After losing two straight games to the LA Clippers in a back-to-back series over the weekend, the Dallas Mavericks don't play again till Luka Doncic's homecoming on Wednesday. Even though all signs were pointing toward Dallas easily securing the ninth seed given their strength of schedule getting easier down the stretch compared to the Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns, the Kings have won three straight games and now hold a full-game lead over the Mavericks for the ninth seed with just three games remaining in Dallas' season.
This is an unfortunate turn of events for a Dallas team that is hoping to secure home-court advantage in a potential 9-10 play-in contest, though Dallas' season has seemingly spiraled out of control ever since the Doncic trade, as there's been a domino effect of one unfortunate event to the next for Dallas ever since February 1.
At this point in the process, most Mavericks fans are tired of hearing the organization's reasoning for making the Doncic trade, but ex-owner/governor Mark Cuban has been making sure fans understand that he had no involvement with the trade, whether fans care about his anecdote or not. Cuban first stated to WFAA in early March that he no longer had any involvement in Dallas' basketball operations, and in a Facebook feud with an ex-Mavs employee recently, Cuban also confirmed that he expected to run the team still until the NBA wouldn't let him put that stipulation in the sale negotiations contract.
Cuban maintaining basketball operations would've prevented trade
That was somewhat of a fallacy on Cuban's behalf, though, as the minority stake he now owns in the Mavericks upon selling the team doesn't hold enough stake to contractually maintain basketball operations of the team. Cuban essentially had a verbal agreement with the Adelsons and Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont that he would still maintain control of basketball operations for at least a little while, though that obviously didn't follow through.
"I thought [the Adelsons] would stick to their word because they didn’t know the first thing about running a team. Someone obviously changed their mind."Mark Cuban to WFAA on March 27
If Dumont and whoever else is calling shots at the top of the organization were still letting Cuban run basketball operations, it's without a doubt that Dallas would've never traded Doncic, as Nico Harrison likely wouldn't have even attempted to come to Cuban with such an absurd request. Harrison was only able to push forth the Doncic trade because of Dumont's lack of understanding about the NBA, as well as the fact that Harrison had gained Dumont's trust through the moves he made the previous year, helping get Dallas to the NBA Finals.
Harrison's power grab and Dumont's unprecedented decision to deny Cuban's control of basketball operations despite not knowing much about how the NBA works are the two biggest factors for why this catastrophe occurred and why thousands of Mavericks fans have abandoned their fandom. However, even though Cuban vouches he should share no blame in the Doncic trade happening, he was the one to sell the team to the Adelson's who then appointed Dumont as head governor.
Whatever one's differences may be in regard to Cuban's ownership tenure in Dallas, Cuban had a general understanding of how the NBA worked and the loyalty that a loyal superstar like Doncic should've warranted from the Mavericks. He would've never traded Doncic for a package as feeble as the one Dallas got if he did trade the Slovenian superstar at any point in his career, and he only would've traded Doncic if his weight management and discipline issues got to be far more of a problem then they've been at this point in his career.
Again though, Cuban could've had better foresight in determining an ownership group that isn't just good for business, but would've also had a decent understanding of how to run an NBA team as well as the implications of trading a 25-year-old superstar for a less-than-ideal trade package. At this point, though, every single tidbit coming out about the Doncic trade continues to be a subtle jab at Mavericks fans, and it doesn't seem like this terrible reality will be coming to an end anytime soon.
