00:00Thank you very much, Lucius. It is the G-Bag Nation here on 105.3 The Fan.
00:04I had Broadus getting out of his beanbag in the corner of my eye right here.
00:07I'm trying to stay focused the whole time.
00:09I got a little upset. I was trying to work on my master's tickets.
00:13It's that time of year that you get to put in for the lottery.
00:16And then I couldn't get out of the beanbag because I was working on the master's tickets.
00:20I was just trying to guess what kind of red you're going to be when you try to get up.
00:23Sorry about that, Lucius. I didn't mean to be that way about it.
00:27What do you call that technique for getting out?
00:30Yeah, it's what the sea lions do at SeaWorld when they get up on the deck
00:35and they throw a bunch of fish in their mouth and go back in the water.
00:38That's what it's called. It's kind of like I'm on fire.
00:41I roll on the ground and then try and pop up.
00:44Yeah, that's what I thought. It's kind of a strop, drop, and roll situation.
00:47I'm kind of feeling like I'm going to blow my Achilles doing this sometime, though.
00:51That chair is so comfortable.
00:52I can't believe you haven't slipped a disc.
00:54It's only a matter of time.
00:56Fat people do not pull muscles.
00:58I am talking about that.
00:59You can't pull fat.
01:00You can't pull fat.
01:02All right, Tim Kalashaw, Morning News, asking today,
01:05is the finals prepared to get underway?
01:07And Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks taking on the San Antonio Spurs.
01:12Is losing Jalen Brunson the biggest mistake the Mavs ever made?
01:16The Franklin Franklin injury attorney text line is open for you
01:19if you want to leave your name and see who you're texting from.
01:20I think it's up there.
01:23There's trading Luka.
01:24There's letting Steve Nash go.
01:25There's letting Jalen Brunson go.
01:27Is there anything else that compares?
01:29Maybe that's another good subject for the Mavs fans out there if you want to text in.
01:34But those are the three.
01:37And how would I rank those?
01:39I don't think Jalen Brunson is the biggest loss of all time.
01:42No, it's definitely still Luka.
01:44It's not even close.
01:45Could he be number two?
01:46Was it a bigger brain-dead decision?
01:49But the circumstances that led to it were just really tough for the organization to process.
01:54Yeah, the whole thing was difficult.
01:55And I think, yes, just looking at it just by itself, yes, losing Luka is worse.
02:03But you were ultimately able to get flag out of that even though it was unintentional.
02:08With the Brunson thing, it's just he leaves.
02:11Yeah.
02:11And there is no real silver lining to, oh, but you ended up.
02:16Like the domino effect didn't lead to anything awesome with the loss of Brunson.
02:21Well, okay.
02:21But here's the domino effect for the Luka situation.
02:24Your GM's fired.
02:25Your head coach is fired.
02:26They're having to get rid of every single person that basically had anything close that resembled, okay, I was part
02:31of the Luka decision.
02:32Your entire fan base revolts right now.
02:35It's now broken.
02:36It's a fractured relationship between the team and their fans all because of one move, and that's trading Luka Doncic.
02:44So I think all of that, when you look at every single layer and impact from the Luka move, it's
02:50not even close.
02:52Despite the compensation and still even getting flagged, which was not part of that trade, it ends up happening.
02:58But that's, I mean, to me, that doesn't even factor in.
03:01So I still think the Luka decision is the worst in the history of the organization.
03:06But when you look back and it's like, wow, you had Luka and Jalen Brunson, who are two of the
03:10best players in the NBA right now.
03:12And two years ago, you were in the finals with one, and now Jalen Brunson's in the finals with the
03:17Knicks.
03:18Those probably are the top two.
03:19And I get your point.
03:20I mean, losing, like, what did you get back for losing those guys?
03:24And ultimately, it comes down to right now, it's Max Christie and a first-round pick.
03:31A couple of them?
03:32You see the future pick from the Lakers and a pick from the Wizards?
03:35I guess.
03:36You got nothing for Jalen Brunson, and that goes back to when he was drafted initially, and they botched the
03:43rookie deal for him.
03:44They had like a year shorter on the deal than what they should have had.
03:47Yeah, you know, I think more than anything, it just, it was the beginning of the signs that Mark Cuban
03:55was not financially capable of running an organization anymore, or owning an organization anymore.
04:02You know, because, and he said it when he sold the team, like, he didn't want his family to be
04:09the people that had to make tough financial decisions letting players go, and then the entire world hates you.
04:15You know, as the owner of the team, so, you know, but Brunson was a late bloomer, and they had
04:21made, like, a final offer around midseason to Brunson.
04:25And then he leads you to have the upper hand against the Utah Jazz with Luka out.
04:31You're up 2-1 because Jalen Brunson is balling.
04:34And then he and his dad really wanted to go to New York.
04:37Like, it was the worst-kept secret in the NBA for, like, four months.
04:40So, after all of that, you know, you feel like maybe he doesn't want to be around.
04:45You feel like you've made him a very generous offer and said, this is our last offer, and then he
04:49goes off.
04:50And I would hope that an organization would be more flexible.
04:54Like, wow, we really didn't see that coming.
04:56That was, you know, an incredible breakout for a 26-year-old player to have who spent four years in
05:02college.
05:02And you're going to be a late bloomer now here in the pros.
05:06But I think, you know, between the negotiation, the late-blooming factor, and then, you know, him and his dad
05:14wanting to go to New York,
05:16I kind of gave them a pass on it, even though at the time I was screaming, you've got to
05:20give him what he wants, you know,
05:22because finding that second player.
05:23But I don't think it would have resulted in greatness with Luka and Brunson, do you?
05:27I think having those two guys on the court at the same time and the defensive liabilities that they would,
05:32like, I've taken a long time, but in this segment, I think maybe right now,
05:37Brunson might be the most overrated player in the entire league.
05:41Well, I mean, I don't know how much success they would have had together just because of the defensive issues
05:49that would arise.
05:50But he would have still been an asset that you could have moved for something else.
05:56Yeah.
05:57But in terms of criticizing the Mavericks, I mean, they didn't have the foresight to know that he was going
06:02to blossom the way that he did.
06:04And by the time you had that feeling after that playoff run, it was already pretty much too late because
06:10he wanted to go to the Knicks.
06:11So I don't criticize them hugely, but you think he's the most overrated player in the sport right now?
06:19Yeah, yeah.
06:19I think he's a good score, you know, and he gets the ball a ton because there's not a lot
06:25of other guys who can create their own offense on that team.
06:28So I think it's a team perfectly built around him, maybe the best roster construction around a small since the
06:38Allen Iverson 76ers, who also got to the finals in an era of the Eastern Conference that wasn't the most
06:47difficult to make.
06:47I don't want to take anything away from that, but you look back on Allen Iverson's supporting cast and it's
06:54good defensive players, it's rim protectors, and then he gets to go out there and pretty much have a green
07:00light in any situation.
07:02But Jalen Brunson doesn't rebound.
07:05Like, compared to others, there's between three and five rebounds per game that somebody at his position could get.
07:14He's not an elite assist guy.
07:16What did we add, six assists?
07:18Seven.
07:18Seven assists?
07:19Seven assists, yeah, three boards a game.
07:21There's two or three assists per game between him and the elite distributors and playmakers for others.
07:27I just think he's a great scorer on a team's magnificently built around him.
07:32Right, like that's in a depleted east.
07:34Yeah, I think the clutch factor has to be factored, and I do think he wins.
07:37Like, he won at Villanova.
07:39I mean, obviously, what you said about even when Luka was on the floor, he found a way to win
07:42for the Mavericks, and he did help change this culture with the Knicks where they were kind of laughable.
07:48I mean, I think all of us would look at the Knicks, and we were just waiting for them to
07:52ultimately just disaster to happen.
07:54And now he's gotten him to an Eastern Conference Final, an NBA Final.
07:58Like, I do think there's flaws in his game.
08:00I think you're right about that.
08:01But I think some of the intangibles that he brings to the table here, I don't know that I would
08:06say he's overrated.
08:07I do think there's some value that he brings outside of just scoring, the clutch factor.
08:11I think that he creates a belief, and he makes teammates around him better.
08:15Dallas Wings are not overrated.
08:17They blow out Seattle 79-56.
08:20Salute to the front office, salute to the coaching staff as well for putting together a roster this good and
08:25snapping into place.
08:26They're now 6-3, one game behind the Minnesota Lynx for the best record in the league.
08:32Beckers last night, 10-9-7.
08:34You had six players with nine points or more, and Ozzy Aha James poured in 18.
08:41It's like four or five different players on any given night that can carry the load, and they just have
08:47quality all over the place.
08:48So I think we're about to be treated to a summer of very high-level basketball.
08:54Maybe a run.
08:55Maybe a run at the title.
08:56Okay, really great point from a texter in the 9-4-5, going back to the Brunson stuff.
09:02It was the initial contract, his initial rookie contract, they gave him a straight four-year deal without adding the
09:08team option for the final year.
09:10Second-round picks typically get contracts with team options, and so it was sort of an oversight that meant Dallas
09:17could not retain him as a restricted free agent.
09:20Yeah, they couldn't match.
09:21I would love to go back into that world in 2018 and figure out why didn't you give him the
09:27usual contract that second-round players get.
09:30Mark Cuban at that time was doing favors to players, and it was weird.
09:35Because that's what that feels like.
09:35Dwight Powell, like, oh, well, we don't have anybody else that wants this contract, so we'll go back and give
09:41you even more.
09:42It was weird, and maybe the Jalen Brunson thing was because they were a big fan of him and wanted
09:50to show how much they believed in him.
09:52But they were the only team that did believe in him.
09:56Guy goes to the second round, there were a ton of teams that passed on him.
09:59So I think they deserve credit for recognizing that he was capable of doing something like that.
10:06But I just don't think they had the money when it came down to pay him.
10:09We've got to...
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