Carlo4 said:

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DannyDuberstein said:

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Wood is emerging as help. Need Dinwiddie to be more consistent as a 2nd creator.

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Broken thumb for wood. Out a few weeks

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Not the "break" I was hoping we'd catch

Gettin back right.

Great to see Green back too! He makes a big impact in the games.

Eventually the injury report will read:
Luka: OUT (back, carrying team)

Iowaggie said:

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Luka Doncic's new, custom Hellfire Apocalypse 6x6 costs over $200,000.

The heavily-modified Jeep Gladiator has thermal and night vision cameras, a five-blast train horn, and a nitrous kit. pic.twitter.com/AHtJsUvuL1

— Front Office Sports (@FOS) January 24, 2023

Luka Doncic's 6-Wheeled Jeep😳: Mavs star pulled up to tonight's game in an 'Apocalypse 6x6'
pic.twitter.com/hjVFyRCILZ

— FootBasket™.com (@FootBasket) January 18, 2023

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I doubt Luka believes in owning guns, but if that were mine, I'd have a pistol holder and AR holder inside and a machine gun bolted to each door

Things are getting bleak. Defensively this team has absolutely collapsed. That is compounded by being the worst rebounding team in the league. Part of that is personnel related, they just don't have the quick twitch athletes to be great rebounders or defenders. Some of these role players are now 30+ and may just be aging out of usefulness. I hope they prove me wrong, but I've waited quite a while and just don't see anything turning around here.

It is sad too because when you have Luka playing at this level then you are one of a small handful of teams that have a title chance. So I'll still give the Mavs a 1% chance, but this current team is just not worth investing any future assets in. Sadly, the best course of action would be to tank and keep your top 10 picks and get a 10% chance of Wembayan/Scoot. Resign Wood then play out next season when all of your ****ty contracts start to expire or become tradeable. That will put you at a crossroads in June of 2024 next year. You would have all picks to trade, plus all swaps available. Plus a bunch of 2nd rounders. Plus a cleaner cap sheet (assuming you stop signing ****ty players like McGee). Plus younger players Green, Hardy, and a 2023 top-10 pick for either development or trade. Luka is still under contract going into that 2024 season and you are basically at the end of the line. Then you can fire all your bullets and see what happens. It's just such a pathetic mismanagement of the situation that it has come to this.

In happier news…

🌟 3X STARTER AND 4X ALL-STAR: @luka7doncic 🌟 @BEDGEAR // #NBAAllStar pic.twitter.com/LfCL2m1ncj

— Dallas Mavericks (@dallasmavs) January 27, 2023

Swing low, sweet chariot…

NoahAg said:

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Eventually the injury report will read:
Luka: OUT (back, carrying team)

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Ankle gave out before the back

53 points
Yawn

With nobody else on the team scoring more than 12

Get Luka the help he deserves. As many have said this is a lottery team without a doubt if Luka is somewhere else

does anyone else think a simple tweak would help here? I get the fact that Luka needs rest and maybe that's part of why he waits in place just beyond mid-court calling for the ball in Harden Rockets-days fashion, but can we really not get him moving off the ball and run the offense through Spencer for portions of a game? It puts us in a 4 on 5 situation so often and conditions the rest of the guys to sit back and wait for Luka to make a move every time down the court. I love Luka almost as much as Dirk at this point, but it's so painful to watch our entire existence hinge on his ball control.

This would assume he's even open to it, which he may not be. I just don't know how coachable he is in that locker room.

Curious to hear others' thoughts there....

Cuban is going to epicly eff this up and we're going to see a top 10 all time talent walk out in a couple years because we won't BLOW it up and get some help...

Dinwiddy, bullock, bertans, dwight powell, dodo, THJ, kleber... these are all just random dudes in the NBA.

Only players I think worth building/keeping around at the moment are Christian Wood, Josh Green, and Dodo. That's it.

I'm not so sure our slovenian prodigy wants to be in Dallas just to be in Dallas, like Dirk.

He'd look really effin good in a Lakers, Celtics, Bulls, or Knicks uniform.

What are they supposed to do? What are the realistic trade options available?

Cuban shot his whole wad to get KP. And it didn't work. I'm not sure what else he can do outside of free agency, which has never been great for us.

seems crazy but frankly... you go to Luka and say... we're kind of stuck. We know you alone can get us to the playoffs and maybe win a series or 2 but we don't have the roster to win one it all. you know that, we know that.

You've got lots of miles and tread left but let's not overwork you... We'll keep you on a supermax, rest assured, but let's manage your minutes and keep you healthy and then tank as hard as we absolutely can and get rid of this **** roster.

Luka is only 23... if we want a real window, we've got to suck ass for 2 years and rebuild this with some top first round picks and then have REAL space in the cap (i.e., another max player).

I get the notion of.. "let's build a roster of all 8-15mm/year type players" you get average paid players and average results.

It's become evident that the way to win is having TWO super stars. You must have 2, at least. No one else on our roster is even close to that level.

Then you can fill out the rest with the draft and other FAs. Donnie Nelson and Carlisle screwed this organization for a decade by not drafting and developing any talent at all. There are great 2nd round pick players out there...

How many drafted players for us other than Dirk and Luka have ever really panned out to do anything other than be average? I can't think of anyone specific in the last 20+ years.

The thing that's baffling to me is I'd think players would be chomping at the bit to come and play with Luka. He's a great scorer but he's also easily a top 3 passer in the league and always tries to get his teammates involved. It feels like we should clean up in free agency

jtstanley4621 said:

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The thing that's baffling to me is I'd think players would be chomping at the bit to come and play with Luka. He's a great scorer but he's also easily a top 3 passer in the league and always tries to get his teammates involved. It feels like we should clean up in free agency

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I agree. I wonder if there is something off putting about Cuban and the front office staff? I could see a ball-first guard being a tough sell, but off-guards and forwards should be knocking each other to play with Luka.

jtstanley4621 said:

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The thing that's baffling to me is I'd think players would be chomping at the bit to come and play with Luka. He's a great scorer but he's also easily a top 3 passer in the league and always tries to get his teammates involved. It feels like we should clean up in free agency

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Completely disagree here. Having good assists numbers doesn't mean that you get others involved and are unselfish. Luka pounds the rock and doesn't get other people involved unless he passes to them for an assist after he sets up a drive. His teammates basically have to be spot up jump shooters for the most part bc he's going to control the ball at all times.

I'm not saying I necessarily blame Luka because he doesn't have a ton to work with. But this is not the type of player other stars want to play with. Other stars want to be able to control the ball and create on their own. They may be willing to share those duties with another player but no stars are going to be willing to spot up all game long while Luka dominates the rock.

Again, not blaming Luka necessarily. But his coaches or front office have to get him to realize that he's going to have to give up some ball control if he wants other stars to join him. He's basically like harden was a few years ago, and we all talked **** about garden's style of play back then when he just pounded the rock all game long (even though he was putting up great stats).

everyone outside of luka and spencer should be on the block.

dinwiddie is a great sixth man.

everyone else is up for trade.

ChoppinDs40 said:

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How many drafted players for us other than Dirk and Luka have ever really panned out to do anything other than be average? I can't think of anyone specific in the last 20+ years.

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Josh Howard. Above average late 1st round pick. One all star selection.
Brunson. I'd say he's an above average player for a 2nd round pick.
Finney-Smith. Turning an undrafted player into an important starter and defensive specialist 3-pt shooter.
Barea. Above average for an undrafted, undersized guy. Key role player on the championship team.

But yeah, overall they've drafted a bunch of duds.

Howard was ok for about 3 seasons. Then his dumbass fizzled out, big time.

We got what… 1 full hood season from Brunson and then chose NOT to resign him fir the same deal we gave Dodo? Brunson said before our run last season to give me that and he's good. Another front office **** up.

DFS - he's average.

Barrea? Lol outside of 1-2 games in the playoffs on our magical 2011 run, below average.

That's pretty much it.

And all of our FA moves have been dog **** going back to Chandler Parsons.

Yeah, abysmal drafting and pretty lousy at the FA game. Gonna have to get creative to get meaningful help. Mixed bag so far with the new front office. Some ****ups but I did like the Wood move.

We have a lot of players that would be good 4-8 players, but none of them are really good enough to be a 2nd or 3rd best player you rely on.
Its unfortunate

Kyrie is available.

Please yes

Risk/reward. What would it take to get him? He's making $36 mill while Dinwiddie is half that. So not sure what else would need to go in with Dinwiddie.

GO FOR IT.

New York sucks... he'd be just fine here with JKidd and Luka. The offense would be absolutely insane...

I was 100% joking buuuuut
hes a UFA at the end of the season right? So Brooklyn just wants/needs to get something in return. Otherwise they'll get nothing but a disgruntled employee for the rest of the season?
For those who know contract stuff (I don't) does the money need to be even? I.e., $36MM for $36MM?

For the record I say he ends up a Laker.