When Dallas Mavericks GM Nico Harrison took over for Donnie Nelson two years ago, owner Mark Cuban faced many questions about how much control he'd be willing to relinquish. Although Harrison has his fingerprints on a handful of transactions in his first two years, though, Cuban still has the final say over anything the team does.
On a recent episode of the Mavs Film Room podcast, Bleacher Report's Eric Pincus, who is considered to be a front office guru and NBA salary cap expert, gave his thoughts on what Cuban and company need to do going forward in order to make sure they're making better personnel decisions.
“[The Mavs] don't have an [extended front office],” Pincus said before giving a contrasting example. “The Clippers, they're overkill and they're not necessarily the model that every team can follow, but they have a massive front office with a ton of people.
“There's no salary cap on a front office. [Steve] Ballmer’s the richest guy owning a team. Cuban's not first, but he's up there. He's among the wealthiest guys owning a team. He can afford that. The team can afford that, and they haven't really put that kind of money into their infrastructure. It's grown and it's bigger than it was, but … I've worked in other places and there's just more people to argue with, and that's a healthy thing. You want to have enough smart people that can collaborate in a positive, combative environment."
Coincidentally, just a few hours after this podcast was published, NBA reporter Marc Stein dropped the news on Monday that Dallas is in "advanced discussions" to hire former Utah Jazz executive Dennis Lindsey. Lindsey played a big part in building those Jazz teams led by Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert over the last handful of years.
“Just having someone [else] to collaborate with opens up doors," Pincus said. "It doesn't matter how smart you are or intelligent you are, it's two smart people should be capable of more if they can work together. And the Mavs are certainly capable of building out a front office that maybe isn't as big as the Clippers, but has a little bit more. You know, [more] support for Nico so that he can make the decisions, and [more] support for Mark so he can make the decisions."
Hiring Lindsey could end up being a good thing for the Mavs if Cuban truly values his suggestions and give them legitimate consideration. If not, though, Mavs fans don't have many reasons to expect different results this summer in the biggest offseason the franchise has faced in some time.
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