Photo Courtesy: Michael Kolch
By DaVince “Dino” Wright
The 39-43 Dallas Mavericks
Imagine watching your son and his friends play little league basketball. You have one kid that’s dynamic with handling the ball and making the game look so easy (Kyrie) and he has a kid on the same team that can really shoot the ball from anywhere on the court (Luka) and the one skinny kid very unassuming that hustles for the team (Dereck Lively II) playing in their championship game. They’re slated to go back and win it all the next season, but the team sponsors want to change the team for the better in their mind. Remember the team sponsor loves soccer and really doesn’t understand basketball. Here is where we are right now: The Dallas Mavericks for the 2023-24 season went 50-32, 5th in the Western conference and ultimately lost to the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals. The team finished with a 39-43 record for the 2024-25 season and finished in 10th place in the conference. They played two Play-In playoffs games defeating the Sacramento Kings in the first game before losing to Memphis on the road to end this season. Through all of the madness surrounding the team this season, they still played their hearts out to the very end. The trade, injuries and front office problems ultimately played a huge part in the falling of the Mavericks.
The Luka Trade
This will be one of the craziest trades in NBA history. Over the past 5 seasons Luka Doncic has been one of the best players in the NBA. His career numbers as a Maverick were 28.6 points, 8.7 rebounds and 8.3 assists a game. He is a generational talent that has a chance to rewrite the history books for years to come. Here’s the thing, Luka was the face of the franchise and paying him the max contract was one of the things that the franchise didn’t want to do. We can blame the front offices from both Dallas and Los Angeles for the great train robbery of the 21st century. The backlash in Dallas will be felt for years to come or until they win a title without Luka.
What’s Next?
Getting the front office back to where they once were is the first thing that Dallas needs to do. General Manager Nico Harrison will need to have free rein like he had before the Luka trade. He was doing his job. Allow him to gain some footing and put a team together a high calibre team and get a championship. The next step will be bringing in key players to play defense! Over the past four seasons, Dallas has been so soft on the defensive end that teams would wait until the 4th quarter to score easy points in the paint. Rebounding will be the focus and getting the team healthy would-be job one.
Season Grade is…
We will never know how the season would have turned out with a healthy Kyrie, Anthony Davis, Dereck Lively II, Dante Exum, Daniel Gafford and Kai Jones. We saw the best in the team and the worst with Dallas only having 7 healthy players while being on the verge of forfeiting games. If I were to grade this team, I would give them a C+! How is it that a team that went to the NBA Finals last season doesn’t have their games played on any major television network in its own city to start this season? How does a team this good has very little community involvement in the southern sector of Dallas where their practice facility is located? Dallas needs an overhaul from top to bottom and get the ship right before Las Vegas gets an NBA franchise within the next 2 years!
