The Dallas Mavericks (3-8) will usher in their No Nicos Era on Wednesday when they host the Phoenix Suns (6-5) at American Airlines Center. Win or lose, this game represents an inflection point in franchise
history, and we’re glad it’s here. Moving on begins now.
Some former fans may rush back into the fold, others may trickle back as the team’s outlook shifts and a new direction is charted. But one is for sure — Wednesday’s game will be the first to be played since the team and what’s left of its fandom successfully wriggled free from the specter of Nico Harrison and The Trade That Is And Should Not Be.
We’re all a little (or a lot) worse for wear, no doubt. But at least we can focus on the future and on basketball from this point on. The small consolation begins with a matchup against a hated foe who conjures fond memories of recent yesteryear. It feels like millennia have passed since Luka Dončić looked lovingly (trollingly) up at a reeling Devin Booker in that playoff game as the Mavericks bludgeoned the Suns, stole their souls even, on Dallas’ way to a Game 7 blowout win in the Western Conference semifinals.
The Suns haven’t been the same as an organization since. They hung around as a Western Conference playoff contender in that iteration for a couple years, while the Mavericks changed shapes multiple times before devolving into the dumpster fire we see before us to begin the 2025-26 season. This year’s Phoenix bunch was thought in the pre-season to be something of an enigma, with pieces cobbled together from every wayward direction in free agency and in the historic seven-team trade that sent Kevin Durant to the Houston Rockets for Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, rookie Khaman Maluach and two second-rounders.
The team’s 6-5 record thus far has been a little bit of a pleasant surprise, with Booker stepping up and into his seat as Mr. Everything and the pieces fitting nicely around him to start the year. The team suffered a huge setback, though, when Jalen Green went down with an apparent hamstring injury in Saturday’s 114-103 win at the Los Angeles Clippers. Green was the main attraction in the package the Suns received in the seven-team deal to send Durant to Houston, and averaged better than 20 points per game in his first four years in the NBA with the Rockets. He will be re-evaluated in four-to-six weeks with a hamstring strain, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania, and, thus, will not be making the trip to Dallas for Wednesday’s game.
Even without Green’s services, the Suns made quick work of the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday, 121-98. Remember, the Mavs lost to the Pels 101-99 last Wednesday, a moment that no doubt pushed the momentum forward in the Adelson & Dumont Regime’s decision-making calculus to relieve Harrison of his duties at general manager.
Here are three storylines we’ll be keen to focus on as the Mavs host the Suns, instead of brooding in our regularly scheduled sullen pessimism about front office ineptitude.
Bring on the bad guys
If you can’t help but still view anyone in a Phoenix Suns jersey as “the bad guy,” their current roster still fits that bill to a tee. The Suns currently harbor the likes of Brooks as well as the former serial tripper Grayson Allen. In fact, Allen dropped a career-high 42 points on a Suns franchise record 10 made 3-pointers in Monday’s win over the Pelicans. He’s the man of the moment over there in the desert, which should elicit no shortage of eye-rolls as the Suns roll into Dallas.
Allen and Brooks, who is averaging better than 18 points through the first five games of his season, are in full bloom in the sunny climes of Phoenix, and we can’t think of a more annoying storyline than that for fans of literally any other franchise.
Then there is Booker. Yea, that guy. He made us hate him in 2022 when he coined the term “Luka Special.” The Mavs fans shot back with the “K-Mart Kobe” nickname across the bow. Those were the days, weren’t they?
Things remained chippy between the Suns and the Mavericks for at least a year after that. We may have less reason to dislike Booker now that the point has been rendered moot in the aftermath of the Dončić trade, but, still, he sticks in our craw. And he sticks even stickier because he knows he does, and he likes that he does. He’s the type of dude who revels in it.
Oh, and Booker is going off through the Suns’ first 11 games as well, averaging 28.4 points per game, which would be a new career high if it sticks. Though there is every reason to believe this Suns roster has the firepower to bring the Mavs out back behind their own woodshed on Wednesday, don’t discount the purified aura surrounding the home team following Harrison’s beautifully abrupt ouster on Tuesday.
3-point chasm
Witness the wide crevasse. The expanse that lay before you. That, my friends, is the gulf between the 3-point shooting of one of the best teams in the league (Phoenix) and your team, the suddenly cellar-dwelling Mavericks. This statistical anomaly alone may be enough to sink the Mavs against the Suns.
You may not see a more vast disparity between two teams’ skill beyond the arc all season than the one on display at the AAC on Wednesday. After all, Dallas somehow outshot the league-leading Rockets (in 3-point field goal percentage, 42.8%) in Houston’s 110-102 win over the Mavs last Monday. Phoenix comes into the matchup shooting 38.5% from 3-point range through 11 games, good for seventh in the NBA. But the fact that they get nearly 43 of them up per game (42.7, fourth-most in the NBA) compounds the potential damage. The Suns hold the fifth-highest mark in the league in 3-point frequency, letting a 3-pointer fly on 48% of their possessions.
If Wednesday’s game turns into a battle of the math, with the Mavs throwing their bodies around the lane to get to the free-throw line as many times as possible, Dallas may end up on the wrong side of the equation. The Mavericks, for the record, are still dead last in 3-point shooting, at 29.5% on the year.
It’s just dreadfully cold outside for Dallas, as head coach Jason Kidd noted in his postgame comments following the team’s 116-114 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday.
Availability — the best ability
And finally, we get to the last remaining Harrison-related albatross hanging from the neck of the once proud Dallas Mavericks franchise. Anthony Davis (calf), as is tradition, is once again listed as questionable to play against the Suns, as of Tuesday’s 6 p.m. NBA injury report. It’s a fun little feature of having Davis as the centerpiece of your team. It seems like you just never know if he’ll play or not, and when he does, if he’ll be in the mood to try that night or not. It’s all just one big question. It’s very questionable. See? Everything fits, in the cosmic sense.
Dereck Lively II (knee) has also been upgraded from doubtful to questionable for Wednesday’s game against the Suns. We hope to see one or both of them back on the court at… some point. That is, if any single, solitary Mavs fan has even an ounce of hope left in their soul at this point.
You’d like to think that the minute both these bigs get plugged back into the Mavericks’ lineup that it would inject some instant measure of relevance back into this team. But relevance with regard to winning basketball games or having a successful 2025-26 season was most likely out the window before the year started. That’s the reason that Harrison is now unemployed.
No matter who’s available and who isn’t Wednesday’s game against the Suns offers Mavs fans a chance to begin the process of moving on.
Come what may.
How to watch
The Mavericks will host the Suns in a game tipping off at 7:30 p.m. CDT on Wednesday at the American Airlines Center. The game will be televised locally on KFAA Channel 29 as well as in select regional markets on TEGNA sister stations. It can also be streamed on MavsTV or on NBA League Pass.
