A lot of NBA teams have decided over the years to just rebuild in order to try to compete down the line. The Philadelphia 76ers were the masterminds of rebuilding after they traded all their talent and left nothing on the team but minor players in order to get high draft picks in multiple seasons. That resulted in three high lottery picks in four years and they look ready to compete this upcoming season. The Dallas Mavericks will not be one of those teams.
Mark Cuban on rebuilding
mark cuban joined the broadcast booth when his Dallas Mavericks played the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors on Sunday night.
His team beat the Warriors, 88-77, which was not an upset at all since the Warriors do not play any of the All-Stars from their super team in the NBA summer league.
When asked about his team, Mark Cuban joked that people thought the Dallas Mavericks should be rebuilding. Cuban did joke that it does look like his Mavericks need to rebuild. He joked that, if they played in the Eastern Conference, they wouldn't even need to talk about rebuilding and that he was thinking of kidnapping NBA commissioner Adam Silver and demanding a move to the East before releasing him.
However, Mark Cuban then said that the Golden State Warriors have forced a lot of teams to make decisions like this and the deal is sealed.
The Dallas Mavericks finished the 2016-17 NBA season with a record of 33-49, the worst since Cuban bought the team in 1999-2000.
The state of the Mavericks
Mark Cuban said he has something else in mind instead of rebuilding the Dallas Mavericks. He drafted point guard Dennis Smith Jr. in the 2017 NBA Draft and head coach Rick Carlisle said Smith will be the starter this upcoming season.
With that in mind, Cuban said he has two things in mind for Dallas right now.
First, Cuban said that he wants to bring in players that can become the nucleus for the Mavericks once Dirk Nowitzki finally retires. That sounds like rebuilding but Mark said that he also wants these players to be able to compete at a high level now - so that Nowitzki can continue to play deep into the playoffs during his final seasons in the NBA.
Most teams rebuild by losing a lot of games so that they can acquire high draft picks. Mark Cuban has no intention of continuing to lose and wants his Dallas Mavericks in the playoffs, even if that means no lottery picks in upcoming drafts. At the moment, Dallas sees Harrison Barnes (23), Nerlens Noel (23) and Dennis Smith Jr. (19) as the future of the organization.
