TDL Archived: The 2nd Rnd Pick Yankee Swap

[mvossman]

I don’t think anyone disagrees with this. It’s just the certainty of moving backwards that bothers me. With Brunson, I think this team IS a contender. 

And not for nothing, but while this team has been put together pretty well in terms of fit in recent years, I’d say they’re miles behind where they were at this point of Dirk’s career when it comes to overall talent.

I think a lot of folks would disagree with both statements in your first sentence (certainty of moving backwards and contender with Brunson).

As for the comparison with Dirk's team, the situations were different.  The Mavs already had Finely, and they did not have to pay multiple picks for Dirk (and basically used that draft capital to trade for Nash).  So they had Finely and Nash in Dirk's first year whereas they were starting almost from scratch with Luka (they did have Dorian and Maxi).  They also had much less limitations on what they could do from a cap/tax situation.  I would also point out that after Dirk's 4 years they had not made the WCF yet.