How The Mavericks Build Around Dirk Nowitzki

Mark Cuban and the Mavericks have always been different. When everyone zigs, Cuban wants to zag—a practice that has contributed to his success in the business would. Dallas has employed that strategy with mixed results since he’s taken team control. However, the Shark Tank star is quick to tell people that the Mavs had a streak of 11 straight campaigns with at least 50 wins during his tenure as the owner of the franchise.

Simply winning often is not the goal; Cuban wants championships. During this year’s MIT Sloan Conference, which Hoops Rumors attended, Cuban was asked whether he would take a dominant three-year window where his team wins championships or a stretch of 10-15 years where his team has a slight chance of winning the championship every year. He quickly took the championships option with one caveat.

“If I knew I was going to get three rings and just be horrible the rest of the way, I’d probably take the three rings and then try to change the agreement,” Cuban said. “Rings are the thing. I want a really big ring.”

Dallas is extremely unlikely to win a championship this season and without a true Superstar in his prime, the Mavs have to be even more meticulous with their roster moves. They have to find contributors like Yogi Ferrell and Dorian Finney-Smith from the free agent scraps. This year, that task was slightly easier for those teams that are better at evaluating talent

The Celtics entered the 2016 draft with eight selections. The Suns had five, while the Nuggets had four. Those three teams plus Philadelphia (three selections) held one-third of the draft picks. The Mavs went into the draft knowing that those team couldn’t possibly roster that many rookies, so it would lead to teams reaching on international and draft-and-stash prospects or trading away picks. Some of those teams would end up taking the best available player willing to be a draft-and-stash prospect rather than selecting the the top remaining talent.

“To us, it was more of a 70-player draft than a 60-player draft,” Cuban said. “What happened after 60 was just as valuable as having [an early second-round draft pick]”

If the league redistributed the picks to mirror what teams would have in an average year, players like Ferrell and Finney-Smith are likely drafted. Ben Bentil is likely still on the team that drafted him. Yet, because of the unique distribution of picks, those players are available on the market.

Quinn Cook is another player who would merit consideration if the teams were drafting players for 60 immediate NBA roster spots. Cook’s 10-day deal with Dallas expires tonight, though Cuban recently told Hoops Rumors that the organization likes the guard’s game and he could have a future with the team beyond the current deal.

Earlier this season, it appeared that the Mavericks would be better served to scrap the winning objectives this season, tank, and try their luck next year with a top draft pick aboard. Such life is not an option when you have future Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki on the team. The organization wants to build the team of the future around its aging superstar. The signing of Harrison Barnes along with the team’s influx of youth should allow Nowitzki to take on a lighter load as he creeps toward 40 years old. Cuban insinuated that the German big man will continue playing past that point.

“Dirk will be the Satchel Paige of the NBA,” Cuban told Nate Silver during the conference’s Shark Vs. Fox panel.

Paige famously played more seasons than any baseball player in history. He retired at the age of 47, though he made a special, three inning appearance at the age of 59 in which he only gave up one hit.

Could Nowitzki play more seasons than any player in NBA history? Kevin Willis currently owns that accomplishment with 21 seasons in the league, which means Nowitzki would need to play for three seasons beyond the 2016/17 campaign to have sole possession of the record. The man who became just the sixth player ever to score 30,000 points is going to end his career with multiple records and since he plays for such an innovative organization, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him add the longevity feat to his impressive resume.