標籤: confesses

The Dallas Mavericks have seen their fair share of ups and downs during Mark Cuban’s ownership. They have seen many top-class players play for the franchise, from Dirk Nowitzki to Luka Doncic and now Cooper Flagg.

However, the Mavs have missed out on several big names over the years, and one reason for this is selecting the wrong players in various drafts. When asked about his biggest misses over the past few years, owner Mark Cuban gave two very valid responses in the form of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Tyrese Maxey.

“Oh, there are a lot of them. Tyrese Maxi was a big miss for us recently. Greek Freak [Giannis Antetokounmpo] Was probably the biggest,” he said on the Adam Friedland Show, according to HoopsHype.

And well, that makes perfect sense. Dallas had the No. 13 and No. 18 picks in the 2013 and 2020 drafts, with Antetokounmpo selected as the 15th and 21st overall picks, respectively. Instead, Dallas selected Kelly Olynyk and Josh Green in their respective drafts.

Despite this, both Giannis and Maxi have established themselves as All-Stars in their final homes with the Milwaukee Bucks and the Philadelphia 76ers. However, it would definitely hurt more to miss the Greek Freak.

The Bucks’ talisman has also become a 10-time All-Star and two-time MVP. He is on his way to becoming a Hall of Famer and by the time he retires, he may be viewed as one of the best players in modern NBA history.

On the other hand, Tyrese Maxey has also established himself as one of the best young offensive stars in the NBA. The 2024 MVPs have continued to improve their averages year after year, and Cuban has every right to view these two players as his biggest misses.

On Saturday evening, the Golden State Warriors suffered a tough loss in a closely contested match against the Oklahoma City Thunder. The good news for the Warriors was that Kristaps Porzingis was able to return in this game after missing several games due to illness, and the team was able to stay closer than expected against the defending champions.

Recently, head coach Steve Kerr made headlines for his comments on 95.7 The Game, in which he spoke in detail about Porzingis’ alleged illness, which is reported to have stemmed from POTS.

“I read about the POTS diagnosis and called the Hawks [general manager] Onsie Saleh,” Kerr said. “He’s a good friend of mine and I said ‘Is this Potts story real?’ He said it’s not really Potts. That was some misinformation that was out there,” Kerr said, according to Sports Illustrated’s Joey Ackley.

Kerr has since apologized for these comments, and now, Porzingis is speaking out on them.

“Yeah, it wasn’t ideal because again he put something out so people could start talking about it. But, again, I told Steve, it’s OK. I know he didn’t mean anything, he didn’t want to publicize something about my health. He just said what he knew at this time and yes, honestly, it’s OK,” Porzingis said, according to NBC Sports Bay Area and California on YouTube.

Porzingis was brought to the Warriors from the Atlanta Hawks at the trade deadline in exchange for Buddy Hield and Jonathan Kuminga. Porzingis has appeared in only two games so far for the Warriors due to illness, which also caused him to miss several contests during his brief tenure in Atlanta.

The Warriors will hope that Porzingis will be able to stay on the field moving forward. They next hit the road on Monday evening against the Utah Jazz.

Victor Wembanyama and Spurs have been performing highly this season. They are firmly in the Western Conference playoff race, sitting at the second seed in the conference, and within striking distance of the Oklahoma City Thunder for the top seed. But the Knicks were able to figure out how to cool down a hot San Antonio squad.

It appears that teams will choose to get physical with Wembanyama to take him off his game, as the Pistons attempted to show in their loss last Monday. This time, it appeared that the Knicks were able to crack the winning formula with their aggressive defensive coverage and Wembanyama recognized this in postgame comments received by Hector Ledesma.

“I think they had some physicality, but not what we’ve seen… For some reason, we were a little hesitant… I was especially hesitant on threes… I was holding the ball too much… We gave them a breather. We should have been better, especially in the first quarter. That was the game.”

Wembanyama made it clear that the Knicks gameplan impressed him and it was something he was aware of.

“They’re a good basketball team, but they’re not like the worst team. They’re not an ugly team to watch, but they’ve made our game ugly.”

Still, Vembanyama doesn’t think the team is going backward.

“I don’t see any downside. I think it’s good for us to see such adversity. We want to play the best teams. This is a top-seeded playoff team – experience. They know what it’s like, and they gave us a good performance today.”

Although the Pistons deployed a defensive gameplan based on physicality to slow down Victor Wembanyama, the Spurs emerged victorious 114–103 in their Monday matchup. Although Vembanyama had 21 points, he was only 6-16 from the field. But, Vembanyama still proved effective in other areas of the game, grabbing 17 rebounds and six blocks.

In postgame comments obtained by Omari Sankofa II, Pistons star Cade Cunningham admitted that his team could not adjust to the intensity that Wembanyama brought to the defensive side of the floor.

“We couldn’t figure out Wemby early. We changed a lot of our shots, changed our approach and had opportunities where we found things and did things we wanted to do. He changed a lot of shots and couldn’t figure out his early.”

Pistons head coach JB Bickerstaff explained his approach to attacking the Wembanyama-led defense, saying, “You have to go through him, you can’t go around him.” (Duren) did a great job late where he was passing to him. “He’s very smart, very talented…if you allow him to play in space, you have to become more familiar with him.”

Jalen Duren punched Wembley, also committed foulpic.twitter.com/L0xLWKoM9o

– ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) 24 February 2026

Jalen Duren finished the game with 25 points, including a thrilling poster dunk over Victor Wembanyama that went viral on social media. But Duren didn’t get much help offensively, especially as Cunningham finished the game with 16 points and was 5-26 from the field.

But Bickerstaff saw the loss in a broader perspective, noting that San Antonio allowed 18 three-pointers, which ultimately put the game out of reach.

“They moved the ball well, they attacked the rebounds to get those looks. Some of them had mistakes, we gave up strong side corner 3s that we don’t normally do… Credit to them. They played a strong game.”