As the trade deadline nears, the Dallas Mavericks will listen to offers for anyone on the roster besides three key pillars of their success. According to Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News, the team would part ways with any players not named Harrison Barnes, Dirk Nowitzki, or Dennis Smith Jr. — three of the main anchors of the team's success.
Most players in Dallas have gotten comfortable enough under a Mark Cuban family atmosphere, but being penultimate in the Western Conference standings and one of the worst four teams overall, calls for some changes, ones Cuban, the businessman, won't be afraid to make.
“He's loyal to a point where, like myself and J.J., we're not really looking to go elsewhere,” Harris said. “We came back here for a reason. And we showed loyalty by sometimes taking less than other places to come back to a place where we wanted to go. It's greatly appreciated because — obviously, we want to win — but we came here because we want to be part of this family. And he reciprocates that with his loyalty.”
While that may be true to an extent, owning an NBA franchise (and several other worldwide businesses) always includes making tough decisions — and after a couple of disappointing seasons, Cuban might just have to look for a way to make this business pay off — even at the expense of his players.
“Winning is always the foundation to loyalty,” Cuban said. “Every player knows what the goal of our organization is — to win championships. Unfortunately, that means trading or releasing players we really care about. [And] it's very hard to make decisions on what to do or not to do.”
Barnes, who the team acquired last offseason, has developed into a reliable scorer, likely taking over Nowitzki's mantle, who will look to retire a Mav. Smith has been a promising rookie and one of the very few good aspects of a poor season for Dallas.
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