Mark Cuban says Dallas Mavericks are better off without Dwight Howard

Can you imagine the glee from Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban had he been able snag Dwight Howard in free agency?

Of course, despite the Mavericks attempt to woo Howard, he opted to sign with the Houston Rockets which burnt quite a few bridges, apparently one that included Mark Cuban.

The eccentric Mavericks owner said today that he thinks the Dallas Mavericks are a better team without the superstar center. Well, at least right now they’re the better team.

Per Cuban via the Dallas Morning News:

"“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.”"

Cuban does have a point, odd as that might be given his explanation. With just Howard, you’re essentially trying to build a team with nearly $20 million dollars of cap space already eaten by one player – it’s not easy, especially when that said player is a coin flip in terms of them being a franchise player.