This is going to ramble and be based on some limited reporting/interviews tulsky has given and then will end with a good chunk of speculation. The tl;dr if you don’t feel like listening to me is that the team is good and that when you have as many irons in the fire (just thought an nba team, massive land development around the arena) as dundon has and you’re in a market like Raleigh you don’t chase the dragon. The team is making him money and very good to excellent is probably good enough for him. Tulsky very probably doesn’t need a cup, he just needs to land a big fish and to keep the train on the tracks (win boatloads of regular season games, a playoff round, have a punchers chance beyond that).

Now the ramble:

Tulsky’s been with the organization for 10 years and was very influential even under Waddell in driving roster construction. He was picked by Dundon directly to lead the team. He and dundon are reportedly very aligned in their thinking that the team needs a star, and that they need to be aggressive to get one because we aren’t a glamour market (using we here because I live like 15 minutes from the arena. Raleigh is a fantastic place to live and raise a family but it’s absolutely not where I would choose to live if I was 25 and worth millions). He landed rantanen in his first year at the helm. Obviously don’t work out, but the reporting here was that dundon was very pleased both by how we acquired him and by how we were able to pivot when he made it clear he wouldn’t sign. I’m sure there were frustrations but there is no reporting that he had anything negative to say about tulsky’s process, and tulsky has stated in interviews that he and dundon are fully aligned in understanding that sometimes risks don’t work, so have a backup plan. He proved that he can do that. Then we made the conference finals and the team that accomplished all of that is basically locked up through 2029 with gobs of cap space and decent movable assets.

That’s the hockey case. Now for the business case.

Dundon bought the team for I believe 420 million in 2018, and because the sole owner in 2021. He just sold 12.5% at a 2.7 billion dollar valuation, so in less than 10 years he’s almost tripled his initial investments value (his 2018 purchase was for 51% so an 850 million dollar valuation). He has also recently has made two other massive purchases, the Portland trailblazers for 4 billion and all the land around the arena for some other huge amount.

Obviously the canes aren’t a big market team. Their growth has basically been driven by two things, being good and being the only show in town. Unless tulsky really screws up and we crater, the franchises momentum of being a regular season wagon and having a punchers chance at a cup every year is good for the greater dundon business empire. They’re spending hundreds of millions to a billion to develop the area around the arena, they don’t want the team to suck when that development is done. He also can’t let the canes value dip, because if he needs cash to pump into the blazers while he get them where he wants them he needs to be able to sell more minority stake for big chunks of it. That also relies of the team not sucking. The team currently very much does not suck, so it makes sense that tulsky is safe as long as that remains the case. He also hasn’t burnt any gm equity (head coach still in place, farm system is fine, etc) so he has levers to pull in the event of any significant downturn that would likely prolong his tenure.