Mark Cuban, tell me again why you let Steve Nash leave the Mavs in 2004?

Keeping Nash was not a guarantee that the Mavs would have won the title. Nash was never the MVP in Dallas that he has been with the Suns. That’s on him, not Cuban. He showed flashes but he continued to make mistakes and get injured. I loved watching Dirk, Fin, & Nash play for those couple of years – true offensive greatness. On the tail end of an era of NBA thug-ball, their passing game was a breath of fresh air. But Cuban made a valid business decision to not give an aging 30-yr.old PG a top-end salary and Nash made a business decision to chisel his owner for a few more bucks and also to leave his best buddy Dirk. Bottom line, it was Nash’s decision – and he proved that he was just another money-grubbin’ greedy player. Who knows if they still woulda signed Terry if Nash would have stayed but that woulda been one helluva guard combo. Terry has far surpassed expectations and easily played even with Nash in the playoffs. Signing Damp was kinda necessary since they needed an inside presence and he was the best of the tier-two bunch available. But the exorbitant salary sounded just as crazy then as it does now.

Yeah, it woulda been cool had Stevie hung around but please don’t blow blame to Cuban for Nash’s selfish decision. Had it not been for a piss-poor ref’s call, the Mavs prolly woulda won the title without him.

This seems like a heavily hindsight-influenced criticism.

Nash was 31 when he left for Phoenix, and from what I remember the major issue regarding his contract was not the dollar amount but the length. The number of point guards that have played as well as Nash has in his age 34-36 seasons is very, very small. That Nash is on that list is a credit to the tremendous work he has put in to his physical conditioning, which personally I think has improved immensely since he left Dallas. Nash is in much, much better shape now and has been the last few years than he ever was in Dallas(you can see it in his face, he’s trimmer and leaner). The same guy that was regularly winded at the end of games as a Maverick spends the entire night running around the court for the Suns. It’s remarkable, and I have a hard time faulting Cuban for not having foreseen such a transformation.

I doubt Harris would have been drafted if Nash was still on the team. If someone has evidence to the contrary I’d like to see it. I’m also not sure how well Nash and Harris would have worked together offensively. Dampier is clearly not the center the Mavs might have thought they were getting when they signed him after his career year in Golden State, but Dallas was a team that had not had an interior defensive presence in over a decade and it was really the achilles heel of the teams that were regularly bounced in the playoffs by teams like the Kings and Spurs because of the points in the paint differential.

Given the roster the Mavs had at the time, I think having Harris and Dampier was a better fit than having Nash and, say, Josh Childress or Luol Deng(the two guys taken after Harris) would have been. Harris’s on-ball defense was such a big difference for them, as was the combination of Damp and Diop in the low post. Without these guys, I don’t know if Dallas could have beaten the Spurs in ’05, which is what catapulted them to the NBA Finals.

Really, I think the bigger mistake wasn’t letting Nash go but giving up so early on Harris(who was micromanaged badly before the trade), who could have been a devastating sidekick for Dirk as a slasher and lockdown defender. Maybe I’m in the minority, but I think if Harris had been handled right, he could have been the better player right now than Nash. He did have more win shares last year than Nash, despite playing on a much worse team. His ability to attack the rim is something this team is sorely lacking.

link

The guys most in favor of that trade were the Mavs biggest Western Conference opponents. Besides the deadly accurate shooting, where Nash is just unbelievable, Devin could definitely hold his own against anyone. You’re right. The sky was the limit for him. He gave Parker fits. Just really believe that, with the right coaching approach, he would have turned the corner on his reliability in all areas. We’ll never know now. I know JKidd was “all that” in NJ but I just thought this was a horrific trade on so many levels. Once it was done, I knew the Mavs would be on the downslope. Let’s hope a miracle happens and we sign one of the big names and then find a PG of the future soon.

Almost the same thing as why did you draft this guy who turned into a bust instead of the guy that was drafted later that turned out to be a star.

Mistakes happen, not really all Cuban’s fault.