Mavs: Did cuban piss away dirks prime

[Lincoln]

Lol his best centers until Tyson being dampier and 2010 haywood

[Findog]

It's really hard to win a le. Brutally hard. A core of Nash/Finley/Dirk was never going to get past Kobe/Shaq. The 2003 Spurs was probably their weakest le team, so maybe if Dirk hadn't gotten hurt they might have had a chance to take that series. Giving out big contracts to Haywood and Dampier would never happen under the current CBA. If anything he missed out by handing over a 55 win team to a coach like Avery. I think Pat Riley wins the Finals in 2006 no matter which roster you gave him. Same with Nellie winning that GS-Dallas series in 2007.

Given everything that happened in the Dirk Era, I think at most they missed out on one other le. I don't think the Mavs beat the Spurs in 2007 if they get past Golden State.

[Kai]

He got a ring, it's all good.

[midnightpulp]

I wouldn't go as far to say he "pissed it away." Cuban did indeed surround Dirk with quality talent. I think the Mavs' failure to reach the Finals in the first half of the 00s was due more to Don Nelson being the coach than a failure to build a championship caliber roster. When Avery came in and got the Mavs to play defense, they made the Finals and were half a quarter away from a championship.

[Clipper Nation]

Avery was a horrible coach, too, though.... he deserves some blame for wasting Dirk's prime by turning the entire team against him and ruining Devin Harris, imho...

It was also his decision to tank a few games specifically to draw the Warriors in 2007, who had owned the Mavs in the regular season that year, iirc... they probably would have beaten the Clippers in the playoffs that year, but instead, Avery ruined a golden opportunity for a ring that year...

[HI-FI]

I don't think he wasted his prime, but they didn't capitalize on situations like they hoped. THey should've had another ring, and probably would have if not for the officiating against the Heat.

Cuban, as much as I can't stand him, was always aggressive in building a great team. I think had he been older, wiser and not learning the ropes the same time as Dirk, could've built a better team around him. His recent experiment with trying to get Howard and Williams is an example of him swinging for the fences and striking out.

[Venti Quattro]

Dirk went into God mode and won a ring. A lot of NBA stars die trying to win one. He actually got one.

[KaiRMD1]

Dirk got a ring and a finals MVP so no

[Venti Quattro]

Given everything that happened in the Dirk Era, I think at most they missed out on one other le. I don't think the Mavs beat the Spurs in 2007 if they get past Golden State.

If you include that, then he really should've had 3. But winning one is already a feat in itself. Kobe missed two chances to win a ring. But in the end, the five he won are worth it.

[midnightpulp]

Avery was a horrible coach, too, though.... he deserves some blame for wasting Dirk's prime by turning the entire team against him and ruining Devin Harris, imho...

It was also his decision to tank a few games specifically to draw the Warriors in 2007, who had owned the Mavs in the regular season that year, iirc... they probably would have beaten the Clippers in the playoffs that year, but instead, Avery ruined a golden opportunity for a ring that year...

Oh I know. I wasn't championing Avery. I was more illustrating the fact that all the Mavs really needed to do to evolve from great team to championship contender back then was to play better defense, which Avery, as ty as he was, got them to do. In addition to that, Steve Nash's departure helped out in that regard, as well.
And like Findog alluded to, Dirk had the misfortune of playing in the toughest Western Conference in NBA history.

[AaronY]

Cuban tried his ass off and acquired a lot of talented players for Dirk to play alongside. He did make some mistakes but he did better than a ton of other owners did in surrounding similar stars with talent (think Lebron in Cleveland, AI in Philly, Dwight in Orlando, etc.)

[Thebesteva]

Mavs are kind of like the Colts of the NBA...they definitely deserved more than 1. It was so hard for everything to go their way.

[scanry]

Mavs are kind of like the Colts of the NBA...they definitely deserved more than 1. It was so hard for everything to go their way.

Good comparison. The Mavs are the Colts and the Patriots are the Spurs. Dallas definetly deserved the 2006 chip.

However you cannot blame Cuban becuase the Mavs were always a good $20 - $25 mil over the cap from 2005 - 2010.

[Sean Cagney]

It's really hard to win a le. Brutally hard. A core of Nash/Finley/Dirk was never going to get past Kobe/Shaq. The 2003 Spurs was probably their weakest le team, so maybe if Dirk hadn't gotten hurt they might have had a chance to take that series. .

They had no shot in that series, and that Spurs team you said their weakest le team beat that three peat LA team! Dirk does not get hurt the same result, they blew that game one bigtime and were basically up easily 2-1 when he got hurt, they had game three in control in Dallas and were up 2-1 when he went down, they had no shot in that series as their frontline was way too weak and played no D at all. Believe me they had no shot there, once SA beat LA it was a wrap that year, period. Spurs were deep that year as well, don't get where that was their weakest team, they won 60 games and had a vet bench and youth as well, Duncan that year was on a different planet, period.

If Webber does not get hurt in 03 Dallas does not get to the WCF, it's all irrelevant now though as it happened the way it did.

[Jacob1983]

“It feels amazing to know that no one can ever take this away from us again, and for one year, we’re the best team that was out there”.


Dirk has a ring and a Finals MVP trophy and no one can take that from him ever. Not Wade. Not Stern. No one. I love how haters in' hate the fact that Dirk is a champion and a has a ring. It makes the championship even better and more special.

[rayjayjohnson]

dirk rang.

thread is as dumb as OP tbh

[Spursfanfromafar]

I think Cuban, despite how much Spurfan hates him, did all he could to take the Mavs from being a joke to a perennial contender. And that includes surrounding Dirk with enough talent. The only point of inflection came in last season, when I thought the Mavs screwed up their strategy badly in search of the Howard-DWill dream. Sadly, despite realising that it was a nightmare not so much a dream, the Mavs have been doubly screwed by the new CBA and its effect on the trade market. Will take a while for the Mavs to recover again, and by that time, the Dirk window will be practically gone.

[TDMVPDPOY]

they got robbed in 06

dirk should have 2-3 rings or maybe even 4....too bad he played in a stacked west

[MI21]

No way. 1 ring is more than most of the NBA have won...

[JoeTait75]

Lol his best centers until Tyson being dampier and 2010 haywood

Did you watch the Mavericks during the '90s? They were beyond a joke. That they went from where they were back then to a perennial contender and an NBA Champion says a lot about the job Cuban has done.

[Sportstudi]

Good comparison. The Mavs are the Colts and the Patriots are the Spurs. Dallas definetly deserved the 2006 chip.

However you cannot blame Cuban becuase the Mavs were always a good $20 - $25 mil over the cap from 2005 - 2010.

Did you watch the Mavericks during the '90s? They were beyond a joke. That they went from where they were back then to a perennial contender and an NBA Champion says a lot about the job Cuban has done.

While I agree that Cuban tried his best to surround Dirk with good players, I think he also had a habit to grossly overpay somde dudes who weren't worth that amount of money at all, especially big guys. For instance Damp was never worth 60 $ million and Diop and Haywood also got much more than they actually deserved.

Concerning Avery it was interesting how often he got outcoached in the playoffs. In 2007 he wanted more vets after losing to the Heat (Shaq, Payton, Walker) and got completely embarrassed by Nellie. Thus, in the next year he was begging for guards only to lose again, this time vs. the Hornets.

[Latarian Milton]

dirk's better off playing alongside a defensive big and that's why cuban pissed away so much money for bigs who seem to be legit defenders in the first place but later turned out to be craps, until that year when you got TC and dirk immediately delivered a championship for this city. cuban is as much a fan of his team as anyone on this board and i have no doubt about it, dude just lacks the knowledge to know what his team really needs, and he's also rather poor at judging a player's ability imho

[ambchang]

Cuban didn't, Stern did though.

[hater]

he got a ring and will make the HOF easily. Dirk was never good enough to deserve multiple ships anyway.

[Brunodf]

Talking about Cs yes... But Dirk always had good/great guards/forwards