Mark Cuban is a successful, outspoken owner who has the pulse of his franchise. The Mavericks have hovered around .500 for most of the season, and are currently 11-13 without Dirk Nowitzki.
Cuban was recently asked several questions regarding tanking this year, trading Dirk, and rebuilding. Cuban in typical Mark Cuban fashion, told ESPN Dallas he was having none of it when asked if it would be a down year.
“We’re not ready to go there,” Cuban said. “Look, I’m always the one who says there’s nothing worse than winning 41 games. That’s no-man’s land. You can’t get a good pick. And I don’t see that for us yet.
“Look at it the other way. If we were stumbling along like this and all of the sudden we made a big trade for a German guy for nothing, everyone would say, ‘Oh, let’s see where we can take it.’ So we’ll see. We’ll see what happens.”
Cuban was then asked about tanking the season to get a high pick. Again he would have none of that.
“I just can’t see it,” Cuban said. “We will try to win every game. Just like when I first got here, we were 9-23 and everybody said to tank the season. All the guys that everybody now knows as great, we were trying to trade every day. You’ve just got to build a winning culture. You can’t back away from that.”
Cuban said he can be honest with himself, and “he’ll know when the team sucks.”
“I’ll know when we suck,” Cuban said. “At the same time, I’ll also know what we’re trying to accomplish, and it’s not about anything other than, what puts you in the best position to win a championship?
“When guys know you’re OK with losing, guys play like you’re OK with losing. When guys play like you’re not OK with losing, you get a different culture, different attitude, different approach to the game. We’re not a team that everybody just retired and we’re starting to look like the Bulls in ’98.
“But you won’t see us like some teams have where you win 41 games for three straight years. Then, ‘Oh, this is the year,’ but nothing’s really changed. You won’t see us there.”