Rebuild Would Be No Guarantee of Success for Mavs

 

When it looked like franchise legend Dirk Nowitzki could potentially leave in free agency earlier this month, many Mavs fans were calling for the cliche “rebuild” of the Dallas Mavericks.

 

Let Dirk go.  Purposely be terrible for a few years in order to obtain high draft picks so that the Mavs could have their next franchise player.  That’s all it takes.  That’s how the Warriors and Cavs got where they are, so why should we try to build our roster through free agency?  The right way to do it is right there and so easy.

 

Tap the brakes, MFFL’s.  It’s not that easy.  In fact, it’s really hard.  There are several franchises who will tell you rebuilding through the draft isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.  Let’s look at some particular cases.

 

Philadelphia 76ers
We all know how much it stinks to be a 76ers fan, front office member and especially player right now.  They’re the joke of professional sports and it’s all on purpose so that they can stockpile high draft picks.

 

After the Sixers made the playoffs in 2012, they tore it down and began putting their plan to action with a 19-63 record during the 2012-2013 campaign.  Sounds pretty bad, right?  Surely they had a high pick in the 2013 draft and have been trending in the right direction since, right?  You’re making me laugh.

 

Philadelphia backtracked to 15-67 in 2015.  Again?  Okay, it was certain that drafting a star like Jahlil Okafor in the 2015 draft would get the team back on the right track.  Stop making jokes.

 

After 31 games last season, the “mediocre” Mavericks were 18-13.  What record did the Sixers have almost halfway through year three of their rebuild?  One win and thirty losses.  I’ll say that again: One win and thirty losses.  I’ll rephrase it for those in the back: There was a time last season where the Philadelphia 76ers were 1-30.  You ready to sign up for a rebuild?

 

They finally got the number one pick in the draft lottery only to have it be one of the weaker draft classes in recent memory with the sure-fire number one pick Ben Simmons having had his game picked apart all year on a lowly LSU team.  We’ll see if year four yields any better results.

 

 

Phoenix Suns
The Phoenix Suns of the mid-2000’s are probably one of three or four best “cores” to never win a championship.  Steve Nash leading the “seven seconds or less” crew with potential Hall of Famers like Shawn Marion and Amar’e Stoudemire.  Great role players like Boris Diaw and Leandro Barbosa.  If it weren’t for an injury to Stoudemire here or there, or suspensions marring their 2007 playoff series with the Spurs, this writer thinks Steve Nash could have two rings by this point and we never would have had to deal with the “Dwightmare” ending to his career in L.A.

 

They hung on too long, after making it back to the Western Conference Finals back in 2010 for one last hurrah, and haven’t made the playoffs since.  They came close back in 2014, finishing 48-34 and just a game back of the Mavs for the 8th seed, but have gone back to the bottom the cellar the last couple seasons.  That includes their stinker 2015-2016 campaign with a 23-59 mark.  They signed Tyson Chandler to a huge 4 year, $50 million deal and were rumored to be really close to landing Lamarcus Aldridge before he landed with the Spurs.

 

Now they’re built around two second-tier point guards in Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight.  Chandler’s contract isn’t that bad after all the enormous deals this summer, but it still won’t be easy to move.  Where are they going?  I wouldn’t rush to trade the Mavs’ future for theirs.

 

Minnesota Timberwolves
Remember when it would be awesome to see Dirk square off against Kevin Garnett, Wally Sczerbiak and the rest of the T-Wolves?  I remember my Mavs game was against the Timberwolves and the band Smash Mouth had a free postgame concert.  There’s a fun fact for you.  Free of charge.

 

Anyway, the Timberwolves made the Western Conference Finals in 2004 and then missed the next three seasons. In the summer of 2007, they made the decision to start over by dealing Garnett to the Boston Celtics for Al Jefferson, a first round draft pick, and a bunch of players that would have ratings in the 60’s in NBA 2K.  They’ve never made the playoffs since.

 

Twelve years without a playoff appearance.  Mavs fans are bummed out about five years without winning a playoff series.  Don’t be selfish, MFFL’s.

 

Minnesota has won more than 31 games in a season in the nine years since the Garnett deal and has constantly had opportunities to find key franchise players with high draft picks.

 

Notable swing and misses include:
Point guards Ricky Rubio and Johnny Flynn with the 5th and 6th picks in the 2009 draft.
Wesley Johnson with the 4th overall pick in 2010.
Derrick Williams 2nd overall in the 2011 draft.

 

That’s the kind of drafting that gets two GM’s fired.  The one who made the picks and the one after that because they struggled so badly to clean up your mess.

 

Sure, they’ve possibly found a potential MVP in Karl Anthony Towns and a tremendous wing in Andrew Wiggins in the last couple years, but it took them close to a decade just to get there!  And they still only won 29 games last year.

 

The point is, Mavs fans: having high draft picks doesn’t guarantee you anything.  And even if you do a hit big on a star prospect, there are still going to be growing pains just like if you completely blew the pick.

 

There’s one thing all three of these rebuilding situations have in common: They didn’t have Dirk Nowitzki on their team when they decided to tear it all down.

 

You don’t start all over when you have an all-time great player still putting up borderline All Star numbers each season.  Plus, the Mavs have made the playoffs in fifteen of the last sixteen seasons.  The only year they didn’t, the 2012-2013 campaign, was when Nowitzki missed the first 27 games of the season due to a preseason knee surgery. 

 

Maybe Donnie Nelson and Mark Cuban are going about things the wrong way in putting all their eggs in the free agency basket each summer, but they’re certainly not wrong to keep trying.

 

What would you really prefer, Mavs fans?  The mere chance of drafting a future in the crapshoot that can be the NBA Draft while our team comes out each night to a half empty American Airlines Center?  Or making the playoffs each season and giving the fanbase glimpses of contention-potential each year and still getting to enjoy the greatness of Dirk Nowitzki.  Give me the latter.

 

Dallas certainly has a few major long-term spots that need to be solved (point guard, center, power forward after Dirk) but they’ve put together a team that will realistically compete for a playoff spot and perhaps more if a few things fall in their favor.  In such a “what have you done for me lately?” society where so many people only give their attention to the coolest and most happening trends, that’s definitely the way to go.