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Cuban probably would have to cut the expense in some other way. Finley was the best way to cut expense without losing too much.
I'm not. You are doing it to yourself by being re ed.
Cuban probably would have to cut the expense in some other way. Finley was the best way to cut expense without losing too much.
Yup, exactly. The size would have made a difference for sure. Then again, maybe it would have only resulted in more fouls for Wade.
I don't have the emotional attachment to Finley like some of you do. That makes me re ed?
Not realizing the contributions Finely made to the Mavericks makes you re ed, yes.
I know what he did. This team was never good enough to make a diffeence unfortunately until Finley was out of his prime. Too bad about that. Congrats for those that were hardcore mavs fans in the 90's.
No, the vast majority of your posts is what makes you re ed. The Mavericks did nothing by cutting Finley but pay him millions of dollars in salary cap money to play for their nemesis. It did not enable them to sign anyone else, it simply saved Mark Cuban a little bit of spending change.
Mono, some more love for Harp?
I agree with Mono that Finley's #4 should be withheld from players until the time that it's retired, at which point it's unavailable permanently. The Mavs don't have to retire the number right now while Finley's playing for a different team, but they shouldn't let others use it either.
Finley was in decline. I don't think anyone would argue that. However, his waiver did nothing to bring in new players. It didn't free up money under the CAP. It made their rotation that much thinner. It made Finley look like the bad guy in the eyes of many fans.
Cuban can justify his act all he wants, just as some fans can reiterate his positions, but cutting Finley did nothing to help the Mavs. The only positive it brought about was saving Cubes some money. It's debatable whether or not that money was ever positively invested in Finley's replacement.
Please explain?..a guy on the decline of his career getting paid $18 million per year and add to that the luxury tax cost and the fact that the mavs made it to the finals w/o him. he didnt want to take a bench role here which is what he would have been regulated to under avery. I can see how people say how could the mavs let Nash go, but Finley being released a huge mistake, c'mon now.That Finals team was better than the last two playoff teams because of results alone. Letting Finley go was a mistake, and I can't believe I'm defending Finley!!!!
Nash was still developing his skills when he was with the Mavs. Nash didn't develop into the best PG in the NBA until about 2 years later.
Sure Nash wasn't a great defender but he was adequate...he gives out as much as he gets.
Nash
Finley
Howard
Dirk
Damp/Diop
I think that's a ring worthy lineup that would have gotten past the Heat.
with nash on the team you can get rid of damp and probably diop bc $ wouldnt have been there to sign those guys. So the mavs would have rolled out Bradley and probably Alan Henderson at center with Nash here
That would have sucked pretty bad but I've seen Cuban spend some cash...I'm not so sure letting Nash go was so much about money than ego. Nash was hardlining how much he wanted and Cuban just said I ain't paying. Cuban was the same dude that dropped a couple mllion to Van Horn just to get Kidd.
I think it was one or 2 seasons before when Cuban said he'd pay whatever to make a championship team. Cuban just didn't want to pay Nash.
Nash, Finley, JHo, Dirk, Damp with Jet, Devin, Stack, Bass and Diop off the bench would have been one sweet frickin' lineup.
Sigh...
No Mavs team with Nash trying to "guard" Tony Parker would've ever made it past the Spurs. And they used his salary slot to sign Dampier, so you don't get both.
Avery had his head up his ass in that series. They ran against the Spurs and beat them. They slowed it down against the Suns and beat them. They should've run on the Heat and they would've won too regardless of what Wade did. And he kept Daniels chained to the bench when he was the only guy who did a halfway decent job of guarding Wade.
That series loss is mainly on Avery.
That was a gamble more than anything considering how rare it is that a player doesn't join the elite of the league unit they're around the age of 30.
And I also have no reason to believe they would've gotten past the Spurs with Nash like they've failed to before with him.
How many times are we going to have to say this?
The problem with saying that Nash would have elevated the Mavs to greatness, is that Nash used Cuban's snub as motivation to get better and play much harder. Nash's drastic improvement has a lot to do, also, with his chemistry with Coach D'Antoni. D'Antoni specifically designed the offense for Nash, and as a result, he flourished and got two MVP's.
That's not to say that Nash didn't deserve those awards, but I don't think he'd be the same player today if he had stayed with the Mavs.
Nash would have scored 20 with 10-15 assists, Tony would have gotten 25 points and 5 assists. I could have lived with that.
I don't know about the Nash/Dampier implications.
Xylus does have a point, Cuban's snub might have been the reason Nash became so good. But then again, maybe he wasn't ripe yet and needed more time with Dirk. Unfortunately we'll never know.
I guess the question for you Mavs fans is this:
Given what you know now, do you think the Mavs should have kept Nash and in keeping Nash, should they have bitten the bullet and kept Finley too? So they wouldn't have Damp but they'd have Diop at Center along with Dirk, JHo, Bass, Devin, Stackhouse. Would that be a better team than they have now?
Last edited by Allanon; 10-13-2008 at 06:35 PM.
Agreed.
I can say that it absolutely wasn't. Marquis Daniels never got a chance from Avery, Maurice Ager never got a chance from Avery, and the team has thrown away draft picks like they're manure.
Then this offseason Donnie and Mark have the audacity to say that buying a late first rounder here was just too expensive for them. Oh really, did it cost you $18 million dollars to buy a late pick? Because the claim was that the money saved in cutting Finley would go back into helping the team, and I've seen zero evidence of that. And we still don't have a decent, full sized shooting guard.
Cuban cutting Finley was 100% a move to keep more money in his pockets. Anybody who says it was done to "help the team" is lying to themselves. If so, then why are Mavs fans hoping and praying that a mediocre throw-in piece of the Kidd trade will be able to step up at SG for us?
If they were keeping Nash, they never would have traded Jamison for Devin & Stack.
we could have had Nash, Finley, Jamison, Dirk, Diop with Terry as 6th man and Howard as a tremendous bench player. I'd say that in 2006 that would have been a bad ass lineup, perhaps even better than the team we had (certainly good enough to beat Miami).....but again, I don't like our chances at beating the Spurs when Nash is getting curbstomped by Tony Parker like he always is.
In hindsight, knowing that the Mavs didn't close it out in 06, and knowing that nobody else would step up to help Dirk against Miami, I definitely would have taken my chances with keeping Finley, Nash, and Jamison.
We signed Diop the same year we got rid of Finley. It is possible we don't get Diop if we keep Finley's contract.
Diop got a very small deal. He was a few pounds away from being out of the NBA until the Mavs threw him a lifeline.
And how many ing times do we have to tell you that CUTTING FINLEY DIDN'T TAKE HIS MONEY OFF THEIR PAYROLL, HE STILL COUNTED AGAINST THE SALARY CAP. THE ONLY PERSON WHO BENEFITED WAS MARK CUBAN BECAUSE HE DIDN'T HAVE TO PAY LUXURY TAX ON FINLEY ANYMORE.
Well somewhere down the line that not paying luxury tax will help Cuban in not being as cheap with someone else. It's part of the thing. He ended up spending a lot on getting Kidd. Cuban having extra money just allows him to be more willing to spend money somewhere else. Common sense here. We know Cuban is willing to throw a lot of money out there if he feels really good about a deal. Maybe he was banking on Daniels being the starter. Avery Johnson screwed that part up. At this point of Finley's career, he was a liability on defense and a streaky shooter. I'm a little more pissed with Cuban for trading Harris. That was our future and the only thing to look forward with this team. Kidd was awesome in his day but now he relies totally on his eye sight. Teams will force him to shoot and pressure him on defense.
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