If Cormac Karl “Max” Christie had put up the numbers he put up in 2025-26 in support of a team battling for playoff positioning down the stretch, Dallas Mavericks fans would be calling him one of the most underrated players in the NBA. He’d be a bona fide up-and-comer.
He shot a career-best 40.4% from 3-point range in his fifth year out of Michigan State and also put up a career-high mark of 12.3 points per game in his first full year with the Mavericks. He played in 77 games, starting 68 of them.
The numbers say he’s developing into a nice complementary player. The eye test does too, at times. On a roster pockmarked with holes, salary fillers and projects, why doesn’t Christie’s status as a core member moving forward feel more cemented? Why does the mention of his name and place in the organization evoke little more than a shrug and a “meh.”
In the absence of anything better, Christie seems… fine. Why is that?
Season in review
The most glaring reason may just be the collective numbness Mavs fans feel after the team’s 26-56 effort this year. It is harder than ever to feel feelings about basketball under present circumstances. If that’s the case, don’t let a bummer of a year sour you on one of the few guys on this roster who could be useful moving forward as the Mavericks start to build around Cooper Flagg.
But another part of the ambivalence that Christie engenders may be due to his tendency toward exaggerated streakiness.
He’s been streaky in the extreme since he arrived in February of last season as part of the trade that sent Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers. He scored 15 or more points in each of the first seven games he played in a Mavericks uniform. He promptly followed that with a month of March that saw him average just over nine points per game on just 33% shooting from beyond the arc. He was even worse from the perimeter toward the end of last season.
Christie sustained a really good start to the season for more than a month this year. He was one of the best corner 3-point shooters in the league for most of the year, but his shooting above the break wasn’t nearly as consistent. He had a down month in December, as his minutes tapered off some, before bouncing back with 16.5 points per game in January. He seemed to lose his touch from outside down the stretch of the season, but found other ways to score in an offense that threw everything up against the wall in search of something that would stick alongside Flagg.
Would Christie’s efforts be more appreciated on a better team? Or would Christie be relegated to fewer minutes and an even smaller impact on a winner? He brought with him to Dallas a reputation as at least a plus defender, but he’s neither big nor bad enough to solve the point of attack. He can be part of a good defensive unit, but he’s not individually brilliant enough on that end of the floor to lead one.
Best game
Christie scored 26 points on 8-of-10 shooting from 3-point land and grabbed six rebounds in a 114-97 upset win at the New York Knicks on Jan. 19. In retrospect, that win and two or three similar flukes in the second half of the season likely were the difference between the Mavericks having the fifth-best odds in the Draft Lottery and eventually ending up with the eighth-best odds.
Still, it was a hell of a game for Christie, and it came amidst another one of his patented streaks. It was the second of what would be four straight games of more than 20 points in January. He made 20-of-38 from 3-point territory in those four games, but he just couldn’t miss in that head-scratcher at Madison Square Garden.
Contract Status
In the end, this team needs so much help, that it seems the best idea to keep Christie around, especially on his current contract, which will pay him just north of $8.2 million next season, before his player option ahead of 2027-28, with just under $9 million waiting. If he can take one more step in the right direction, that deal will look like a steal. He signed that four-year, $32-million deal while he was still with the Lakers.
Looking ahead
Ideally, Christie would be an effective scorer and able defender coming off the bench as the Mavericks rebuild. He was forced into a higher-profile role on a really dumb team in 2025-26, and the Mavericks may need all he can give them next year, depending on who Dallas lands with their first pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.
If he can improve his above-the-break 3-point shooting and show a little more on defense, he might grow into something akin to the guard version of Naji Marshall. Capable, lovable and something altogether more than “meh.”
