Coming into this season, the Dallas Mavericks were one of the darlings of the NBA, and rightfully so.
They were only a few games away from beating the 2-seed Los Angeles Clippers in the first round of the playoffs last season. Luka Doncic is already one of the best players in the league in just his third season.
So, yeah, it makes total sense for people to pick the Mavericks for potentially deep playoff runs. And it also made sense that Doncic was a trendy MVP pick for people coming into the season.
The only problem is they look absolutely nothing like the team they did last season. In their best player’s words, they’ve been “terrible” at times.
They’re off to an absolutely putrid start. Their 9-14 record has them sitting at 14th in the Western Conference. Luka Doncic has looked spectacular, but clearly it hasn’t been enough to keep the Mavs afloat in the West.
Though they are off to a bad start, they do still have plenty of time to turn it around. Whether they will or not remains to be seen, but there’s certainly room for improvement.
Let’s explore that a bit.