The Dallas Mavericks’ hellscape 2025 is now over. A fresh calendar and fresh opportunities lay on the horizon for this team, as they try to remove any and all hauntings of a truly insane self-sabotage.
Now, the calendar move to January doesn’t mean the problems disappear. This week’s Power Rankings Watch really drives home that this team is inconsistent, unhealthy, and in desperate need of moving past the remnants of Nico Harrison’s vision. As rumors continue to swirl about the trade landscape for Anthony Davis the team continues collecting losses, and perhaps a better position in this summer’s draft.
ESPN
Rank: 24
Last week: 21
As the Mavs explore the trade market for Anthony Davis, the other player received as part of the return package in the widely criticized Luka Doncic trade is providing reason for optimism that he can be part of the franchise’s core into the future. Max Christie, 22, is shooting a career-best 46.6% from 3-point range as a part-time starter. According to NBA Advanced Stats, Christie has an effective field goal percentage of 76.2% on catch-and-shoot opportunities, the best in the league among the 61 players with at least 120 attempts. — MacMahon
NBA
Rank: 26
Last week: 19
- Davis has yet to play in more than five straight games and, with their loss in Sacramento on Saturday, the Mavs are 4-13 without him. Eleven of those 13 losses have been within five points in the last five minutes (they continue to lead the league in clutch games), but they’ve scored just 106.3 points per 100 possessions over those 17 games overall. Saturday was just the fourth time that the Kings have allowed less than 105 per 100.
- The one-point win over the Nuggets (with Davis) was the Mavs’ best offensive game of the season (131 points on 98 possessions). Cooper Flagg led the way with 33 points and nine assists, making as many 3-pointers (four) as he had made over his previous 10 games combined. That included a late-clock 3-pointer that put Dallas up five with a little more than three minutes left. Flagg’s 68 clutch points are more than twice as many as any other rookie and 30 more than any rookie had all of last season.
- The Mavs had just four 3-pointers as a team in their 10-point loss to the Warriors, when they were outscored by 30 points from beyond the arc. They now have four games of making five or fewer 3s, while the rest of the league has just eight. The Mavs and Pelicans are the two teams that rank in the bottom five in both 3-point percentage and 3-point rate.
Coming up: The Mavs have now lost six straight road games and will complete a three-game trip in Portland on Monday. One of their four wins without Davis came in mid-November against the Blazers, who they trail by a game and a half for the final SoFi Play-In Tournament spot in the West.
The Athletic
Rank: 26 (Tier 5: Basement Floor)
Last week: 21
What a 2025 for the Mavericks. They really traded Luka Dončić, who did not play a single game for them in the calendar year after his Christmas 2024 calf injury. If you thought Dallas could get through Christmas 2025 without another soft tissue injury, you’d be sadly mistaken, as Anthony Davis left the game in Golden State and was held out of the loss in Sacramento due to right adductor soreness.
Bleacher Report
Rank: 20
Last week: 18
In his one season at Duke, Cooper Flagg averaged 16.3 points and shot 42.1 percent from the field in his first 12 games. From that point to the end of the season, he averaged 20.5 and shot 51.1 percent from the field.
Now, in the NBA and against stiffer competition, he’s on a similar developmental trajectory.
In his first 10 games as a Dallas Maverick, Flagg put up 13.9 points and made 40.3 percent of his shots. Since then, he’s averaging a team-high 22.0 points, while shooting 52.6 percent from the field. He’s also adding 6.3 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.0 blocks.
There was little doubt the Duke product would get better over the course of his first NBA campaign, but the upward slope he’s on is steeper than even his strongest believers could have imagined.
At this point, it feels like All-NBA contention could be in play within the next couple years.
