06-29-2021, 08:40 AM
(This post was last modified: 06-29-2021, 08:48 AM by HanspardsShowerVoice.)
(06-28-2021, 08:13 PM)Kammrath Wrote: Yes, primarily. But everything I have read about Nico points to him having an eye for talent that SHOULD translate to drafting as well.
Yeah, I don't think Nico is just the Mavs version of World Wide Wes who is some player agent/mentor recruiter, although that will be part of his job and part of the appeal.
Brian Demaris was on the Hardline talking about Nico and he stressed this. Nico didn't sell shoes or write marketing ads. He oversaw a group that scouted, recruited and serviced players. Nike has professional scouts on staff. They are at college and international games sitting right next to the team scouts. They try to identify them at a young age, then negotiate a contract and see them through that process and then service them. Nico oversaw a large department with a lot of employees. DeMaris was talking to someone inside the Mavs building about the hire and while DeMaris was going on about what a smart and charismatic guy Nico was, it was stressed to him by his source that Nico is a also great manager.
DeMaris said when he was in the Mavs basketball ops in 2002, there were 10 people in the department. Now there's 50. Health, player development, nutrition experts, scouting, analytics, etc. DeMaris kinda implied that the dysfunctional that has been unearthed in the front office the past few weeks stems from not having a great managers to handle and coordinate all these people. Donnie is a "basketball guy" and probably has great basketball sources and buddies all around the globe that he can go out and get great information from over beers, but the attention to detail and coordinating and overseeing 50 employees is not who he is. The demands of the job have outgrown Donnie's skillsets over time, imho.