The problem is that this team has had no continued culture in the past 6-7 years. Everytime it looks like we’re starting to build some sort of identity it gets blown up or we change plans. Dennis Smith Jr, Luka and DoeDoe were really close off the court for a trip that had just come together, got blown up. I know a lot of people aren’t the biggest fans of this pairing, I get it.
That’s ok, we got a 7 footer in Porzingis, who was really good for us in spurts. We had the most efficient and productive offense of all time with him as the #2, and J Kidd and Sweeney successfully built a defensive system where we guard the perimeter really well and funnel drivers into KP for blocks. But he got injured too much for our liking, really hard to build momentum, I get it.
No harm no foul, we got Dinwiddie and carried over that defensive intensity and got all the way to the Western Conference finals with three really good ball handlers as well. Defensive nightmare for other teams.
This year it looks like there’s no priority to play defense. We used to have lineups with at least 4 of our good defenders: Maxi-Doe-Bullock-Green-Frank. Now we’re lucky to get two in one lineup. That’s cool but when I see that I accept the fact that we won’t play good defense at all and just hope our guys can knock down shots and drive to the rim. Idk how much it’s had an effect but losing JB who had been with these guys for 4 years and developed really nicely has to hurt.
Idk how much part Cuban has had to play in any of these moves, but it feels like someone wants to punt every time we start to build a culture. Like someone has a very specific team/roster in mind and will burn any progress we make in order to make that dream happen. Having a culture might be overrated, if you look at most teams past 5 years it’ll probably look similar to the Mavs in that there’s been big roster turnover, I get it. But if you make it known that you don’t value loyalty or continuity and then wonder why free agents don’t want to sign here, maybe you should try and be a hands off owner instead.