What Are The Dallas Mavericks Doing?

For about a week, it looked like the Dallas Mavericks were going to reload. Owner Mark Cuban has been punting on the NBA Draft for years, choosing to build his team almost entirely through free agency or trades in an attempt to put talent and veteran experience around Dirk Nowitzki as his career winds down. The pursuit of DeAndre Jordan was no different.

That short-term approach has helped the Mavs reach the playoffs in 14 of their last 15 seasons, and the one year they didn’t (2012-13), Nowitzki missed 29 games due to injury. But in the wake of the DeAndre Jordan fiasco, Cuban’s eagerness to surround Dirk with talent by rebuilding as quickly as possible is the very thing that will doom what’s left of the big German’s career to NBA purgatory.

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Even if the Mavs had held onto DeAndre Jordan in addition to Wesley Matthews, they weren’t going to be contending for a title in the loaded Western Conference. Monta Ellis and Rajon Rondo were gone, and the top backcourt options in free agency were mostly off the board.

But a Mavs core of Jordan, Matthews, Nowitzki, Chandler Parsons and Jeremy Lin might have been able to make things interesting in a playoff series, giving Dirk one more thrill of competing in the postseason.

Let’s just say that settling for the likes of Deron Williams and JaVale McGee doesn’t quite compare to the free agency core of Jordan, Matthews and Lin that Cuban had in his sights. Pre-Williams signing, this was the reality for Dallas:

After Jordan and the Mavs had agreed to a four-year, $80 million deal, Cuban said the team would’ve taken a step back with a more long-term, tank-oriented approach if Dallas had failed to sign a game-changing free agent. Why, then, are the Mavericks making desperate plays on washed up players to try and resuscitate a dying roster now that Jordan is returning to Los Angeles?

No offense to Wesley Matthews and his three-point shooting, his excellent wing defense and his all-around smart play, but does he really qualify as a game-changing free agent? Will he elevate Dallas to prominence as the star acquisition this team needed, all while coming off a scary Achilles injury? It’s highly unlikely that’s the case.

Nobody wants to see the candle of Dirk’s career flicker to black, but letting it burn all the way down to a stub with a roster whose ceiling is a first round playoff exit isn’t much better. And to be perfectly frank, there’s little chance of this Mavs team making the playoffs next year relying on the health/play of a 37-year-old Nowitzki, a coming-off-an-Achilles-injury Wes Matthews and a hobbled and washed up D-Will.

A frontcourt rotation of Zaza Pachulia and JaVale McGee doesn’t say anything to the contrary either, even though Pachulia is an admittedly underrated acquisition.

For Cuban, this was his best opportunity to start over again. The team had lost its starting backcourt, not to mention instrumental role players like Tyson Chandler, Al-Farouq Aminu and Amar’e Stoudemire. Former Mavs who were traded away like Brandan Wright, Jae Crowder and Jameer Nelson were possible free agency targets, but they were quickly gobbled up on the market as well.

Nobody wanted to see the Mavericks tank away what’s left of Dirk’s career, but it would’ve been what’s best for the franchise. Instead, Cuban made the best moves available by signing D-Will to a two-year, $10 million deal and he’ll now try to shore up the rotation with McGee.

But moves like that — even if Matthews comes out next season and shows no lingering effects from his Achilles tear — only move the needle so much. They probably don’t make Dallas a good enough team to make the postseason out West but they do make them good enough to avoid the kind of high pick in the draft lottery that this franchise needs to start anew.

For a team that will only keep its 2016 first round pick if it falls in the 1-7 range, that’s a potential killer. Unless Cuban is constructing the most diabolical unintentional tank in NBA history, the Mavericks will likely wind up sending their pick to the Boston Celtics thanks to the ill-fated Rajon Rondo trade.

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Even worse? That pick is not only top-7 protected in 2016, but it’s top-7 protected in 2017…and 2018…and 2019…and 2020 before becoming unprotected in 2021. It’s only a matter of time before the Mavs hand over that pick, but for a team that should be rebuilding through the draft and taking a long-term approach post-Dirk, shouldn’t Dallas be aiming for a top-7 pick for the next one or two seasons anyway?

Dirk Nowitzki isn’t going to be around forever, and as sad as it is, it’s time to start thinking about what happens once he retires. There’s a reason Dirk himself said he’d consider coming off the bench next season if it helped the team win games. Cuban had the opportunity to start the rebuild after once again striking out on the major free agents, but now the franchise will spend a year on life support.

By taking so many discounts to give Dallas more cap room to work with, Dirk Nowitzki was like the anti-Kobe Bryant. He didn’t want to leave his organization with nothing when he was gone by signing a huge contract that would’ve paid him for his prior value more so than his current worth.

But because of Cuban’s unwavering loyalty to Dirk and to the spirit of competition, the Mavs will be left with nothing more than Wesley Matthews, Chandler Parsons and Justin Anderson when Nowitzki has played his last game.

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You can understand the rationale, and Cuban should be praised for taking an approach that could be described as the polar opposite of Sam Hinkie. Cuban’s dedication to putting a competitive team around the greatest player in franchise history is commendable, especially since Nowitzki selflessly took all those discounts.

But the moves Cuban made weren’t good enough to make the Mavericks a playoff contender, nor did they move the team closer to retaining their potentially valuable top-7 draft pick, which will more than likely wind up being a lottery pick this year.

Instead, the Dallas Mavericks might end up in NBA no man’s land in Dirk’s final seasons. The blowback from Cuban’s short-term roster restocking every summer has been a long time coming, and by the looks of the players the Mavs will be adding to the team this offseason, DeAndre Jordan may have been the final domino that brings the whole thing down.

Next: DeAndre Jordan Made The Right Decision The Wrong Way

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