by Marcel Mutoni / @ marcel_mutoni
It doesn’t take a rocket science to figure out that the Dallas Mavericks are in serious trouble now and going forward. They’re an old team, struggling mightily at 13-21, in jeopardy of missing the postseason for the first time in 12 seasons, and their immediate future is murky at best.
Dirk Nowitzki, bright guy that he is, can see the writing on the wall. Nowitzki has serious concerns about owner Mark Cuban’s plan for the franchise.
From ESPN:
Nowitzki, who was admittedly disappointed and frustrated after the Mavs dropped to eight games below .500 with their eighth loss in nine games Saturday night, said that owner Mark Cuban’s post-lockout decision to let Tyson Chandler and other key members of the 2011 title team leave could be judged as “a mistake or not” after seeing whether the Mavs are able to make any major personnel moves this summer.
“It’s going to be tough now,” Nowitzki said after the Mavs’ home overtime loss to the Western Conference cellar-dwelling New Orleans Hornets. “I always liked to think you don’t want to build your franchise on hope. We hoped for Deron last year. We hoped for Dwight. Why would he leave the Lakers? To me, it makes no sense. He’s in a great situation. Why would CP3 leave? (The Los Angeles Clippers are) the best team in the league probably right now. They’re probably the deepest team. So are you going to hope that we get something? Maybe Cuban has something up his sleeve. Maybe you have to take a chance on a bad contract to get him in here and make something happen. I mean, I don’t know. That’s something we’ll have to see this summer. We’re going to play out this season. I’m going to get better and better, hopefully from game to game, so I can actually close out some of these games. And then we’ll see what happens.”
Though Dirk Nowitzki mentioned the possibility of getting traded for the second time in a week, this despite a no-trade clause in his contract that expires after next season, he continues to insist that he would like to finish his Hall of Fame career where it started: in Dallas.
Nowitzki, though, would like to compete for a title instead of just playing out the string.
