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25-26 Dallas Mavericks Thread: The Season of Our Discontent


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Posted

I still think there was some sort of NBA conspiracy going on. Luka gets traded for nothing at all to the biggest market or at least #2 on a Saturday night just when Lebron is ending his career. They then get gifted the #1 draft pick, was it some sort of secrete handshake behind the scenes. I believe that makes more sense than a GM trading one of the biggest global superstars in the middle of his prime months after going to the NBA Finals. I've never seen anything like it in sports. Either way, fuck Nico. Nothing against Flagg but he will never be Luka.

And fuck Nico for letting Brunson walk for nothing. Another top superstar we let go.

If the Mavs play the Lakers in a playoff series, I'll root for Luka to drop 50 every night and a sweep.

The other thing that has happened is this regime has driven Dirk away. Dirk was in LA to support Luka this week, not at Dallas' home season opener for Flagg. Tells me all I need.

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Posted

Cool seeing all the original branding/logos at the game. Even the font on the scoreboard had a different look. 
 

Lively is not the same without Luka. With this all big lineup the pick and roll with the late pass/lob to Lively is never going to be a thing. 

The dunk Cooper threw down over the Toronto center was awesome. 

Posted
On 10/25/2025 at 5:48 PM, Vic Mackey said:

I still think there was some sort of NBA conspiracy going on. Luka gets traded for nothing at all to the biggest market or at least #2 on a Saturday night just when Lebron is ending his career. They then get gifted the #1 draft pick, was it some sort of secrete handshake behind the scenes. I believe that makes more sense than a GM trading one of the biggest global superstars in the middle of his prime months after going to the NBA Finals. I've never seen anything like it in sports. Either way, fuck Nico. Nothing against Flagg but he will never be Luka.

And fuck Nico for letting Brunson walk for nothing. Another top superstar we let go.

If the Mavs play the Lakers in a playoff series, I'll root for Luka to drop 50 every night and a sweep.

The other thing that has happened is this regime has driven Dirk away. Dirk was in LA to support Luka this week, not at Dallas' home season opener for Flagg. Tells me all I need.

Nico wasn’t even here for Brunson. That was 100% Cuban. 

Posted
13 hours ago, Sgt Hulk said:

My son is at the Mavs game right now.  The old sprites and Stetson logo.  The greens are just legit AF 

 

12 hours ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

I have a Detlef Schrempf jersey from that era

 

The greens are the best. I wish they'd wear them more.  I also wish we had Derek Harper and Ro out there 

 

12 hours ago, ztejas said:

D Lo is fucking killing y'all. Such an unserious player. 

Well we're an unserious franchise.

Posted
2 hours ago, Post Oak said:

Well we're an unserious franchise.

He wound up having a really nice game 😂

I still don't trust that guy. 

Flagg is the mf truth. Y'all may need to tear it down to the studs and rebuild though. All of your timelines are jacked up.

Posted
3 hours ago, Cruz in Aledo said:

Nico wasn’t even here for Brunson. That was 100% Cuban. 

He had just gotten here. I doubt he had any say.

Posted (edited)
4 hours ago, Cruz in Aledo said:

Nico wasn’t even here for Brunson. That was 100% Cuban. 

 

17 minutes ago, gsoda3 said:

He had just gotten here. I doubt he had any say.

So you guys are saying that the GENERAL MANAGER hired in June 2021 played no role in negotiating an extension with Jalen Brunson before he signed with NY in July 2022? 

If that’s the case, Fire Nico. What do you think a GM does?

Edited by Bozo_Casanova
Posted
4 hours ago, Cruz in Aledo said:

Nico wasn’t even here for Brunson. That was 100% Cuban. 

More importantly, Brunson wasnt a top superstar in DAL.   No one saw what he has become in NY and he was never going to have the opportunity to be that in DAL with Luka.  Further, he was going to NY no mater what.      That's a totally different conspiracy LOL

Posted
37 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

 

So you guys are saying that the GENERAL MANAGER hired in June 2021 played no role in negotiating an extension with Jalen Brunson before he signed with NY in July 2022? 

If that’s the case, Fire Nico. What do you think a GM does?

No he did not. That was all Cuban. And I’m not defending Nico. Cuban hired him, then sold the team to adelson family. Somehow Cuban has skated on all of his terrible decisions over the last 25 years. Well, hiring Nico and fucking up with Brunson so badly are likely his two biggest mistakes, with a sale to that family a close 3rd

Posted
6 minutes ago, Cruz in Aledo said:

No he did not. That was all Cuban. And I’m not defending Nico. Cuban hired him, then sold the team to adelson family. Somehow Cuban has skated on all of his terrible decisions over the last 25 years. Well, hiring Nico and fucking up with Brunson so badly are likely his two biggest mistakes, with a sale to that family a close 3rd

Nobody is saying, Mark Cuban wasn’t the final authority, but you’re giving Nico a pass on Brunson that he doesn’t deserve. Nico was the GM talking to players agents is the GM‘s job. Both of the Nelson’s took Cuban to the wall on multiple occasions and Nico didn’t. 

Posted
5 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Nobody is saying, Mark Cuban wasn’t the final authority, but you’re giving Nico a pass on Brunson that he doesn’t deserve. Nico was the GM talking to players agents is the GM‘s job. Both of the Nelson’s took Cuban to the wall on multiple occasions and Nico didn’t. 

You’re not remembering the timeline correctly. Brunson was not on Nico. He was solely on Cuban. 

Posted
1 hour ago, Cruz in Aledo said:

You’re not remembering the timeline correctly. Brunson was not on Nico. He was solely on Cuban. 

I’m genuinely confused. Nico was hired as GM a year before Brunson left, amid much ballyhoo about his relationships with players and agents, to wit:

 

here’s Nico speaking on Brunson leaving, a year later:

 

Quote

Nico Harrison: You lose a talent like Brunson, it’s definitely a blow. But we’ve been through it before. We knew it was a possibility that could happen. We did as good a job as you could do with anticipating something like this actually happening.

 

Posted
1 minute ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

I’m genuinely confused. Nico was hired as GM a year before Brunson left, amid much ballyhoo about his relationships with players and agents, to wit:

 

here’s Nico speaking on Brunson leaving, a year later:

 

 

Cuban wasn’t going to pay him. Cuban was the public face of the negotiation. And I think it led to Nico going to Dumont shortly after the sale telling him he wanted out from under Cuban. Nico had no real GM powers without Cuban say so. Besides, the deal with Brunson should’ve been struck WELL before June ‘21, when Nico came on board. I thought all this was common knowledge. 

Posted
2 minutes ago, Cruz in Aledo said:

Cuban wasn’t going to pay him. Cuban was the public face of the negotiation. And I think it led to Nico going to Dumont shortly after the sale telling him he wanted out from under Cuban. Nico had no real GM powers without Cuban say so. Besides, the deal with Brunson should’ve been struck WELL before June ‘21, when Nico came on board. I thought all this was common knowledge. 

According to McMahon’s book, Nico was involved: 

Quote

“I just think this New York thing is too tied to his family to overcome," Mavs GM Nico Harrison texted to Cuban in early February.

 

Posted
12 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

According to McMahon’s book, Nico was involved: 

 

McMahon. Ugh. I’m sure Nico was involved in some capacity but the ship had already sailed. Do you not remember how the very strong narrative was Cuban (and Donnie/HBob) could have locked him up far earlier than the piddly January ‘22 offer?

Do you really need more ammunition against Nico?  The Luka trade is all you need. No need to rewrite history to make a Nico assessment. 

Posted
5 minutes ago, Cruz in Aledo said:

McMahon. Ugh. I’m sure Nico was involved in some capacity but the ship had already sailed. Do you not remember how the very strong narrative was Cuban (and Donnie/HBob) could have locked him up far earlier than the piddly January ‘22 offer?

Do you really need more ammunition against Nico?  The Luka trade is all you need. No need to rewrite history to make a Nico assessment. 

I’m not rewriting anything, but Nico’s failures do not begin and end with Luka. That would be enough, but it’s not all there is. 

Posted
1 minute ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

I’m not rewriting anything, but Nico’s failures do not begin and end with Luka. That would be enough, but it’s not all there is. 

The excerpt you linked, from a March 2025 espn article, clearly pins blame on Cuban. I mean we could keep arguing if you want, but why?

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Posted
6 minutes ago, Cruz in Aledo said:

The excerpt you linked, from a March 2025 espn article, clearly pins blame on Cuban. I mean we could keep arguing if you want, but why?

Because this is what we do here. I specifically didn’t give Cuban a pass. What I did say is:

2 hours ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Nobody is saying Mark Cuban wasn’t the final authority

And over the course of this interaction you have gone from here:

7 hours ago, Cruz in Aledo said:

Nico wasn’t even here for Brunson. 

To here:

20 minutes ago, Cruz in Aledo said:

I’m sure Nico was involved in some capacity

That feels like productive dialogue

Posted
40 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

According to McMahon’s book, Nico was involved: 

 

 

Quote

 Cuban was also worried about adding to the Dallas payroll, as every single dollar would be multiplied in luxury tax payments in accordance with the league's collective bargaining agreement. For the first dozen years of Cuban's control, he brashly blew into the luxury tax, when the payments were dollar for dollar over the limit. But he had avoided it since the Mavs' 2011 title run, as the tax payments became more punitive. That wouldn't be feasible once Dončić's supermax contract kicked in, but Cuban was determined to limit the damage to his wallet. He also didn't believe there would be much of a market for Brunson if he did hit free agency, privately pointing out that the teams set up to have salary cap space the next summer had all made heavy investments in young guards. Cuban believed at the time that the best deal Brunson could get in free agency was the mid-level exception, which would have been $45.1 million over four years.

 

Starting from the summer before JB left and was eligible for his extension all the way up to the non-extension before the Feb trade deadline it was pretty obvious Cuban was motivated to stay under the lux tax threshold.  He (and maybe) Nico ran into some bad luck with how JB blew up in the Utah series when Luka was out for the first two games and JB's value skyrocketed.  At that point though the consequences of the past calendar year's actions couldn't be headed off.  I would love nothing more than to pin JB on Nico but the majority of the blame falls on Cube's shoulders.

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Posted
9 minutes ago, gsoda3 said:

 

 

Starting from the summer before JB left and was eligible for his extension all the way up to the non-extension before the Feb trade deadline it was pretty obvious Cuban was motivated to stay under the lux tax threshold.  He (and maybe) Nico ran into some bad luck with how JB blew up in the Utah series when Luka was out for the first two games and JB's value skyrocketed.  At that point though the consequences of the past calendar year's actions couldn't be headed off.  I would love nothing more than to pin JB on Nico but the majority of the blame falls on Cube's shoulders.

I think that’s right, but they certainly didn’t need to let him walk for nothing. NY and others reached out with offers. 
 

BTW- watching Reeves go off yesterday, it was really amazing to think of what Nico left on the table.

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