DALLAS — The Dallas sports calendar has reached the scorching summer months as the first place Texas Rangers captivate the metroplex and the Dallas Cowboys get ready for training camp.
But on the hardwood, the Dallas Mavericks are eager to put their tanking episode behind them with the 2023-2024 season officially going into production at 5 p.m. Friday with the opening of NBA free agency.
As the clock winds down on the previous NBA year, Kyrie Irving fans will burn their last bit of sage in preparation for the most chaotic player movement in American sports, where fans and industry alike frantically refresh social media for a crumb of NBA rumors as teams look to address their roster challenges.
With another European darling in Nikola Jokic winning his first championship with the Denver Nuggets earlier this month, the pressure is intense for the Dallas front office in their build around young superstar Luka Doncic.
The offseason wishes of the Mavericks in years prior have never gone to plan, but they continue to have an ace up their sleeves with the 24 year-old Doncic, now a four-time NBA All-Star, four-timeAll-NBA First Team selection, and perennial MVP candidate.
Building around an all-world talent like Doncic continues to be a double-edged sword, a problem that most of the league wish they had. The immense pressure to build a winning roster in a league desensitized to star players leaving is reaching a critical point for the Mavericks, even with their star guard signed through the 2026 season.
While the trade that brought in Irving didn’t result in immediate gratification, pairing two players with 12 NBA All-Star selections between them in the same backcourt for the next half decade is not the NBA purgatory that Dallas has often resigned themselves to in the post-Dirk Nowitzki years.
For Irving, the question comes down to need. Is the former champion point guard OK being considered a second option? Is the ultimate goal to cash in and receive a max offer?
If so, the Mavericks can trump any other team with an offer up to five years in length and nearly $273 million in earnings. Irving will surely go out and flirt with other teams, but will anything short of a max offer from Dallas be considered an insult or is he looking to pair with yet another franchise to build yet another super team?
The looming threat of a poacher eyeing Irving seems to be minimal, with the Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Lakers already appearing to be out of the mix, but as previous summers have shown, you don’t know how things will shake out in the league until the dust settles.
If the Mavericks keep Irving, the need to go star-chasing would be over. Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison and coach Jason Kidd were initial hires in reaction to the changing landscape of player movement, with Dallas clearly wanting to reap the rewards of their relationships around the league.
Bringing back Irving would be a boon to Mark Cuban’s initial vision for the team’s braintrust partnership. The next step would be to put those relationships to work in filling out the roster with veteran value additions for wing players and defenders on low-salary deals to plug around their young building blocks that include Doncic, previous draftees Josh Green and Jaden Hardy, and newly drafted Dereck Lively and Olivier-Maxence Prosper.
In the front court, this summer’s maneuvering will likely spell the end of Dwight Powell receiving major minutes in a Dallas uniform, but the consummate professional could return in a reduced role.
Christian Wood will certainly be gone as he never seemed to mesh with Kidd’s vision, and Javale McGee isn’t likely to return either as Dallas looks to remake their roster with defensive presence and rim protection in mind, something Lively and Prosper were selected to enhance.
Despite having Doncic and Irving, the Mavs missed the playoffs a year after Kidd had led the squad to the Western Conference Finals. Controversially, Dallas tanked their shot at the league’s play-in tournament in hopes of keeping their first round pick away from the New York Knicks for the time being.
It worked and produced Lively, but it also damaged the team’s reputation and put a dent in Cuban’s pocketbook as the league fined the owner $600,000 for sitting his starters during the final few games of the season.
The Mavericks had one of their more savvy drafts in years as they parlayed the No. 10 pick into two serviceable front court additions all while offloading the two years and $33 Million left on Davis Bertans’ contract.
That’s certainly a win for Harrison and company, and the first step in rehabilitating Dallas’ image around the league. The additions will also allow them to play the roster swap game a bit more fruitfully with recently-added Richaun Holmes and the returning Tim Hardway Jr. solidifying the rotation, if Irving returns.
Rumors of Deandre Ayton, Tobias Harris, or Pascal Siakam making their way to Dallas via trade, or the Mavs looking to sign Bruce Brown away from the championship winning Nuggets will play out over the next week, but the success of the offseason rests broadly on the shoulders of Kyrie Irving.
The rest will fall into place as long as the Mavericks simply look to fill their roster gaps with players who will help Doncic shoulder the load, and if they don’t get caught waiting on an Irving decision as the secondary market thins.
Do you think the Mavericks will be able to build a contender this summer? Share your thoughts on the trade with Irvin on Twitter @Twittirv.
