BRUNSON BURNER: to NYK for 4yrs/$104M (no SnT) | NYK docked 2025 2nd for tampering

[audiosway]

I don't need people to dislike Cuban. 

I don't need people to be sad Brunson is leaving - some people are ok with this because they didn't think highly of the player, which is fine, and others are just better at keeping the team's activities on a lower level of import in their lives than I. That's also fine. 

What's bothering me (not with you, specifically) is the refusal to acknowledge that - plainly, straight up - Dallas is about to let their 2nd best player walk immediately after the team got to the WCF. I would just hope that we could all be real about that, even if we're not going to dwell on it or be pissed, rather than search for rationalizations on why it might be a good thing. 

Life will go on, and the team will still be good. I don't think they'll be AS good, but that's debatable. What's not debatable is that this is NOT the outcome Dallas WANTED. It's NOT going to help them improve in the short term. It's NOT part of some plan. It's a failure. I would just like a little balance in how we deal with the facts around here, personally. Where our individual outlooks fall on the positive/negative meter regarding the future is a totally personal thing.

I haven't liked Cuban for a long time so nothing new. I will say that I don't think at all this is what Dallas wanted. I would love to have JB stay. Just not at $25-$30 million per year. He's not that guy. I love me some Brunson too. So, I'm not saying they didn't botch this. They absolutely did. However, paying him what it would take to stay would be an even worse mistake.

Also, if you go back and look at the numbers from the games the 2nd most valuable player on the team was DFS through that run. I know you love DFS like I do. Brunson was a liability in the GS series. The series that made him this money was the one with Utah. 

With all of that said here is where I'm coming from. JB knows if the Mavs roll out the big bucks it's only to trade him down the road. Probably going somewhere he doesn't want to go. He also won't be the starting PG in Dallas due to Luka. So, he's likely not that happy with his role at some point. You also can't be guaranteed that a team will want to trade for him after they see him play this next year. That bigger role he had starting was only after the ASB and playoffs. There is more film on him now. Teams would likely do what GS did with him which would put all the pressure back on Luka like GS did. They start game planning for playmakers in the starting or closing lineup. He hasn't faced that before in the NBA.

That's my thinking on all of this. 

When JB wasn't resigned or traded by this last years deadline I had a pretty good feeling he was gone. The mess up by the front office was then not now. I would be really upset if they were trying to break the bank to resign him. I had to take a break from the Mavs for a while after they maxed out KP. They got my attention back the day they traded him.