NBA Q&A: Mark Cuban

Courtesy of Fox Sports Live

On if this is a rebuilding year:

“Oh no. Hell no. Don’t even go there. Look, there’s no template for winning in the NBA. … Dirk’s got to be healthy and he’s working hard. He’s been in the gym every single day looking great. Then we’ve got to come together as a team. We’ve got Samuel Dalembert, Monta Ellis, Wayne Ellington, DeJuan Blair. We brought in a lot of really good players and now it’s up to Coach Carlisle to make it all work together.”

On Dirk getting older:

“Karl Malone won an MVP at 35. That’s how old Dirk is. It’s not like Dirk plays with athleticism. He plays with skill. He plays with intelligence. He knows the game. And more importantly, he’s just there to win. He makes everyone around him better and you’ve got to double team him as long as he stays healthy. We were on a 50-win pace when he came back and we weren’t a very good team last year. That was because of Dirk.”

On why he went after Dwight Howard initially, if as he said later the Mavericks are better off without him:

“There’s two different elements. You try to get a superstar player like Dwight, and he is, and then knowing because of all the cap room you’re not going to be able to do it all in one year. You’re going to have to add him and continue to add pieces. That gives you one type of team. Then when we didn’t have to spend the money on him, we went out and got Jose Calderon, Monta Ellis, DeJuan Blair, Sam Dalembert, so we were able to add four or five really strong pieces that in the aggregate will make us a better team. Now, I think over the long term would we have been better Dwight? That’s why we went after him, but this year, I think we’ll be better."