Speaking to the media ahead of Wednesday’s game against Sacramento, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban touched on a number of topics.
Cuban said the team acquired guard Kyrie Irving at the February trade deadline with the goal of keeping him around “long term,” as veteran reporter Marc Stein relays (Twitter links). Cuban added he thought the Mavs had “a good shot” at retaining Irving, who will be an unrestricted free agent in the offseason.
When asked if he thought Irving was worth a maximum-salary contract, Cuban replied, “I’m not going to negotiate with you,” tweets ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. The longtime owner said re-signing Irving is the team’s top offseason priority, but was noncommittal on big man Christian Wood, another potential free agent.
“I’m not going to go through individual players,” Cuban said, per MacMahon (Twitter link).
Both of the Mavericks’ star guards — Luka Doncic and Irving — will be available for Wednesday’s game, the team announced (via Twitter).
Here’s more from Cuban’s media session:
- Cuban claims the Mavs “never had the opportunity” to give former guard Jalen Brunson a four-year, $56MM extension in January 2022, tweets Stein. Dallas’ owner went on to explain that Brunson’s camp was looking for a deal in the range of $18-23MM annually in early February 2022, but the Mavs could only offer him $14MM per year due to the limitations on veteran extensions, according to Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News (Twitter links). As ESPN’s Bobby Marks notes (via Twitter), the Mavs technically could have given him a deal in the $18-23MM range after the 2022 trade deadline, when Brunson was eligible to renegotiate his contract, but they would have had to clear $25MM+ in salaries in order to do so.
- As for last summer, when Brunson signed a four-year, $104MM contract with the Knicks, Cuban claims Brunson’s side never gave the Mavs a number he would accept, per Townsend (Twitter links). The Mavs had Brunson’s Bird rights, so they theoretically could have offered him more years and more money than a rival team. Cuban added that he had a strong relationship with Brunson and his agents, but “things went south” when Brunson’s father, Rick, took over the contract negotiations (Twitter link via MacMahon).
- It seems odd that Rick Brunson was ever in charge of negotiations, considering he was finalizing a deal to be an assistant coach with the Knicks on June 2, and free agents couldn’t sign until June 30. The elder Brunson previously worked under Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau in Minnesota, but resigned from the Wolves after allegations of improper conduct toward women, which he and his lawyer denied.
- Cuban’s tone regarding the Brunson situation was markedly different last summer, notes Fred Katz of The Athletic (via Twitter). Last July, a week after Jalen Brunson signed with the Knicks, Cuban said he had “no hard feelings” about Brunson leaving and that the guard had “earned the right to make a decision as a free agent” (link via Zach Braziller of The New York Post).
- According to Townsend (Twitter links), Cuban took responsibility for the Mavs’ poor season and for not recognizing they needed more help defensively, as the team has dropped from seventh to 23rd in defensive rating. “It’s absolutely my fault for not recognizing that,” he said. Cuban also said that the team plans to bring back head coach Jason Kidd next season.
- Cuban, who has owned the team since 2000, said he believes Doncic wants to spend his entire NBA career with the Mavs, “but we have to earn that” (Twitter link via MacMahon). Doncic has expressed frustration and disappointment with how the season has gone and recently said he missed Jalen Brunson “a lot.”
I support Mark to resign Irving and pay cut Wood
And
Lakers should find a way to acquire both Irving and Money Green
Something like
DLo and Vanderbilt for Irving
Beasley and Rui for Money Green
It turns out to be
Old Westbrook and Nunn for Irving and Money Green
Stop
Cuban is a tight fisted tech nerd who will never understand basketball. Evaluating his remarks: (1) says he won’t negotiate on Irving through the media, but if he was asked about Luka or Dirk back in the day, he would unequivocally state they are max players. Translation: he’s not offering Irving the max. (2) Not going through individual players. Translation: Wood is gone. (3) He is calling Jalen Brunson a liar, because that’s exactly what Brunson said he would have agreed to, if he was offered the same extension Finney-Smith was. Brunson has stated this numerous times to the media. (4) Kidd is a horrible coach who has given up. Of course, Cuban wants him back. Eye roll.
None of anything you listed has anything to do with understanding basketball. You basically spent 500 words criticizing his PR strategy lol. Maybe this isn’t the right website for you…
Maybe it is?
That’s because the PR strategy is dumb…
Pr strategy of what? A BASKETBALL team? Crazy. Almost like that’s all he can effect as an owner and not a player…
Pr strategy of a sports entertainment organization. Could be basketball or jai alai, wouldn’t change the comments.
Nice try, no cigar. Next.
Mark from Cuba showing how not to do NBA PR…
That kind of salty owner will only serve to keep players and their agents away…
#FreeLuka
“According to Townsend (Twitter links), Cuban took responsibility for the Mavs’ poor season and for not recognizing they needed more help defensively, as the team has dropped from seventh to 23rd in defensive rating. “It’s absolutely my fault for not recognizing that,” he said.”
Isn’t that what you have a GM for? Why even have one when it’s clear you intend to meddle as much as possible?
It’s especially comical since the Mavs traded away one of their key defensive pieces at the deadline, and you know Cuban was the one pushing for the Kyrie deal. Reap what you sow.
Brunson Sr seems beyond a snake, kind of an awful human being, but what can you do? There as many of those, right?
OKC, Chicago, Dallas all have the same record. They are all 38-42. And tied for the 10th pick in the draft. Dallas pick goes higher than 10. Knicks will get it. 2 gms left in season.
Thunder play Jazz and Grizz.
Bulls play Mavs and Pistons.
Mavs play Bulls and Spurs.
Mavs vs Bulls in Dallas …..
Oh and …….. I must
Thanks again Mark. I hope you really enjoy Kyrie. We just love Jalen ….. yes and Thank You Rick.
Cuban just accused Brunson’s father of a massive tampering violation… if he can prove he was negotiating his son’s contract while employed by the Knicks.. that’s grounds for him termination and the knicks to face massive penalties.
Don’t think keeping Kyrie is a smart move.
Obviously all the off court dramas etc but also he and Luka clearly didn’t work cause your now not in the playoffs. It was a move to go big or go home which didn’t work out but realistically if you wanted to make noise in the postseason they did need to do something so good on them for atleast trying.
Moving forward you have to try make a sign and trade and get something in return.
In which case even then your options are limited cause the player had all the power..
Here’s some suggestions..
1. Sign and trade Kyrie to Miami for Kyle Lowry on an expiring deal.
2. S&T Kyrie to the Clippers and try get back role players like Eric Gordon and Robert Covington.
3. S&T Kyrie for Tobias Harris
Outside of these offers I don’t see Kyrie wanting many other teams or those teams willing to offer much for him. It also puts you in a bad position if you just let him walk cause you still won’t have much cap space to spend in replacing him. For that reason I’d probably take the Sixers deal for Tobias. Although he’s overpaid and not as good as Kyrie he would fit as a solid 3rd option or something like that. He’s really efficient and can create for himself. He’d give you a good 20 or so and his deal would again be an expiring contract.
As for Wood, he also hasn’t worked out. It always seemed as if they never wanted to start him and use him as that sixth man and he wanted to be the starter and everyone knew he should’ve been getting more minutes. It’s going to be even harder trying to work out a sign and trade with him.
If you could I’d suggest Christian Wood and Jusif Nurkic.
That leaves you needing to add a guard and depth but something like
Luka Bullock Hardaway Jr Harris and Nurkic as your starting 5. Off the bench you have Hardy, Green, Kleber and McGee. You manage to get something like Goran Dragic, Jae Crowder and Paul Reed I think you’ve had a great offseason considering how you’ve entered it.
Nurkic is perfect as the starting 5, gets rebounds and works hard at both ends. Not a great player but solid and pretty reliable. Tobias and THJ are your secondary ball handlers and scorers playing off Luka, both good for 20 or so. Bullock there mainly for defence. Off the wood, Dragic finally comes over to lead the second unit, with Hardy or Green on the wing, Crowder is your sixth man, Kleber Reed Bertans and McGee all battle for minutes as the 4/5’s of the bench.