02-14-2022, 12:29 PM
(02-14-2022, 11:25 AM)Kammrath Wrote: Donnie was the "President of Basketball Operations" and so all basketball related things were supposed to go through him. Guys were going rogue under him. Did Cuban enable that? Absolutely (I have never suggested Cuban is without blame)...but Donnie seems to have failed pretty massively as a leader and president. Donnie was the hands-on, everyday leader of the Mavs organization. Cuban was doing a million other things, especially in recent years when this got really bad.
And yes, for the record, I am the top person in the organization I work for and have been for the last 8.5 years.
Knowing that Cuban was REALLY busy with other things in recent years (Cuban was different early on with DAL as he was much more focused and devoted to the Mavs as his "one thing") and that he had a "President of Basketball Operations" in place, Occam's Razor would suggest that the simplest explanation is that the president failed to lead while at the same time the owner failed to hold the president accountable (or empower the president adequately).
With the experience you mention, I’m honestly more confused by your take. The title of “President of Basketball Operations” means almost nothing outside the meat and potatoes of reporting structure and responsibilities. Voulgaris did not report to Nelson; if I recall correctly, Finley didn’t either. You can’t task Nelson with keeping others in line that have been explicitly placed outside his jurisdiction. He can’t keep anyone from “going rogue” when his boss has placed them outside his purview. In your organization, how much control do you have over other the head of other departments/organizations that don’t report to you?
Yes, I would buy that Nelson also wasn’t successful as a leader. But Cuban didn’t just “fail to hold him accountable”, Cuban organized the very system that created the chaos that was incredibly likely to fail. You sort of obliquely get to that when you say “or empower the president adequately”, but you’re burying the lede. There’s this undercurrent in your posts on the Mavs’ disfunction that Cuban is a secondary figure. He is not. Whether he’s the GM or wasn’t involved enough, he is the prime mover who set up the botched structure and had the power to make changes as he wished. Any analysis of Nelson (or Carlisle, Nico, Kidd) has to contend with his influence first and foremost.
Again, I’m drawing a distinction between the actual basketball decisions (which are probably still questionable) and things like multiple negotiators on trades, no clear authority on who makes draft picks, and a few other bits of things that have trickled out. Those aren’t signs of a bad strategy (e.g., Plan Powder) they’re fundamental management mistakes that erode confidence.