M.C. Swag said:
Vessel said:
"The Knicks deal was done and everyone knew that."
What else really has to be said after that? It's just wailing and gnashing of teeth over a lie Cuban told.
JB always wanted to have his own team and that team was always the Knicks with Rick there. It was probably done in '21, if not earlier. There wasn't anything we could do.
You're quoting Kirk (who is speculating)
It barely qualifies as speculation. Everybody semi-familiar with the situation knew that was the case and was either alluding to it or outright saying it at the time.
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and the rest of his post is agreeing precisely with my point.
There is no point other than wanting to be mad at the organization. He had an agreement with the Knicks and was leaving to be a Knick. There was nothing the Mavs could have done aside from trade Luka and offer the keys to JB. That's what he wanted.
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The Mavs failed to attempt a serious counter.
They didn't "fail" to counter. They chose to let a guy who did not want to be here go to a place he wanted to be. He did not want to be on the same team as Luka.
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Idk why you want to absolve the FO of this when it's so blatantly obvious they messed up the front end (allowing him to enter UFA) and back end (offering the max).
I'm not absolving, I'm choosing to remember what happened correctly after everything has been distorted for years now. People just see the inflammatory pictures of Luka/JB/KP with the caption "The Mavs fumbled this bag" and I'm not taking part in the ridiculous narratives people want to invent after the fact.
The Mavs offered JB a reasonable contract in the offseason of '21. By the time the 21-22 season started, he was all but gone. Even if he would have been an RFA, teams don't keep around players who don't want to be there. Maybe you S&T him for expirings and second round picks instead of letting him walk for nothing, but he was leaving either way.