Mark Cuban's Dallas Mavericks missed the NBA's play-in tournament this season after reaching the Western Conference finals last season and pairing Kyrie Irving with Luka Doncic in February. ESPN's Stephen A. Smith recently put most of the blame on the owher for their mistakes during the offseason.

During the offseason, the Mavs made significant moves to address their needs. However, they failed to re-sign Jalen Brunson to a contract. The 6-foot-1 guard helped the team in different ways for them to be able to reach the Western Conference finals.

With that, Smith defended Kyrie Irving as he's being blamed by some critics for the Mavs' failed season.

"The fact of the matter is, Kyrie Irving is not the reason the Dallas Mavericks have missed the playoffs," Smith said. "Respectfully, that would happen to be Mark Cuban and Nico Harrison, the owner and the president of basketball operations, respectively.

"You had an opportunity to sign Jalen Brunson last offseason, $56 million. You didn't get it done. That's all it would have taken. Jalen Brunson would have signed the deal. He would've stayed in Dallas, that same Jalen Brunson that saved them when Luka Doncic got hurt and helped them win the Utah series, beating Donovan Mitchell, by the way, who was in Utah at the time. That Jalen Brunson, same Jalen Brunson.

"You didn't want to sign him for $56 million. New York Knicks gave him $103 million. Because you lost Jalen Brunson, you were starving for somebody to be a supplementary piece to Luka Doncic because Luka Doncic had problems with constantly going to the bench, watching the team fold like cheap tents and struggle."

The Mavs will have to address a host of issues for next season to return to contender status.

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Mark Cuban blames Jalen Brunson's father for the free-agency frenzy

ESPN's Tim MacMahon got a chance to interview Mark Cuban about how Dallas handled Brunson's free agency last year. Interestingly, the famous businessman blamed Brunson's father as to why the Mavericks weren't able to re-sign the star point guard.

"Where it went south was when Rick took over, when the parent took over, or parents took over," Cuban said.

When the now New York Knicks guard was asked about this, he dodged the question and said that he's focused on the postseason.

"I'm really focused on Cleveland right now. That's all." Brunson said.

Also read: "Mark Cuban grinning from ear to ear"- NBA fans destroy Luka Doncic and the Mavs after loss to Bulls eliminates them from the playoffs