By Mike Fisher and David Lord -- DallasBasketball.com
How to understand the only lingering and bothersome thing about the recent Cubes-Nellie tussle? Pretend the principals are characters on “Bewitched.’’
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On the ‘60’s TV show ‘Bewitched,’ flummoxed husband Darrin would attempt to explain away some sitcommy supernatural occurrence to his client by convincing him that it was all part of the client’s new advertising campaign. Samantha, the magical glue to the whole deal, would make the explanation (and the ad campaign proposal) make sense.
And then Darrin’s boss, white-haired bigshot Mr. Larry Tate, would wait too see the client’s reaction – usually initial befuddlement followed by light-bulb-above-the-head-recognition-of-brilliance – and then Mr. Tate would assume credit for the campaign.
When it comes to who is in charge around here, our man Nellie is coming off a little Larry Tate-ish.
Over the course of three days last week, Nellie expressed three vastly different answers to the “Who’s In Charge’’ question.
Now, the DB.com folks are very sensitive to all this. We were right in the middle of the Jerry Jones/Jimmy Johnson “Who’s In Charge’’ debate, covering it while always holding out fruitless hope that each man would eventually realize IT DOESN’T MATTER WHO GETS THE CREDIT OR BLAME.
Maybe that’s why we’re so disturbed by Nellie’s flipping on Wednesday morning, then flopping on Wednesday night, then being flippant on Friday evening. And why we want this conflict behind us, because Nellie’s attempts at playing CYA (cover your ass) may be as large a problem for the team as anything actually occurring on the floor.
Let’s go to the audio from Wednesday, on 1310 The Ticket with Norm Hitzges, direct questions and answers, with our interpretations:
Norm’s question - In the deals made just before the season, did the club acquire too much offense at the expense of people who play different roles?
Nellie’s response, Bewitched Episode 1 - “I approved both of those deals; I wanted to -- ask about those deals by my son, who did them."
"I thought there were two things that had to happen. We had to if we could move Raef's contract - I didnt think that he was player enough to earn the money that he had over the next 6 years and I think that was a good trade; I think Walker for LaFrentz was a really good trade.
"The other trade - Nick - was a money deal; you cant pay a backup point guard 13 million a year and play him 20 minutes a game. It just doesn’t make any sense. You wanna spend more money upfront in your lineup so we got a good young player in Jamison who has accepted his role as the 6th man and to me that trade made sense."
Our interpretation - Nellie garbles his words a bit on the “deals by my son’’ quote. He appears to mean to say that he "was asked" by his son, or that he started to say "I wanted to ____" and then tried to slide into "I was asked about ____" to give his son credit as GM.
Either way, Nellie made no mention of owner Mark Cuban in trade role, clearly making it sound like Donnie is the trade man (which echoes Cuban’s own oft-stated organizational chart) but that Nellie serves in an active secondary role in trades, at least as a sort of consultant to his son.
What we’ve always seen is that Cuban collects his ideas and his data and ships them to Donnie, and under him Don and Keith Grant. And they ship their ideas to Cuban. Donnie is the point man who shops for agreement from Nellie and his basketball staff on the talent/value and agreement from Cuban on talent/value/cap impact (relying on his own expertise, his own research and front-office experts like Grant).
After the interview, Hitzges himself called this a roster that "he [Nellie] and Donnie assembled" - so Norm also got the sense from Nellie's words that it is a Nelson roster at least as much as it is a Cuban roster.
Note this: Our clear sense is that Nellie saw the deals as a way to get better and that they were good trades for the franchise and for the future. He did seem to indicate in context that he saw the resulting roster as less than ideal - the sense came that in his mind they were trades that HAD to be made (for the future good of the franchise), but that still did NOT exactly get them where he would want to be.
Inference plus speculation: at the time Nellie thought this interim period wouldn’t be as rocky or lengthy as it has been, and that he did see this team as an interim group in some facets. In THAT context, he is architect, but that would also mean that at this point maybe he only has acquired MONEY (in the form of more tradeable commodities) to ultimately buy what he sees as the final pieces to the structure.
And in THAT sense only, the new players/roster are FORCED on him - not that he wasn’t behind the deals, but rather he went with what was available for the long-term good of the franchise. He is invested here - not just as coach - he wants his son to have a future here, he wants to leave a legacy behind him.
But in summary, it was clear on Wednesday that Donnie made the deals. And that Don approved of them. And that Cuban approved of them, too, with his checkbook.
Then comes later in the day. …
Nellie’s responses, Bewitched Episode 2 At American Airlines Center, before the Sixers game, Nellie tells the media: “I take full responsibility for the team not playing the way we thought it would. This has been about me. Don't pass along blame to players, or to anyone else. It starts and ends with me."
And he says this: “Mark and I both want the same thing. The difference of opinion might be on how to get there and how long it will take. We both want to win. This team isn't winning enough. … It's been a hard job so far, and I have not succeeded yet," Nelson said. "But I think at the end of the year, this team will max out under my direction and be the best team we can be."
Our interpretation - Nellie is willing to take a bullet, to absorb the heat, to take some of the crushing pressure off his players. A “difference of opinion on how to get there and how long it will take’’ between the coach and owner? Nellie treats it, in context, properly, as if is simply part of the job, maybe even a needed checks-and-balances part.
In summary, everything is going to be cool. But if it’s not, Nellie is claming “full responsibility.’’
Then comes Friday evening. …
Nellie’s responses, Bewitched Episode 3 Appearing on Randy Galloway’s ESPN 103.3 FM radio show, Nellie fields the host’s questions regarding the conflict, his job security, and his support of the franchise’s moves.
Nellie’s responses, Bewitched Episode 3 “I suppose it’s better to know I’m going to be here until the end of the year. Or at least until the All-Star Break.
“If somebody is going to get the blame, guess who’s going to get it? … It’s got to be the coaching, it can’t be the personnel. Right now, (dealt-away ex-Mavs Nick Van Exel and Raef LaFrentz) are on the injured list. So I’d say our record would be worse (had the trades not been made).’’
Our interpretation - What the hell happened to “Donnie’s deals’’ and “I’ll take full responsibility’’? Suddenly, Nellie has flopped back into sarcasm and poor-little-me mode.
In summary, it all feels like a setup. No, nothing as manipulative or devious as the game Jimmy Johnson played on Jerry Jones. But something just as self-serving. Nellie is, all at the same time, over the span of 52 hours, taking the credit, taking the blame, not taking the blame, giving the credit to Donnie and giving the blame to Cuban. … all of which muddles things just enough to, at the end of the episode, smooooooth his way back into favor and back into control, thus pulling a Larry Tate.
Samantha, wiggle your nose, or something, and get these episodes over with.