We have a history of missing out on big time free agents. Deron Williams was going to come to Dallas, until the Brooklyn Nets trade for Joe Johnson convincing Williams to stay. Then there was the Dwight Howard free agency when he chose the Rockets over us. Then Carmelo Anthony wanted to test the market and had visits with the Mavs, Houston, LA and Chicago but ultimately decided to re-sign with New York. The FA that stung the most was DeAndre Jordan and his saga, when he agreed to a 4yr/$88M contract with us until Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and Doc Rivers showed up to his home and convinced him to back out and resign with the Clippers.
Fast forward to this summer. The Mavs had $30M in cap space to use on another star or at minimum a great role player. Everyone was saying Patrick Beverly and the Mavs would be a “perfect fit”. GM Donnie Nelson ended up engaging in a 3 team trade with the 76ers and Heat to try and get it done. The details that came out were the Mavs would take Kelly Olynik and Derrick Jones Jr from the Heat, allowing the Heat to acquire Jimmy Butler and Dallas would get Goran Dragic. Eventually the entire deal fail apart and we got no one. I guess the silver lining is Dallas avoided taking on a horrible contract ($12M for Olynik) and losing cap space. Then we had another swing and a miss when Danny Green turned down our offer and went to LA. In my opinion, Dallas was a better situation for Green than LA but he got paid and will compete for a championship.
When the FA market essentially dried up, the Mavs signed Seth Curry to a 4yr/$32M deal and 7’3 C Boban Marjanovic. But if we are being honest with ourselves both guys are not going to bring too much to the table. We did make a sign and trade with Memphis giving up two future second round picks to get 27 yr old Delon Wright. Wright is a good slasher, defender, can get to the rim, a great passer and will likely look to become the starting PG for the Mavs.
At the end of the day, we have two young studs in Luka and KP and managed not to overspend on players just for the sake on landing “a guy”. When the dust settles, I actually think Dallas did the right thing this offseason. We might be angry and question the front office why they don’t do certain things but it’s different now. We have two young stars, so it makes since not to be in a “win now” mode with Luka and KP only being 20 and 23yrs old.
The Mavs have a very bright future ahead so lets not kill the front office when we don’t make a huge FA splash. My guess is we end up a 7th or 8th seed which I would consider a job well done after missing the playoffs 4 out of the last 6 years.
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