New Jersey Nets guard Devin Harris is having a breakout season. On the year, he is averaging 23 points, six assists, four rebounds, and one steal per contest. He's scored over thirty in his last three games, including last night's spectacular 33-point, 10-assist performance against the defensively talented Atlanta Hawks. It's obvious that Harris is now one of the top point guards in the league. When the Dallas Mavericks decided to trade Harris to the Nets for Jason Kidd, many questioned the move as foolish because of Harris' developing game and Jason Kidd's continued decline.
From everything that was put out there about the move, it's obvious that Mark Cuban was the one who made the decision to go after Kidd. If Cubes didn't want Kidd, the Mavericks would still have one of the top point guards in the game on their team. At this point it's easy to say that the Mavs probably wish they wouldn't have pulled the trigger on the deal.
Yes, the deal sets the Mavs up to be able to rebuild in 2010 (we can't get through a post these days without mentioning 2010), however, it's not like Harris has that bad of a contract. In fact for a top point guard, he has one of the most reasonable contracts in the entire league. If they would have kept Harris, they would have been in a better position to win the championship than they are now, while still having an opportunity to re-tool in 2010.
The problem for the Mavs is not so much that Kidd has fallen off that much, but that he doesn't really fit their style of play. Kidd needs an up and down style of play with guys that can finish on the break. The Mavs have a bunch of guys that like to play half-court ball. Harris would have been better for the Mavs current style of play, and Kidd would have been better off going to a place like Denver.
Mark Cuban is a brilliant business man, a great owner and successful at pretty much everything he gets involved with. But I have to call him out on this mistake. This is the second time Cubes has made decisions on point guards that has cost his team tremendously (Steve Nash, anyone?). In the NBA, the most successful teams are the ones that hire great basketball minds and allow them to do their jobs without any interference from ownership. Cuban hires great basketball people, but he has to learn to not allow his great desire to win a championship to get in the way of that formula.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-16-2008 @ 5:43PM
lol said...
Oh Gawd. Remember the Steve Nash Chronicles?
Sometimes it's not that simple, Harris might not've been able to flourish as much as he is right now. But yeah its a bad trade in player for player, but in some instances it's still a respectable trade.
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11-16-2008 @ 6:43PM
Sumin said...
sometimes players need a change of scenery or feel slighted to take their game to the next level. i don't think devin harris would be as good as he is if he were still on the mavs, but no doubt cuban pulled the trigger in somewhat of a desperate move. http://www.verihoops.com
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11-16-2008 @ 11:27PM
Dave D. said...
The trade last year was made to increase the Mavericks chances of a championship within that season. Unfortunately, I would argue that Devin Harris was already better than Jason Kidd, who was living on his reputation and was much too turnover-prone, when the trade was made. Kidd stepped his game up after the trade (especially his shooting), which can be partially attributed to better teammates, being more motivated, and the shortened minutes keeping his fresh.
In regards to Cuban, Nate, you're absolutely right. One of the most important things a leader can learn is to trust the people around him. Not blindly, mind you, but hopefully you picked wisely who to delegate tasks to in the first place. If you irretrievably lose confidence in someone, either the axe needs to fall or you need to trust them until their time runs out. Undermining the authority of your co-workers/employees is both damaging for team morale, and makes it more difficult to get high-level talent to work for you in the near future.
Buss in Los Angeles, Heisley in Memphis, Cohan in Golden State, Dolan in New York, and Herb Simon in Indiana have all taken similar tacks in the recent past, so this isn't a Cuban-only phenomenon. Owners (and, truthfully, many GMs) need to realize that demanding greatness and micro-managing are not interchangeable terms, and the two can often conflict.
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