The Dallas Mavericks front office lost Jalen Brunson without a compensatory pick in 2022, traded Kyrie Irving mid-contention window, and are watching a Sports Illustrated piece confirm that Doncic made Brunson question himself, which is three moves that document, in the clearest possible terms, what a franchise looks like when it rents every other player and owns only one. The Knicks are 2-0.

A friend texted me the Brunson quote at 7 a.m. Sunday HKT, which is the correct format for a franchise-failure dispatch. Brunson spent four years in Dallas running pick-and-rolls for a player who was already the entire offense, then left for a front office, Leon Rose and William Wesley running it, that asked him to be the offense himself. The Mavericks never built that second architecture. Their next unencumbered first-round pick arrives in 2027; Doncic will be 28.