Getty Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks.
Throughout his tenure as the Dallas Mavericks’ owner, Mark Cuban has always said things to cause a stir through the media. As of two years ago, Cuban has racked up over three million in fines from the NBA in his over two decades as the owner of the Mavs.
The publicly known fine total for Cuban’s 20 years and two months of Mavericks ownership is $3,115,000 … but not all NBA fines are announced by the league
His most egregious fine came on February 21, 2018, when he was on a podcast with Julius Erving and talked about suggesting to his team that losing was their best option. The league bought the hammer down and fined Cuban $600,000 for “public statements detrimental to the NBA” as commissioner Adam Silver put it.
Regardless, it turned out for the best that season. The Mavs finished 24-58 and managed to use their fifth overall pick to trade for Luka Doncic, who was selected third.
These days, Cuban can still say things that hurt his pocketbook, but they don’t come as often. He no longer confronts game officials to argue calls as much as he once did.
He recently talked to Dalton Trigg of Sports Illustrated about the review of the team’s offseason, and what to expect for next season.
When asked about the concern for the Mavs to generate offense with the departure of Jalen Brunson, Cuban defended several existing players on the roster and said they had enough firepower for next season.
“People forget we have Frank (Ntilikina), who will be better this year. We went into last season with Luka, JB, and Frank and turned our season around more than a month before the trade deadline.”
Expecting Ntilikina to be that point guard to generate production offensively is laughable. While Ntilikina is an outstanding on-ball defender, anyone who watches basketball can see that the guard from France is subpar when it comes to his offense. Over five seasons in the NBA, his field goal percentage sits at 37.1%.
Cuban Expects Big Things from New Big Man Acquisition
Aside from Ntilikina, Cuban pointed out that the trade for Christian Wood should pay dividends especially when it comes to the offensive end.
“He has been incredible in workouts. We are really, really excited to see what he can do … I think his shot creation and shooting are far better than people realize. He will be really good defensively in our system because he is long and mobile. He will be great.”
Fans are anxiously waiting to see how the Wood and Doncic pairing will go. Some are going into the year with cautious optimism, especially seeing how Kristaps Porzingis and Doncic did not quite live up to the expectations that many people thought they could have.
On paper Wood’s skillset of finishing around the rim and the ability to space the floor to allow Doncic to work is ideal, but Wood has shown poor body language, especially when he was not getting the ball in Houston.
Great cleanup here by Jae’Sean Tate, but that body language from Christian Wood at the start of the play is.. something.
Cuban Says Unlikely for Anymore Offseason Moves
In an August 20 radio interview with the Norm & D Invasion, Cuban was honest when it came to the team making any more roster changes heading into training camp.
“Unlikely unless something somebody gets cut somewhere that really surprises us? I mean, we want that flexibility throughout the season. You know, I know how fans feel about it. It’s always like, you know, we got to win the summer we’ve got to do this and we got to do that.”
Cuban stresses how important it is to be able to make tweaks to the roster during the season. Sometimes, teams need to see how they look on the court first, before the front office can go out and make moves that make sense.
An example could be last season when the writing was on the wall for Porzingis, and the Mavs adeptly swapped him for Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans. Dinwiddie proved to be a huge factor during the Mavs’ deep playoff run.