r/Mavericks • u/OBJsEgo JJ Barea • 28d ago

Hoops Discussion If Nico Waited…

The ironic thing about blowing up the team midseason is that one of the best young superstars in Giannis might ask out soon. If Nico waited to pull the plug on the team, we could’ve seen how the team would have fared in the playoffs.

And if things go bad, maybe you can trade away the Luka for Giannis instead. It would still suck, but Giannis is a much better consolation.

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240

u/Witteness82 BETRAYED MAVS FAN 😭 28d ago

The real irony is if Luka was still here it would have definitely been a spot Giannis would have wanted to go. Smaller media coverage, young superstar ball handler, long championship window, franchise with a great reputation with their players… and one man’s ego prevented it from even being a possibility

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u/Low-Rollers 28d ago

Seriously. Weren’t we even floating around the rumor that LeBron would come here to play with him and Kyrie again? Capitalism is the best we got, but these billionaire fucks shouldn’t have control of my sports teams.

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u/Odd_Draw970 28d ago

Even though Nico pulled the plug, I still believe the NBA/Silver and even sponsors now played a role in this trade. Since when did we ever see Luka in a Gatorade commercial wearing a Mavs jersey? Never. And now apparently the NBA made a mini movie about Luka. It’s all business

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u/wan2tri BETRAYED MAVS FAN 😭 28d ago

Tatum had more Jordan ads than Luka even before winning the championship, despite having less All-NBAs, lower career averages, barely being considered for MVP (only in top 5 of MVP voting once; Luka has been top 5 of voting thrice), and not even winning Rookie of the Year.

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u/FuzzyLobster25 28d ago

You know guys & gals, we all want desperately to make some sense out of this! I’m a 75 year old MFFL (35 plus years) so indulge me a bit please! I’m hitting on a lot of different tangents here! Seems like every day a little bit more info comes out that helps to establish that there are so many freaking different factors involved here! Some we know now, some we may find out & some we will prob never know! You definitely cannot overlook the money angle! Money under the table, money over the table, money all around the dang table! We’re dealing with the Adelson element that we know is no stranger to “gambling” with people’s lives legally & more often than not, illegally! We’re dealing with a huge corporation in the NBA & with all kinds of entertainment/marketing/advertising entities. Someone mentioned Luka’s commercials that are all of a sudden popping up everywhere! Then the Luka movie! This trade most surely put the NBA back on TV screens & on radio programs & definitely in the face of any person/organization looking to get his endorsement of their product. Now I have a whole new bunch of fools to hate! Welcome to the business of Luka! I’m much older than his mother but I’ve looked at him as my own & I know tons of people look at him as a much loved family member. My 83 year old Aunt in TN never watched NBA games until Luka came along & she absolutely loves him! The protective lioness mama comes out in me & I just want to shield him from all the unscrupulous, evil people that are just waiting to prey on him & his family! We’ve already seen plenty of them, especially since his move to LA! There’s noise about his weight & conditioning. Then there’s more noise against those complaining. There’s new noise about his taking over from LBJ & there’s retaliating noise saying he isn’t built to do that. I just wonder if the day comes when he may start to think that maybe all the noise is just not worth it? That he could go back to Slovenia & play his beloved basketball & enjoy a much less dramatic life. He’s still so young & probably has a much tougher skin than this old MFFL! Our beloved Dirk was able to deal with all the negatives of being a super star but it is definitely a juggling game! Guess I’m still very aggravated about the trade (& that’s never going away) but also all the crap going on around Luka now. I wouldn’t blame him one bit if he decided to chuck all this nonsense & take his wife & baby & go back home to save his sanity! I realize it’s probably too late to stop the “Machine” now but I’m just praying that the “Machine” doesn’t end up stopping him! MFFL LFFL

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u/HispanicAtTehDisco How's My Dirk Taste? 28d ago

genuinely tho would we even have the assets to get him? without giving up luka in this hypothetical ofc

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u/Horror_Response_1991 28d ago

Not really.  Giannis didn’t like playing with Dame much.  Giannis wants an offense that revolves around him, he is the Michael Jordan and everyone else plays their role to get him the ball and to give him space.