no GM in history had ever had the power to go over the ownerships heads and make a decision like this. When you add in the fact that the fans are shytting all over this...they're losing millions due to lack of jersey sales...and have lost all emotional equity between their fanbase. In what world would anybody be able to make a decision like this...without the greenlight from ownership
...thay has resulted in these catastrophic consequences...and he get to keep his job? Your narrative is illogical.
This is a completely different argument to the one you initially made.
Nobody is saying Nico didn't need the green light from ownership, that's already been established.
But he is the mastermind behind all this. He's the puppet master.
He enacted this plan before the Adelsons even gained control of the Mavs. He fired staff that were close with Luka in attempt to change his conditioning before the Adelsons took control. He dripped poison into the ears of anyone who was willing to listen to his bullshyt about Luka before the Adelsons even stepped foot in the door.
If the Adelsons really wanted a team in Vegas they would've waited out for when the league inevitably expands in the not too distant future.
These new owners had to know NOTHING about basketball to give this the ok.
Owners always want to put their hands on the new toy. So maybe if they were willing to pay him the supermax and get the new arena then he wouldn't have gotten traded..
But.. ownership wants to cut cost.. and the narrative you say Nico spun played the ending factors to the trade..
But trust ownership was like
If cutting costs was of the highest priority, they would've signed Luka to the supermax, because they would've easily made that money back with the revenue that he generated for them. In fact, he already made that money 10x over for them. Not to then trade for an older, more injury prone player who'll be on the books at $60m a season in 2026, 2027 and 2028*.
They'll essentially be paying a mid-30s AD, relatively the same amount that they would having Luka on a supermax. Go figure.
And we all know that AD isn't bringing in them a profit that Luka did, so no matter which way anyone tries to slice it, they're going to be worse off, regardless.
Paying Luka was the lesser of two evils if the objective was to cut costs. And judging by Nico's latest comments, he's shamelessly trying to shift the narrative to where it was Luka who didn't want to sign a new deal with the Mavs, purely to get the stank off himself.
I saw a tweet from someone saying they'd rather lose with Luka than win with anyone else. You can hate the trade but that mentality is completely stupid.
That illustrates how bad the trade was and how much Luka meant to the fanbase.
When you draft a player and he pulls a franchise out of the mud to where the fanbase will ride or die with them, win or lose, you don't just easily give that up for what you perceive to be a better chance at winning. The Mavs could've gone the next five years without winning a title with Luka, and the fanbase would gladly swallow it. Now we see that they'd give up the prospect of winning if it meant getting him back.
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Vegas is earmarked for the expansion slot.
