Mavericks Chat: Time to Let Dirk Nowitzki Go?

Here in Part 2 of Mavericks Chat, we look at Dirk Nowitzki, free agency, and the NBA Draft

Is it time to sign and trade Dirk Nowitzki? He deserves better and the Mavs need to rebuild.

Rebuild or reload is the age-old offseason question, isn’t it? It’s especially fitting for the Dallas Mavericks since they’ve been perpetually stuck in the first round of the playoffs. If we all operated with 100% reason and 0% emotion then trading Dirk Nowitzki away would be the obvious next step.

But alas, we don’t.

Dirk is emotionally tied to Dallas and Dallas is emotionally tied to Dirk. Most importantly, money is tied to Dirk and no matter how hopeless a season may be, fans will still want to come out and see Dirk play. Dirk = automatic revenue regardless of how competitive the team may be. Don’t underestimate the value of that.

Another question to ask is how much do you think Dirk would fetch on the open market? He has value, yes. But other than draft picks (albeit high picks), what would teams offer? The type of team interested in a player like Dirk is the type of team who believes they are on the cusp. Why would they trade back young talent? They would want to win now so they could only feasibly give the Mavs a big sack of question marks in return.

It’s also worth noting, that if the Mavs could somehow sign two max players like Mike Conley Jr and Hassan Whiteside, and retain Chandler Parsons and Dwight Powell in the process, they would immediately be in the championship mix.

Why don’t the top free agents want to play for the Mavericks? We have the best coach and the best owner in the NBA, plus one of the best all-time players in Dirk.

This is something I’ve been asking myself for quite some time. Throw in the fact that this team is largely diva-free and full of team-first players and I’m stumped. But the truth is those things just aren’t enough. Owner, coach and culture are nice, but they just aren’t as valuable as we think they are.