The Dallas Mavericks Remain As Delusional As Ever After Reportedly Wanting To Bring In Brad Stevens To Save Their Franchise

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When will people learn? If your basketball team stinks or is undergoing any sort of transformation or rebuild, Brad Stevens is not coming to save the day. We just went through this once March Madness rolled around, teams underachieved and then decided to fire their head coach. What happens next? People think Brad Stevens is going to walk through those doors and save the day.

Newsflash, he wasn't.

I bring this up only because it appears I now have to write this very same blog, only in an NBA edition

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Sorry, that was mean. You know, when you see reports like that and we get a look at how the brain of the Mavs owner works, the whole Luka trade starts to make a whole lot more sense. No shit Rob Pelinka pulled a fast one over this guy. He has no idea about anything! That's really the only explanation for how someone could actually agree with Nico Harrison's plan. You, a person who has a functioning brain, understand why you don't trade Luka for AD. But you can't think about it like that. We clearly have to operate with the knowledge that the man in charge of this franchise doesn't have the slightest clue as to what the hell is going on.

To think that Brad Stevens, who owns the most coveted job in not only the entire NBA, but arguably in all of sports, is going to leave the organization he's been with for 13 years, with the roster he built, while everyone is in their prime and led by his hand picked successor, who works for an owner that will give him a blank check? 

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For….the Dallas Mavericks?

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Sorry, Brad Stevens isn't coming to save your franchise, the same way he wasn't coming to UNC to save that program. I don't know who in Patrick Dumont's circle is telling him these things are possible, but I can assure you, they are not. When you see the full list you really do get a better understand of just how delusional of a person we're dealing with here.

Sam Presti? That's nearly as outrageous a name as Brad Stevens. Why the hell would Sam Presti leave the Thunder? Not only are they, ya know, the defending Champions with a great shot at repeating, he also has the MVP (who most likely will go back to back) a young core who is all signed long term, and a billion picks that he can leverage to adapt and improve his roster moving forward. He has the rare combination of high level talent, age, and draft capital all at his fingertips for the immediate future. Few teams are set up better than the Thunder, and he's giving all that up to start at the bottom?

Tim Connelly? Two things here. First, why would he get out of the Anthony Edwards business? Smart GMs attach themselves to great players, and given how good Ant is at his age, it's not a stretch that he's profiling as a top 5 guy. We haven't even hit Ant's NBA prime years yet, so imagine how good he is in 2-3 years. Second, with all signs pointing to the Wolves being realigned into the Eastern Conference, it also in theory should get easier for the Wolves to make deep runs. There's a big difference in dealing with Jokic in the first round, for example, compared to playing the 4-7 seeds in the East. He's going to leave both of those things to go back into the tougher conference with a worse team?

Koby Altman? On the surface even this feels like a bit of a stretch, but what did make me pause for a bit was the context around the Cavs current situation. They only have so many swings to actually make a deep run and get over the hump before things will eventually change. Their latest swing was the Harden trade, and that has an expiration date. Is it possible that Dan Gilbert overreacts if the Cavs once again don't get past the 2nd round? I still think it'd be unlikely that Altman leaves, but of everyone on this list, he's the only one that I could see hit the market if shit goes south this postseason. 

This all reminds me of when the Knicks fired their coach, clearly didn't have a replacement plan in place, and instead just tried to hire every big name coach they could think of

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The spinzone for any Mavs fan that may be reading this is that in the end, the Knicks hired Mike Brown, and he's going to have the Knicks in the 50+ win territory this season. It's mostly worked out (playoffs pending), so even though you may go 0-4 on the owner's wish list, that doesn't mean you can't find a competent GM who can rebuild your franchise back to where it was when Luka was around. You did the hard part and found another franchise building block in Cooper Flagg. There's a good chance the Mavs are about to add another great prospect in this year's draft to pair with Flagg. Once you lock in your duo, the sky is the limit. They hit on the first one, and if you hit on the second, you'll be surprised at how quickly things can change. Especially if you bring in someone who knows what they're doing and isn't a Nico Harrison 2.0 situation. Oh, but it can't be Mike Zarren either. He's off limits. Anyone else though, go nuts.

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I will say, it would make me a little uneasy as a Mavs fan when thinking about the future of this franchise knowing that this is how the people at the very top are thinking. Just nowhere close to planet earth, which doesn't exactly fill you with confidence that they'll be able to pull this rebuild off. Either this entire Mavs front office is filled with very unserious people, or nobody has the balls to tell this guy how it is and to be serious about turning this franchise around.