The Dallas Mavericks played better and longer than anyone could have imagined when training camp opened long ago in September 2023. In the end, they ran into a buzzsaw from the Boston Celtics that they simply couldn’t overcome. Now that the journey is over, it’s time to look back and think about what last season showed us.
The NBA season is a long one, a marathon that breaks down what you thought you knew and teaches you some new things. The playoffs can be even more brutal and reveal harsh truths about teams. So let’s take a look at what we learned about the Dallas Mavericks over the nine months.
Luka Doncic is a winner
Doncic has been to the Western Conference Finals and the NBA Finals in two of the last three seasons. The most impressive thing is that he has done it with two squads with almost completely different compositions. Missing the playoffs in 2023 was concerning, but it’s starting to look like it was just a blip in what would otherwise be a run full of deep playoff runs.
There is a lot of talk about what Doncic doesn’t do and, like almost all players, there are still some rough edges in his game. He needs to be more consistent in defense, he needs to move more without the ball and he needs to intervene when yelling at the referees. But there’s no doubt that Doncic can do what every illustrious superstar in NBA history is capable of: control nearly every game they play, no matter what defenses throw at them. Trying to include Doncic in any other kind of tier is simply click bait, a desperate attempt to spark debate for the sake of attention.
The good thing about sports is that, eventually, the truth is revealed. Doncic has won, despite being young, despite the fact that his cast rotates, and that shows, without a doubt, that he is a winning player.
Dereck Lively II was a steal in the Draft
Coming into the season, expectations were pretty low for Lively. He just needed to look like he belonged in the NBA. He put aside any worries about it rather quickly. Lively looked like a rookie against the league’s elite big men, but it was pretty clear that he held his own overall.
Despite suffering from injuries throughout the year, Lively averaged 8.8 points, 6.9 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 1.4 blocks per game. The numbers don’t exactly stand out, but they’re decent for a first-year player who relied on every other player on the team to get shots off the basket. The most impressive thing is that attendance number. Lively showed a remarkable ability to pass through the roll man in pick-and-rolls with Doncic and Kyrie Irving. Add in the fact that he has the instinctive ability to dive to the basket to collect lobs from his fellow superstars in the backcourt, and Lively has shown that his future is bright.
Jason Kidd has gained some confidence, but some doubts remain
Kidd has had his ups and downs in Dallas, but this year he gained consistent competition. There are no comments about “just watching” as fans, a little more engaged. The team’s success obviously gives Kidd some wiggle room, but guiding a team to the NBA Finals doesn’t guarantee that someone will be a successful coach forever.
The Detroit Pistons traded Monty Williams to secure his services last season, and now he is no longer their coach, just three years removed from a Finals appearance. Longtime Mavericks fans know this: Avery Johnson led Dallas to its first Finals berth, but he was fired less than two seasons later and never found much success elsewhere in the league.
Kidd’s rotations during the playoffs sometimes got strange, culminating in Game 2 of the Finals when 11 players saw the court in the first half. For some reason, he could never find guys he trusted at the back of the rotation. He probably wouldn’t have made much of a difference given the talent deficit the Maverick faced on the Celtics, but he’s still a bit concerning. Kidd’s arrow points up, no doubt, but we still don’t know if he is the coach who can lead the Mavericks to a championship.
The Dallas crowd can still do it.
In the early 2000s, the Mavericks had a reputation for having loud, rowdy crowds. More than a decade between Finals appearances hasn’t quieted that noise. During the regular season, Dallas fans may show up a little late and treat the AAC as a club to watch instead of a basketball game, but during the playoffs, they absolutely show up. Both Finals games in Dallas were LOUD, especially the annihilation of the Celtics in Game 4. It was nice to see that despite having only one great playoff run in the last 12 years, Mavs fans still they had the energy and enthusiasm of those early 2000s crowds.
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