Dallas is not in a good spot, and we talk about it
Right before the Kyrie Irving injury news was announced, I asked our staff for a confidence level in the Mavericks. We got in some answers after, and I think you can tell which ones are which. So here’s where our staff stands:
Isaac: My confidence level is about as high as it’s been since the start of the season. When this team is healthy, they’re one of the best teams in basketball. When they’re injured, they struggle. This team will be fine once Luka returns. Until then, it’s going to be rough. Just ride the highs and lows and remember the Mavericks have been a dominant second half team in every season of Luka’s career, save his rookie year and the 2022-2023 season when they were tanking.
Tyler: I haven’t wavered in my confidence level in this team. I still believe this is a roster capable of winning a championship. Obviously this isn’t a great stretch right now and it’s likely to get worse before it gets better. But there isnt a team in the league that can survive with 6 of its top 8 rotation players being in and out of the lineup. When the starting group of Kyrie, Luka, Klay, PJ & Lively are together, they’re 11-3. That’s where my confidence lies and nothing about this stretch will force me off of that stance.
Michael: Somewhere along the line, I was introduced to the notion that a person’s satisfaction (or disappointment) wasn’t so much about the objective situation in front of them, but rather their personal expectation of that situation. Going into the season, my expectation was that we were going to be in the top tier of the West throughout. With that perspective, I should be Mavs-miserable right now. Fortunately I’ve grown ever so slightly as a person and am just barely able to see this in a new light. The team has experienced a near-preposterous intersection of illness/injury/suspension, and while there is a decent chance the record gets worse before it gets better, this is a very good team. It was around this time last year the team was middling, then made some trades, then went on a massive run. I expect health will provide a similar boost this year. Also, players that would not otherwise be seeing the floor are getting reps which I think will pay future dividends. On that basis, you can put me firmly in the confident category. I think the team will be better for having gone through all of this and I’m very much looking forward to how things are once healthy.
Sudarshan: If they get healthy? I’m confident that they’ll make some noise and entertain all of us.
Will they stay healthy? I’m not confident that they can do so. It’s been one injury after another this season. It’s probably time to fire the training staff. Things haven’t been the same since they let go of Casey Smith.
The flip side of all the injuries though? A high-ish draft pick in a loaded draft that should add to the depth of the team without breaking us from a cap standpoint.
Gracie: Despite the current vibes, I feel great still! While things have been rough, it’s been fun to see Grimes stepping up (17 ppg in last four games). Once this team finally gets rid of the injury bug, I feel pretty confident that they’ll get the ball rolling. When this team is healthy, we have seen that they can still compete with the best in the league. I fully maintain my confidence in this team’s ability to get back to where they finished last year. In the meantime, it’s all about not falling too far.
Ben: Zero confidence. Season’s cursed. The AAC is haunted. Luka’s calf has a poltergeist. When this team is healthy they’re a contender. Luka can drag worse teams than this to the conference finals, after all. But Dr. Naismith is unhappy with the Mavericks for some reason, and they will have to suffer. Only when they have purified themselves in the Trinity River and, I don’t know, start doing yoga on a regular basis, will they become whole again and regain their spot at the top of the West.
Matt: The team has lost 4 in a row but it feels like they haven’t won in a month. After a finals run and a start to this season that felt like Dallas had cemented itself as a no-doubt contender in the West, it’s a rut for sure. That’s the cruelty of expectations. Still, I expect Dallas to get right and get back to looking like the squad who was ploughing through teams for the entirety of November. The illness that has laid multiple players low will surely be forgotten with time, but Luka Doncic’s ongoing struggles with injuries is much more concerning. Especially after an offseason that was largely free of stress with Slovenia missing the Olympics. Still, he’s young and this team is deep. By the All-Star break, I expect Dallas will be back to scaring people and locking up home-court advantage.
Brent: We know in our collective extrapolation as a fanbase what this team is and where in a vacuum we believe they should be – both in the standings and in relevancy amid Western Conference opposition. We saw a critical mass of talent and chemistry outpace external expectations last season leading to an outcome we believed was possible and one that continued to surprise the doubters.
We are reaching a different sort of critical mass here. One that may be blinding those of us who still believe the season can be what we hoped for.
I believe that between illness and injuries, Dallas is now on a collision course with trying to avoid the play in rather jockeying for home court advantage in the first couple of rounds as the two seed. Can this season still result in a deep playoff run? Yes, but instead of a powerhouse in the regular season – the Mavericks will once again be overlooked, underestimated, and at times dismissed as a factor.
Kirk: It’s bleak. They’re too good to collapse in the West even with Luka and Kyrie out, so Dallas has that going for them, but that said, the schedule stinks and Dallas might lose a lot anyway. I hope they can steal some wins at some point and make us feel better. Or they need to find a way to make themselves worse and pack it in. But that’s hard to ask with so many games left.