Some of the other players who were available for chump change during that time.
PJ Tucker
Derrick Rose
Austin Rivers (who was sitting at home)
Donnie is and has always been an absolute trash GM, full stop.
It's never mentioned, but compare the 2 rosters Dirk took to the NBA finals to all other NBA Finals participants from the Western conference in the last 20 years and I guarantee you that both of them rank at the absolute bottom of the barrel in comparison. Dirk performed miracles to have as much success as we did during the prime of his career. And for that Donnie gets a permanent job.
He can't draft for shit unless the talent is a top 10 all-time talent.
We rarely have rookies who can even participate during the season much less be contributors in their first year. Every trade he makes is trash. Every free agent we covet ends up being an absolute disaster. Think of all the near misses as well. Nerlens Noel, Dwight Howard, Deron Williams, DeAndre Jordan, Patrick Beverly, Kemba Walker, etc.
He doesn't draft well enough to allow us to develop tradeable assets. He doesn't evaluate the league's talent well well enough to give us useful supplements to the roster. He's just a trash GM in every conceivable way who lucked into getting 2 of the 15 best NBA players of the last 50 years.