FA: Kemba Walker to DAL | his knee is "not good"

[KillerLeft]

Donnie and RC being friends and having a level of mutual respect does not mean they saw eye-to-eye and had a cohesive vision and direction for the team. I think there is a ton of evidence of a mismatch between coaching and GMing in the last decade of the Mavs organization. And I personally feel like the signs are still there that roster decisions are being made that don't align with how the coaching is approaching things (two-way spots, Wood, etc).

Oh, I agree with all of that. Synergy between how the team is constructed and coached is crucial, and that’s not always present here in Dallas. The part I don’t think there is evidence to support is that it seems like you’re under the impression that the more successful acquisitions were Harrison’s, while the bombs were on Kidd. I think that’s the least nuanced conclusion possible. 

In reality, people get some things right and others wrong, professionally. Whatever their process is, I think it’s more reasonable to assume it’s fairly consistent from transaction to transaction, even if what’s “consistent” is that the process is a mess. Kidd might’ve liked the idea of Wood far more than the reality he saw when camp started, for example. The lack of follow through in the playing time relative to the asset price paid to acquire him, while disappointing, might not indicate anything other than buyer’s remorse (whether we see/understand why or not). OR, maybe this is the role they envisioned all along and it’s just that they don’t value late firsts even close to how much we do. Maybe they’re all shocked that people are making such an issue out of this. 

The only thing we know for sure is that Cuban doesn’t trust Harrison to make player evaluations. We know that because he went almost out of his way to declare it PUBLICLY in an interview, as if he were jealous of the attention the new hire was getting, possibly. Or, maybe he thought it was so obvious that he didn’t realize how many eyebrows would raise from such a simple statement. Whatever the case, the thing I’m most sure about is that Harrison hasn’t been the “decider” on a single player acquisition since he arrived. Whether the main voice has been Kidd, Finley or Cuban I don’t feel comfortable guessing, but whomever it is, everything from the last two years (at least) us on them, good and bad.