00:00A lot to react to a big sports weekend, but the Mavs did replace Niko.
00:06They hired former Raptors GM and VP Masai Ujiri this afternoon.
00:12The press conference will give you takeaways from that.
00:16But basically, you had a six-month process to find a replacement after firing Niko in November.
00:22And they selected the guy who's going to lead them into their next era of the franchise
00:27and try to build a contender around Cooper Flag.
00:31Ujiri with championship experience.
00:33That was the 2019 Raptors that he built.
00:36The trades for DeMar DeRozan as well as Kawhi Leonard, which ultimately catapulted that team to the title.
00:45So, I mean, this is a good day for the Mavs, isn't it?
00:47Good day for Mavs and the fans for believing?
00:49Yes, absolutely it is.
00:50I mean, the fact that it's not Niko Harrison is the first thing.
00:54And then having a guy with the type of resume as Ujiri and the type of respect that he has
01:01around the league
01:02and a guy that has done it in a small market, right?
01:06Like, he's had to do it in Toronto where you're not just getting – you're not a free agent destination.
01:11Like, you've got to draft well.
01:13And then you've got to capitalize when there's a trade opportunity for you.
01:16He was able to do that with Kawhi Leonard.
01:18But I think drafting extremely well is something that he is definitely going to have to do,
01:24especially in this day and age with how restrictive the cap and things like that are.
01:28Like, you've got to be able to draft extremely well.
01:30He's got a proven track record of doing that.
01:32And so I do think this is a pretty solid hire, for sure.
01:37And doing it in multiple places, to your point, what you said about the Denver Nuggets.
01:41You know, he's had success.
01:42And, yeah, I really thought that it was going to be Dennis Lindsay.
01:45And then you got the report from Mark Stein over the weekend like they haven't even reached out to him.
01:49So you brought up Connelly, and it didn't seem like Connelly was going to work out.
01:53So then I was thinking that there's got to be another Dark Horse candidate.
01:56Then, boom, today we get the Masai Ujiri news.
01:58I'm thrilled by it.
01:59I mean, it's no disrespect to Michael Finley.
02:01I would not have been overly excited if that was the route they had have gone.
02:05And maybe Finn does have the ability to have that and be a good GM in the future.
02:09But to get a guy with skins on the wall that has relationships around the league,
02:13that has made two teams that were struggling before he got there into contenders, I love it.
02:18I think it's a great move for this organization.
02:20Ultimately, it comes down to can you nail this pick?
02:23Can you get Derek Lively healthy?
02:25You know, how long can Kyrie Irving stay in close to his prime and be, you know,
02:31a championship-level point guard for you?
02:33And that's an unknown after he sat out the entire season.
02:36But, I mean, this is a game where so much of it comes down to how fortunate you are
02:42that the right player is available to draft.
02:44And then can you make a couple of trades here, you know, to balance your roster
02:49or to find value where others don't see it?
02:53And, you know, so often that requires a significant amount of luck.
02:58Sure.
02:58You know, but the great news right now is, you know, to me, you have a really good talent base.
03:05Even though the Luka thing happened and you had to move on from Anthony Davis
03:08and you didn't get much back, I do feel like they are the right draft pick
03:13and a veteran away from at least being a playoff team next year.
03:16What do you guys think?
03:17Yeah, I'm with you.
03:17I mean, you're going to continue to see the Cooper flag ascension.
03:21And that's all-star caliber right there.
03:24And then the Kyrie question is fair, but when you have that much time off,
03:29it's, I think, fair to be hopeful that Kyrie's going to come back
03:34and be a pretty solid version of himself.
03:35And just that duo right there between Kyrie and Cooper flag is going to be outstanding.
03:39But keeping the bigs healthy, the Gaffords and the lively, you know, that's going to be huge.
03:43But, yeah, this draft is going to go a long way for you as well.
03:46I kind of want to move on from these guys if it's like Finley and those guys,
03:51Riccardi and those guys end up staying.
03:53I would rather him clean house.
03:55Anybody that was involved with the Luka trade needs to no longer be working for this organization.
04:00Well, Shams was saying that Riccardi and Finley, their futures will be determined after they –
04:05Yeah, that needs to be – you know, there's people –
04:09Mark Cuban's coming out and saying, oh, Michael had nothing to do with it, you know, this, that.
04:13That's not true.
04:14That's not true at all.
04:16You know, they – listen, there's certain people in that organization that knows who were involved in the trade.
04:22Yeah.
04:22But if you were on board with this, if you didn't stand up and fight and all that,
04:28and it doesn't sound like either one of these guys stood up and fought,
04:31then I'm all for moving on from everybody.
04:34But I'm for just a complete clean slate of people here that, you know, we need different decision makers and
04:43different influencers in the basketball operation and people that can evaluate.
04:50We can all evaluate Cooper Flack, you know.
04:53Does that –
04:53It doesn't take much to do that.
04:55You know, it's the other aspects that need to be picked up here, I think, a little bit.
05:00Does that bleed into Jason Kidd for you?
05:02Or do you feel like maybe that's where it kind of stops?
05:05You know what, if they want to move on from Jason Kidd, if the new director, the new GM,
05:11if he says that's what he needs to do to have his guy to be able to do this operation
05:17the way it needs to be done for us to win and have, you know,
05:21and be in the playoffs.
05:22And I think injury had a lot to do with Mavericks not being in the playoffs.
05:26I get that.
05:27But I'm kind of on board with the – if the new staff feels like the head coach is not
05:33the right guy,
05:34you should have that opportunity to move on to your new guy.
05:38Yeah, yeah.
05:39Certainly, like, there's enough in there where if, as a fan, the Mavs decided to move on from Jason Kidd,
05:44you're like, okay, that's an understandable decision.
05:46Sure, sure.
05:47You know, I also think that he's done enough good that if you decided we want to hang on to
05:51Jason Kidd
05:52because he won a championship here and he's one of the best point guards of all time.
05:56And, damn it, we had some good success.
05:58You know, Jason Kidd and Kyrie Irving appears to be a pretty good setup as far as the brain trust
06:04of your head coach
06:04and point guard combination.
06:08But at the same time, if you decided that, you know, we want to create more of a clean slate
06:16and go forward, I get it.
06:17The more important thing, though, is that you're processing good decisions.
06:21You have good communication and good scouting.
06:23And those good processes and that good scouting can make its way onto your roster,
06:28whether that's on draft night or with trades.
06:30Ownership needs to move on from anybody that was involved with Mark Cuban.
06:34With Mark Cuban?
06:35Yeah.
06:35You know, Mark Cuban, you know, Mark Cuban's having buyer's remorse
06:39because he's now seeing what the prices of franchises are.
06:42And he's moving on.
06:43He feels like, you know, he's trying to buy the team back.
06:46You know, all that kind of stuff.
06:47Yeah, there's some toxic distraction in there.
06:49Yeah, you do not need anybody in this organization that is tied to Mark Cuban in any way.
06:57And that's fair to him, you know, because I think that's just the truth, you know.
07:02That's absolutely fair.
07:03You know, if you're Mark Cuban, even you would have to acknowledge this sort of attempt at a hostile takeover.
07:10He did.
07:10Me, you know, publicly saying these things.
07:12I think he's hurt because they're about to buy him out and he's going to be, you know, less relevant
07:17than he ever was.
07:18If I could snap my fingers, though, and make Mark Cuban the owner of this team again, though, I would,
07:23you know.
07:24But to the Jason Kidd thing, I don't think you need to move on from him.
07:27Why would you do that?
07:29I mean, I'm asking.
07:30Because I trust him more than Dumont, you know.
07:32I don't want to risk that Dumont's naivete about building teams is going to get this team in trouble again.
07:40Let me ask you this question, then.
07:41Are you okay with this current hire?
07:44Yeah.
07:45Wigiri?
07:45Yeah.
07:45Okay.
07:46If you're okay, aren't you okay with Dumont because Dumont made the hire?
07:50I could be better, though.
07:52You know?
07:53I mean, dude.
07:53Well, I think you could have done a ton better than what they did.
07:56But, you know what, to me, if you're Patrick Dumont, I would have gone, I would have made, I would
08:02have pushed for Bob Myers.
08:03I would have pushed for, you know, I would have pushed those things.
08:06I wouldn't have, you know, you could have people tell you no, no, no.
08:09I mean, maybe he had a bunch of people along the way.
08:12Yeah.
08:12I just don't want it to be a lazy hire.
08:14I don't want it to be a, hey, Dallas Cowboys, come on in.
08:17I knew Mark was kind of one of us.
08:20And the Adelson and the Dumonts, I'm not there with them.
08:22I think Mark's painted himself like one of us.
08:25Fair enough.
08:25I think he's painted himself that way.
08:27Fair enough.
08:28I just trust him more than I do these guys.
08:29He did build, what, a 20-year, 50-game winner.
08:33Took a Maverick franchise.
08:35There really wasn't much of anything.
08:36Never evaluated correctly the market when it came to free agency.
08:40Always thought that he had a destination city.
08:46His, the draft gods smiled on him.
08:49When you look at, though, the coaches he's had here, the guys, the players they have, you know, the legendary
08:56Hall of Fame type players he had, guys that, you know, how they were able to get those guys.
09:01Listen, he's done a lot of things.
09:04And listen, I'm not giving Jerry Jones and anybody over at the Mavs or the Stars a pass either now.
09:10But, you know, we could talk about, the Stars right now to me are like, yeah, 50 wins, big deal.
09:16What has he got me?
09:17It's got me watching Colorado and Minnesota play right now.
09:20Mavs got a title.
09:21Yeah.
09:22They probably should have had two if it weren't for the refs in 2006.
09:25I mean, he did a lot of, he did a lot of good building a team that.
09:28I think he was always, he always acted like he was a step ahead.
09:32Yeah.
09:32And he really wasn't.
09:33He mis-evaluated the free agency stuff post-championship.
09:36He mis-evaluated the league and he felt like, well, I'm business, man.
09:38I understand this cap situation and all that better than you guys.
09:41But, yeah, I mean, he didn't trade Dirk.
09:44There's nothing Mark could do that's worse than Dumont greenlight in that thing.
09:48You know?
09:49I don't, I don't, I think that's so bad and has left a stain.
09:53Now, when you talk about a stain, though.
09:55Ultimately, if the conspiracy theories hold true, you ended up with Cooper Flagg, if you
10:01want to believe in conspiracies.
10:02Yeah, I still don't think that makes it right.
10:04Somehow you're helping the league, Dawson.
10:06You like to say this.
10:07Yeah.
10:07You sent him to L.A., you know?
10:09What you got back for it was an absolute joke.
10:12But what you got back, as far as players that are, you know, but then you got the Cooper
10:19Flagg pick.
10:19Well, I mean, you could drive 120 miles an hour to Austin and you'd get there in under
10:24two hours, but it wouldn't mean you did the right thing, you know?
10:27You might be like, wow, look at me.
10:28You know, I pulled it off.
10:30Yeah.
10:30No ticket.
10:31I got to judge you on your process and your decision-making through that process, not
10:35ultimately the end result.
10:37But I think you make good points, you know?
10:38And that is, the world wasn't perfect with Mark Cuban.
10:42I would just, I would rather have that, you know?
10:45And even though Dumont has hired a competent guy, I don't think he can, you know, totally
10:53expunge this team or remove the stain that is on this team from the Luka trade.
10:57And I don't know what that future date is, you know?
11:01There's a lot of people still working in that building that had something to do with that
11:05Luka trade.
11:05Maybe they got to win, you know?
11:08Maybe we're two or three years away from building a team good enough to win.
11:13Maybe it's just going to take a decade to turn over enough of the fan base.
11:16Maybe enough old crust.
11:17He's got to give up their season tickets and make way for a new fan base that doesn't have
11:22the Luka baggage.
11:23I don't know.
11:24But I do know Dumont's tied to it.
11:26And while Mark Cuban hired Nico, he never would have done that, you know?
11:30And for that reason, I trust him more.
11:33Dude, what the whole, I'm asking this question.
11:36If you're in the organization and you know what a pain in the ass Luka was, do you feel
11:44any different?
11:45I mean...
11:45Oh, yeah.
11:46And I think you can talk about his injury right now.
11:48You and I, we've had six years worth of shows.
11:51We've had six years worth of shows here talking about, ah, Luka looks overweight.
11:55He's not moving his feet.
11:57He's not doing this.
11:58He's not doing that.
11:59You know?
11:59Yeah, FUPA.
12:01Yeah, I mean, we did that for six years.
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