sp6r=underrated wrote:
The worst personnel decision of the decade goes to the 03 Mavs acquiring Walker/Jameson. Those two were the worst possible players to pair with Dirk/Nash. I'm convinced Nelson trashed a 2 title minimum club due to his obsession with small forwards given how high the 03 Mavs peaked with pre-peak Dirk and how high the Suns/post-Dirk Mavs played. Just the worst decision for consequences of any contender this century.
Important context -- yes that 03-04 Mavs roster was a mess, but it makes a lot more sense if you look at what was planned. Which was the NVE for Jamison swap. Get a younger, bigger 6th man. And Jamison was great in that role for Dallas, though ultimately he wanted to start and so Dallas accommodated him the next summer.
They didn't say we love Antoine Walker and think he's a better fit than a healthy Rafe. They knew Rafe's knees were nearly done and they had given him like a 6 or 7 year contract and this was an escape hatch. This deal was made literally days before the season started. Dallas never thought they could get off the contract and when it came up they jumped. It was always a one year deal knowing they would flip Walker as an expiring the next summer(back when bad expirings had trade value due to the number of big contracts during that CBA).
And even with Nash leaving, the Mavs went right back to contender status immediately. The plan was sound even if they knew that one year would rough. And even with that, had anyone but Dirk showed up in the playoffs they still would have advanced. But the whole roster played bad. And with that they still had 3 last possession losses where Peja made the game deciding shot.
It's an oversold negative narrative regarding that roster and it ignores Rafe's knees and contract. And we saw sure enough 2 years later he was effectively done with a ton of money and years still on the books.
