The Dallas Mavericks and the Portland Trailblazers are Sharing the Crack Pipe

If you want to, as an organization, pay an athlete hundreds of millions of dollars to participate in an athletic endeavor, that's your prerogative.

It really is.

If you sign an athlete for tens of millions of dollars, in his 30's, to lay in a la-z-boy recliner and rehab an injury with hopes that, one day, they'll return to their form from a decade ago, you are NOT good with the analytics of sports. You should be fired.

First the Dallas Mavericks:

General Manager Nico Harrison is doing a terrible job with the Mavericks. Again, it was well within Harrison's job parameters to trade Luka Doncic, the fireable offense was only getting Old Anthony Davis and magic beans in return. After the trade, the oft-injured Kyrie Irving tore his ACL, then Harrison signed the 33 year old to a 3 year, $119 million contract. The first year, Kyrie will be on his couch, so basically it is a deal for $60 million a year for the 2 years when he plays. A horrible contract for a 35 year old coming off of a catastrophic injury, with a laundry list of injuries.

---

Now I thought the Irving deal was an anomaly, but the Portland Trailblazers today signed Damian Lillard to a 3 year, $42 million contract.

In NBA terms, $42 million over 3 years is nothing. But 35 year old Lillard tore his Achilles Tendon. His career is over.

Not only is his career over, but the Milwaukee Bucks paid him $100 million to go away when they cut him earlier this year.

If the GM of the Trailblazers thinks he's going to sell any tickets to fans in order to watch Damian Lillard sit on the bench in a suit, he is sadly mistaken.

Both Irving and Lillard are done, those GMs just lit that money on fire. I'm a casual fan of the Cleveland Cavaliers, so I don't care what either team does. But when did sports franchises start flushing money down the toilet for no reason whatsoever?

The Mavericks are screwed and the Trailblazers are dead in the water.

You say Cooper Flagg will lead the Mavericks to the NBA Championship? The reason the Mavs got Flagg was pure, unadulterated luck. Luka Doncic led the Mavericks to the NBA Finals at the end of his 4th season. Flagg's ceiling is Doncic (and that is being very generous.) That puts the Mavs in the Finals in June of 2030.

Klay Thompson will be 40, Anthony Davis will be 37, and Kyrie Irving will be 38.

And all 3 will be out of the league.