emotional fan. Ballmer is the same, but he lets other, less emotionally involved, people to run the team. 

Luka is who he is, with all his pluses and minuses. He is passionate and emotional which is great, because it means he cares. However, it also gets him into trouble more than the average player. When he wants to have it but he doesn't (shots not falling, for example), he can look for excuses in others (refs most often target). His extreme competitiveness makes him perform at his best when it matters most but is also a reason why he can't motivate himself in what seems like easier games. As Killer said, it takes years of growing up to correct that. Perhaps it will also not happen. But, you can help with that putting right players around him. Players that can make up for his mistakes when he is not 100 %. Players or organization that have the credibility to tell him to shut up and start playing. Mavs problem last season was that they only won, even against worst teams, when Luka gave his 120 % game. No one was stepping up when he didn't play defense, no one was stepping up when his offense was not there. This season is much easier. 

I am not really sure what makes people expect absolute perfection from other people. Are there so many perfect human beings around? I think the vast majority of people have their positive and negative attributes. I rather try to focus on the positives and I can see many with Luka. People here like to point out the instances when Luka doesn't return back to defense, but stay totally quiet in instances when Luka is throwing his big body after a loose ball. There were many instances of that just in this season. You think that is fair?

The most important thing for me - I am very confident Luka will be at his best when it matters most. Mavs need to have a capable enough team that will go through regular season even on nights when Luka will not have it. Not possible against best teams, but at least against bad or depleted ones. Get a defensive general who will motivate everyone to play defense (thats why I was very pro Draymond), get vet leaders that will lead by example (thats why I was very pro Lowry back in the day). Or wait patiently for Luka to hopefully learn from his mistakes. One thing he certainly showed - he is improving all the time.