After the Warriors' still mind-boggling acquisition of 2014 NBA MVP Kevin Durant, the Western Conference champs had to do a bit of roster reshuffling to adhere to the league's salary cap. One move was allowing Durant's small forward predecessor, Harrison Barnes, to walk away in free agency, where he quickly agreed to sign an impressive four-year, $94 million deal with the Dallas Mavericks.
On Thursday, the first day in which free agents were allowed to actually sign their contracts, the Mavs wasted no time making things official. Mark Cuban posted a celebratory picture of Barnes and some front-office employees to his Twitter account, while also taking the opportunity to poke fun at a certain former near-acquisiton of the team:
Welcome to Dallas @hbarnes pic.twitter.com/ZIEOnqYCV1
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 7, 2016
Although it might be tough to spot at first glance, Barnes is handcuffed to Mavericks president Donnie Nelson standing on the far left. With his tweet, Cuban humorously made it known to the world that the team won't be letting Barnes escape. This, of course, is a well-timed reference to the infamous DeAndre Jordan saga from last year, in which the Clippers center agreed in principle to sign with Dallas before an all-out last-minute effort from his teammates and Doc Rivers prompted a change of heart.
Is Cuban still salty about the Jordan sequence? Maybe, but we can't blame him for that. All we can do is tip our caps to a well-executed jab and move on.
After all, moving on is certainly what Cuban and his staff have done. In addition to the Barnes signing, the team also poached Andrew Bogut from the cap-clearing Warriors, and has re-signed Deron Williams and Dirk Nowitzki thus far this offseason.
More NBA:
-- Harrison 'The Senator' Barnes Makes Voter-Education Video
-- Mark Cuban Offers Unorthodox Advice to Future 'Powerball' Winner
-- Can OKC Save Itself? History Says No
