Mavs eliminated

With the loss to the Golden State Warriors 137-131, the Dallas Mavericks's 2025-2026 season comes to an end, but what did it mean and what are the future implications of this team?

Coming into this season, many people were divided on their belief on this team. The ones hardcore loyal to Luka Doncic either left to support him or didn't have their hopes high on the season. Ones that were willing to look to the future definitely had a little excitement with the pairing of Flagg and Anthony Davis. Kyrie Irving's status at the time was still on the fence, but many hoped he would return by the spring. The Mavs rolled into the season sporting a starting lineup of bigs and defensive play. Couple that with a deep bench, they looked set to hit the reset button and get going for the year.

Well, none of that went right.

The Mavs quickly found out that yes, offensive scoring is actually important to basketball these days and no, Cooper Flagg was not going to immediately fill Luka's shoes even if he is the number one overall pick. The Mavs got off to a blazing cold start, starting 3-10. The unfortunate thing is many of these games were within reach, but the Mavs did not have the guy that could take over at the end of games anymore.

And what about Anthony Davis, the man they traded Luka Doncic for? Well, he got off to a good start. The Mavericks were 16-6 with Davis in the lineup, and he himself got off to averaging a strong 22 points and 9 rebounds per game. Just one problem, and you probably saw it coming, injuries.

I know, shocker, Anthony Davis was dealing with Injury problems. It's almost as if a blind cat could've told you that Davis was an injury prone player, but it is what it is. And what of Flagg, well he is a bright spot in what was a dark season for this team. Flagg is the leading candidate for rookie of the year, he has shown incredible talent and games for this team and has clearly cemented himself as the future cornerstone of this team. Sure he has things to work on; Clutch scoring, playmaking, 3 point shooting, maybe creating space, but all of that can be worked on with time.

Side mention that Nico Harrison, the man responsible for this, was fired in November 2025.

PJ Washington, Daniel Gafford, and Derrick Lively, all pieces meant to fit around Luka Doncic, were kind of rendered redundant on this team. Sure they are good and can do what they usually do, but their impact was a lot more with Luka, probably because they complimented Luka really well.

The Mavs traded Davis and Hardy near the deadline to the Washington Wizards in place of Khris Middleton and Marvin Bagley. Ending the era of Davis on the Mavs, a rather quick one, and moving on to Middleton and Bagley. Middleton and Bagley have been decent for this team, both making their contributions noticed with a couple of big performances from themselves.

Sitting at 23-49, going on losing streaks as big as 10, ranking 21st in offensive scoring, 20th in paint scoring, 26th in 3 point shooting, the Mavs have essentially thrown in the towel these past few games, especially considering the fact Kyrie has been shut down for the year. 3 out of the last 4 years the Mavericks have missed the playoffs, the one year they didn't, we know what happened.

So what does this mean for the draft and free agency, well for starters, the Mavs right now hold a projected lottery pick. The Mavs were the beneficiaries of the lottery system last year which landed them Cooper Flagg, they now should have a better chance to get a high draft pick given their record is worse than last year. Some players that have hit the headlines include Dybantsa, Daryn Peterson, Cam Boozer, and Darius Acuff.

Here's the bigger problem, the Mavericks don't have a lot of cap space. A lot of their money and their mindset was a win now mindset, which means they don't have a lot to spend, Currently sitting at 72 million over the cap. Some key notes to help you better understand.

• The "Big" Salaries: The cap is heavily occupied by Kyrie Irving (~$39.5M), PJ Washington (~$19.8M), Klay Thompson (~$17.5M), and Daniel Gafford (~$17.3M).

  
  

• Rising Stars: Cooper Flagg (on his rookie scale) is a focal point of their future salary structure, but veteran extensions have pushed the team deep into the luxury tax territory.

• Trade Exceptions: While they lack cap space to sign free agents outright, they hold several trade exceptions (including a large $20.8M Anthony Davis exception) that they can use to acquire players via trade.

In short the Mavericks are relying on their lottery pick to be good, lacking any real offensive scoring outside of Flagg, somehow still struggling with defensive play even though they traded Luka for it, not a lot of cap space to spread out to other players, and currently sit at 23-49.

But hey, no where to go but up.