Time to look to the Future

Hard truth is, Luka's gone, he isn't coming back anytime in the future. It's been nearly a year since the move, the Mavs have already started to turn the page, but in order to get over it, they need to fully burn the book.

You might be asking, well what the hell does that mean. It means that they have to move the players that they got to suit Luka Doncic. In 2024, the Mavs turned Grant Williams and Seth Curry into PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford. They got their 3 and D wing who could drive off the ball and their lob threat and defensive center they so desperately needed. Because of it, The Mavs went on a run from February- June, beat the Clippers with their improved lob city style, beat the Thunder with the help of a resurgent PJ Washington who averaged 19 points and the team looked promising for the following year. After a series of injuries and a little bit of a slow start to the season, Luka was ready to come back in the Spring of 2025 and helped the Mavs who were currently sitting at the 5th seed at 32-28.

Then, they traded him.

It was heartbraking, and the Mavs, expectedly so, fell out of playoff contention. But with it, came the number one overall pick Cooper Flagg.

Since, Cooper has gotten out to a good start as a rookie. But the one problem is, Cooper isn't anything like Luka Doncic, they don't have the same playstyle at all. Because of it, sometimes the rotations and the lineups don't sync together leading to bad outings and struggles. As much as I hate to say because I like the guy, with the addition of Naji Marshall, there seems to be not a lot of reason to have PJ around anymore. Naji is a better scorer, while PJ does shoot better and a better defender, defense isn't the mavs problem. They have plenty of guys who excel on the defensive end like Flagg himself. The Mavs as a whole are a new team, and with it they have to evolve by being sellers and buyers at the deadline. They need to move the guys who came in to benefit Luka(Klay, PJ, Gafford) and look to surround this young mavs squad with veteran scoring and leadership. Now all of this is to be taken with the injury to Kyrie, who may very well be the very thing I'm talking about here.

But the Mavs need to start looking to the future, and the first step is let go of the past.