The Dallas Mavericks had a miserable season by basically every metric. Right from the beginning, as the Mavs endured Anthony Davis injuries, point Cooper Flagg and countless clutch losses, you knew where this season was heading. The Mavericks themselves admitted this, firing Nico Harrison for his negligence in November, then promptly trading away the crowned jewel of his trade last year in Anthony Davis.
With all that in mind, the Mavericks organization had every reason to race to the bottom. This
is a team that got just a handful of games out of their dream front court, with both Davis and Dereck Lively being out of commission for the majority of the year. They ran out Cooper Flagg at point because D’Angelo Russell simply can’t play. They had countless injuries the whole year. Unlike the Jazz and Grizzlies, who are artificially nuking somewhat decent basketball teams, the Mavericks stunk out loud.
So, surely the Mavericks will enter the draft with a great chance at a top four pick, right?
Unfortunately for fans who wanted to see Dallas pair Cooper Flagg with an elite co-star in this draft, the Mavericks played this season about as poorly as you could have. After the Davis trade, they had several veteran players who could’ve been useful for other teams in the playoffs. Guys like Klay Thompson and Naji Marshall, who could’ve been traded before the deadline for several second round picks. By the time Dallas is ready to compete again, those guys will likely be aged out of the rotation. Why keep them in the name of winning a few games you don’t really want to win?
Then you have Khris Middleton, who was acquired in the trade with Washington. Middleton is very useful, as he showed when scoring 35 points in an eight-point win over the Grizzlies on March 12. You don’t think that loss could’ve been nice to have now?
The Dallas Mavericks organization is aimless and lacks leadership. From ownership on down, this season was a damning indictment on how this organization failed on almost every level. The coach is snaking around, covering up his role in the Luka trade and potentially aiming for the open GM role. The interim GM’s were only able to take a half measure at the deadline because ownership wanted to wait and fire the previous GM mid-season. Led by Patrick Dumont, this ownership group of non-basketball people have only shown to be a hindrance on building a championship level team. Granted, things could change with the new general manager being brought in. But if how you do one thing is how you do everything, Patrick Dumont and his family will neuter Cooper Flagg for years to come.
In the here and now, this team exiting with the seventh or eighth best odds at the top selection in the draft is a huge middle finger to the fans. The Mavericks had their chance to build like the Spurs, with multiple high level lottery picks. Instead, this franchise has failed to maximize the chance they had to put a real, high level guard next to Flagg in this draft. From the top down, they failed not only to execute a plan, but they failed to even implement one. For all of this season’s suffering, the Mavericks didn’t get enough out of it to make it worthwhile. Now, they must rely on lady luck to bail them out of their own poor decisions once again.
