The Dallas Mavericks wrapped up their preseason schedule with a loss to the Atlanta Hawks Friday night. Despite a relatively mundane record (1-3), the preseason allowed Kyrie Irving a chance to prove he’s returning to form and showed how Zaccharie Risacher can contribute when he’s playing at his best (which in fairness, took until the final game).
With the preseason behind them and the regular season just days away, Dallas continues to handle some roster business. This is the time of year when moves
around the edges are made and players on the cusp are either retained or let free. In the case of the Mavericks, they made two moves involving familiar names – one, the face of the franchise and the other a rotation piece at the end of last season.
John Poulakidas
The Mavericks gave Poulakidas a two-way contract on March 2, 2026. This was after Dallas traded Anthony Davis and unequivocally ushed in the Cooper Flagg era. With Dallas’ season effectively over by early March, it made sense to take a few flyers and Poulakidas was one of them. For a team that shot below league average from beyond the arc, Poulakidas was a welcome sight and seemingly would have a chance on a Mavs’ team that struggled from deep.
In 13 games with the Mavericks, Poulakidas averaged just shy of 20 minutes per game, and offered up 8.8 points and 2.3 assists per game across those outings. He was everything the team needed as a shooter, having connected on 57.1% of his shots inside the arc and 40.3% from deep. Despite that, Poulakidas’ time as a Maverick has come to an end as of Saturday afternoon. As part of their effort to get to the proper number of roster spots, Poulakidas was waived.
If you’re wondering whether or not this move was in direct correlation to keeping Dwight Powell, it seems to be only part of the story. Even with the departure of Poulakidas, Dallas has to eliminate another standard contract to be in compliance with the 15-man maximum, which means Powell himself could be dropped, is someone else isn’t moved out in order to retain him.
Cooper Flagg
In the least surprising news of the offseason, the Mavericks opted to pick up Flagg’s third year option. A player like Flagg – one who signed their rookie deal last year and who hold a year of NBA tenure – puts his team in position to pick up (or not) their third-year option. This is generally a no-brainer for most teams, given the relative affordability of a rookie-scale deal, but it was of course the most elementary thing imaginable for a player of Flagg’s caliber. The move locks in Flagg for 2027-2028 at just north of $15 million. Next year, Dallas will all but certainly do it all again, to lock Flagg in for 2028-2029.
Adjacent to this news is the curious lack of similar news for Risacher. He too is in position to either get his next year locked up, or not. Having started all four preseason games doesn’t necessarily indicate what will happen. On the surface, his starts suggest he will be a big part of the rotation, possibly even a day-one starter. Perhaps it was more of an effort to give him the necessary burn for the Mavericks front office to make the most informed decision. Dallas still has time to announce his news, so it’s not time to read into anything, but it is something to monitor as we near the November 2 deadline to lock him in.
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