Donnie Nelson is no longer the general manager of the Dallas Mavericks.
It is not a stretch to argue that Donnie Nelson is one of the five most important people to the Dallas Mavericks franchise during his tenure.
Nelson has been with the Mavericks since he joined the team as an assistant coach and director of player personnel on January 2, 1998.
The Dallas Mavericks traded the draft rights for 1998 NBA Draft 6th overall pick to the Milwaukee Bucks for the 9th and 19th overall picks.
No matter how much input he received from his son, the praise or the blame for a decision ultimately falls on the person who is responsible for the final seal of approval.
This trade also highlighted potentially Nelson’s greatest flaw, the willingness to deal draft picks.
Zhizhi then played in 55 games for the 2001-2002 Mavericks averaging 5.6 points and 2.0 rebounds while shooting 41.4% from behind the arc, giving the Mavericks two sweet shooting 7 footers.
One second round pick is not all that important in the grand scheme of a 24 year career, but this selection highlighted a tendency to attempt to outsmart everyone and a fascination with curiosities.
Steve Nash showed the first flashes of the ultra efficient point guard he would become with 47.7% shooting, 40.3% three-point shooting and 88.2% free throw shooting.
The Mavericks had the 12th pick in the first round and chose Etan Thomas, a bruising power forward from Syracuse, whom they believed would protect Dirk.
Jae Crowder, selected with the 4th pick of the second round of the 2012 draft, was the last pick with a meaningful career before Luka Doncic and Jalen Brunson were selected in the 2018 draft.
He traded for Raef Lafrentz, Nick Van Exel, Antoine Walker, Antawn Jamison, Jason Terry, Tyson Chandler, Jason Kidd, Tim Hardaway Jr.
He orchestrated free agent contracts to varying degrees of success for Monta Ellis, Chandler Parsons, Harrison Barnes, and Wesley Matthews.
While passing on each individual move might have been understandable, the failure to meaningfully upgrade the roster is unacceptable.
You cannot eschew the draft and refuse to over pay for mid level free agents unless you are a max free agent destination.
What then is Nelson’s legacy? He was instrumental in bringing in two generational players, each the best player in their respective drafts, without ever having the first overall pick.
He did a great job at the easiest part of the general manager job in finding role players that coach Rick Carlisle could maximize.
While he is arguably the 4th or 5th most important person to the Mavericks franchise over the last 24 years, that fact also serves as an indictment of himself.
Search Mavs Moneyball Podcast on your favorite app to find the episode, click the link, or press play in the player below.