Hey folks we’re back at it, going division by division figuring out just who the Golden State Warriors should be concerned about this season. And after the way things turned out last year when the wounded Dubs didn’t even make the postseason, that answer could easily be anybody. But one of the teams GSW had success against last year comes from the Southwest Division. I’m talking about the Dallas Mavericks, a team that floundered with the injury absence of Kyrie Irving, the rookie lessons of Cooper
Flagg, and the inconsistent play of former Warrior Klay Thompson. The Warriors took two out of three from Dallas last season, including a big win on Christmas. Unfortunately one of those battles cost them the knee of Moses Moody.
Dallas spent this offseason trying to convince everybody it finally has its act together, and for about five minutes in the spring, I believed it. They fired Nico Harrison, allegedly the brains behind the PR disaster that was the Luka Doncic trade. They hired Masai Ujiri, the guy who built a championship team in Toronto, to run the whole operation. They brought in Dusty May off an NCAA title at Michigan to replace Bay Area legend Jason Kidd as head coach. On paper that’s the best offseason of competent decision-making this franchise has had in years, and it’s happening around Flagg who just won Rookie of the Year doing things nobody his age should be able to do.
Then the actual roster-building started, and I need somebody in Dallas to explain something to me.
We already know what Flagg is. Nobody in the Bay needs a stat sheet to tell them he’s the problem. What Dallas doesn’t have is anybody to take some of that creation load off him, because right now the only reliable ballhandler on the roster is Kyrie Irving, who’s 34 and coming off a torn ACL that’s kept him out since March of last year. Everybody assumed Dallas would use the ninth pick on a guard. They took Morez Johnson Jr., a forward out of Michigan, where Dusty May coached him. I like the player but I don’t understand the team.
And then they waived Klay Thompson, ending a very bland first chapter of the ex-Splash Bro’s post-Dubs career.
Our friends over at Mavs Money Ball were guardedly optimistic in their roundtable of the Mavericks’ offseason moves, but one quote stood out for me:
The problem is that Dallas chose to work around the margins instead of truly reforming the roster. The Mavericks still have too many overlapping forwards, not enough reliable ball-handling and several veterans who do not clearly fit Flagg’s timeline. Other young teams have been more aggressive in defining their direction, whether by collecting draft assets, clearing veterans or building a cleaner developmental roster. The individual moves mostly make sense, but they do not yet form a coherent plan.
What kinda team is this? Dallas’ answer at backup guard last season was Brandon Williams, who averaged 13 points and 4 assists for them and even dropped 26 off the bench in the Christmas game against Golden State. The Warriors just signed him though!
Cooper Flagg is a ridiculous young talent surrounded by a roster that has hella question marks. That young supertalent scares me. The Mavericks do not.
