Nico Harrison was right.

[Sonic Boom of the South]

The Mavs hot garbage now and possibly coulda pulled some moves to win a ring with Luka.

 

[GoldenGlove]

Conditioning and defense isn't the only issue with Luka. His immaturity with officiating is another thing the organization and his teammates were done with.

Add in that he's hurt and was out of shape while on the cusp of signing that Supermax, they were like, we straight.

You can't defend his antics with the refs. How many times does he ignore getting back on defense because he's arguing about the last play?

I think this is what people are missing. In order to win a title with Luka, you have to have great rim protection and multiple All-Defense wings to support him on that side of the ball. He can carry an offense and against some teams get away with being a turn style on defense... but Boston put the gameplan and blueprint on tape on how to beat him.

Attack him relentlessly and he'll give up baskets, and then he'll fold mentally crashing out on the officials for not getting calls.

Typically... the star player contributes to that tho. That's the difference.

Your best player is either a great 2 way player, or they play great team defense within the scheme and aren't completely exposed/destroyed and embarrassed like we saw happen to Luka.

Steph Curry isn't necessarily seen as a great defensive player, but he's not a complete liability on defense either. He's also not walking up the floor in the Finals because he didn't get a foul call. Jokic isn't dominating as a rim protector, but he's not blowing coverages or just not playing defense because of being a lazy fukk.

You need complete buy-in from everyone, on both sides of the ball. As good as Luka is, he picks and chooses when to try on defense. It's no different than when we watched prime Harden in HOU.

Posts from when the trade happened. I got the idea for the trade... outside of ownership not wanting to pay him. Just from a basketball perspective, I got it. As good as Luka is offensively, he can be a complete liability on defense which compromises your entire defense.

Which goes into the point that the team you build around him needs to have a lot of players that are fine covering for him literally every possession.

Out of all the super-star talents in the NBA, Luka is probably the hardest to build around to win a championship with.

 

[UpAndComing]

Nico constructed the perfect roster for Luka last year with all the bigs and defenders that covered up for his lazy defense but also were good at lobs/finish around the rim that Luka was able to create.

Then tore that shyt down, took the Lakers best big/defender that the Mavs didn't even need, and shipped Luka to a roster that is the worst roster for his skillset. Nico essentially torpedoed two teams with the trade

Guy is playing 9D chess.

Absolute facts. Got me wondering, is Nico Harrison a Celtics fan?

 

[A Tribe Called Quest ™]

he just got to the finals last year at 25 foh

Did he win?

 

[Goat poster]

Posts from when the trade happened. I got the idea for the trade... outside of ownership not wanting to pay him. Just from a basketball perspective, I got it. As good as Luka is offensively, he can be a complete liability on defense which compromises your entire defense.

Which goes into the point that the team you build around him needs to have a lot of players that are fine covering for him literally every possession.

Out of all the super-star talents in the NBA, Luka is probably the hardest to build around to win a championship with.

Agreed

It's wild that Luka doesn't seem to care about any of this.

 

[The Wall Brother]

 

[ALonelyDad]

He’s done miracles on meeee

 

[MikelArteta]

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

Nico was always right. Luka has dunked the ball 2 times in 3 years. And he’s only 26. His defense has gotten even worse. There’s no way in hell you pay some regressing that quickly $375 million a year.

His ceiling was reached when he had a true alpha scorer to carry him when it matters (Kyrie) because he will never be in shape.

He only played 3 months of basketball this year and he looked like Larry Bird on his way out of the league last night

“Luka isn’t in shape and gets fatter every year because he plays too much basketball” @Gil Scott-Heroin

The regression can be seen in real time. Last year he was getting by Rudy and scoring on him much easier. This year he had to rely on fadeaways and long bombs. Nico was right

THE WOAT STRIKES AGAIN.

 

[IsThatBrothaMouzone?]

Real question is....why didn't the Mavs get THIS version of Luka?

He had been slacking off, eating like shyt, drinking beer but NOW he's lean & mean.

NBA made that trade happen because "Luka's Lakers" is good for the bottom line (and don't ever think otherwise - Silver masterminded that shyt)....

but again, all the Mavs fans, especially the whites are so butthurt over this shyt. Refuse to blame ownership, they think the 2006 Finals were rigged yet somehow believe Nico did all this solo because they need to believe a Black man in a front office (non athlete) position is 100% incompetent and the only thing Nigras are good for is dribbling a ball.

And Luka....Dirk dealt with some shyt but he plugged along and was always a professional. Luka let himself get fat because he didn't feel like he needed to be his best here. He saved it for Los Angeles. It's crazy to me that Dallas fans still suck his dikk and haven't given that aspect any thought.

 

[GilSho]

Trade a Top 3 player and generational talent in his prime (months after making the NBA finals) for pennies brehs. Hands down the most lopsided trade in NBA history.

 

[42 Monks]

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

Real question is....why didn't the Mavs get THIS version of Luka?

He had been slacking off, eating like shyt, drinking beer but NOW he's lean & mean.

NBA made that trade happen because "Luka's Lakers" is good for the bottom line (and don't ever think otherwise - Silver masterminded that shyt)....

but again, all the Mavs fans, especially the whites are so butthurt over this shyt. Refuse to blame ownership, they think the 2006 Finals were rigged yet somehow believe Nico did all this solo because they need to believe a Black man in a front office (non athlete) position is 100% incompetent and the only thing Nigras are good for is dribbling a ball.

And Luka....Dirk dealt with some shyt but he plugged along and was always a professional. Luka let himself get fat because he didn't feel like he needed to be his best here. He saved it for Los Angeles. It's crazy to me that Dallas fans still suck his dikk and haven't given that aspect any thought.

They did get this version of him.

Did you forget all the historically great performances he had?

Whenever he wasn’t at his best, it was typically because he was playing through injuries and/or being run into the ground playing too many minutes with a heavy workload.

Why are we still stuck on this shyt about Nico when he already admitted he was the one behind the decision? He was the same dude who set the wheels in motion before the new owners even took over; he was the same dude who admitted he didn’t know how much Mavs fans loved Luka and was surprised at the backlash.

I don’t know why folks are still caping for someone who isn’t good at his job.

 

[Harry B]

Real question is....why didn't the Mavs get THIS version of Luka?

He had been slacking off, eating like shyt, drinking beer but NOW he's lean & mean.

NBA made that trade happen because "Luka's Lakers" is good for the bottom line (and don't ever think otherwise - Silver masterminded that shyt)....

but again, all the Mavs fans, especially the whites are so butthurt over this shyt. Refuse to blame ownership, they think the 2006 Finals were rigged yet somehow believe Nico did all this solo because they need to believe a Black man in a front office (non athlete) position is 100% incompetent and the only thing Nigras are good for is dribbling a ball.

And Luka....Dirk dealt with some shyt but he plugged along and was always a professional. Luka let himself get fat because he didn't feel like he needed to be his best here. He saved it for Los Angeles. It's crazy to me that Dallas fans still suck his dikk and haven't given that aspect any thought.

You mean the dude that took the team to the finals? That dropped 73 points? That averaged 34-10-9?

 

[cartierhoe]

It’s mind boggling how people act like this dude didn’t just take this team to the Finals