After the most shocking trade in NBA history, Dallas was blessed with the first pick in the NBA draft. Now, whether you believe their fortune was legitimate or fabricated, the Mavericks have an 18-year-old phenom moving forward. Cooper Flagg has insane upside. Being the youngest player in the league with this much talent already, he seems destined for greatness. Although his first showing in Summer League didn’t live up to expectations, he still showed flashes of how scary he can be. In his 2nd and last game of Summer League, he bounced back in a big way. He recorded 31 points, shooting 10-21 from the field. His 31 points were the most in a Summer League game by a top pick since 2010, when recently retired John Wall scored the same amount.
When free agency started, Dallas came to terms on a contract with 29-year-old point guard D’Angelo Russell. The contract is a two-year, $12 million deal with the second year containing a player option. This contract seems like the ultimate prove-it deal. Russell was drafted in 2015 by the Lakers, was traded to Brooklyn, where he became a one-time all-star, and has since bounced around the league. He has had two stints now with both the Nets and Lakers and has also played for the Warriors and Timberwolves. He will likely decline his player option and test free agency if he performs well this year. Dallas seems like a no-brainer team to try to have a career year, given the lack of guard talent and Kyrie Irving’s absence for most, if not all, of the season due to a torn ACL. I’ve been a fan of Russell’s game for years now, and as of late, I feel like the minority in that, but he’s always been a player I wanted to play for the Dallas Mavericks, and I feel like with the contract he’s on, he should be a safe bet, even with him coming off a down year.
The Mavericks seem to have struck gold with their undrafted rookie signings. Shortly after the NBA draft, Dallas came to terms with sharpshooter Miles Kelly and extraordinary playmaker Ryan Nembhard. Both players were standouts during Summer League. In the first Summer League game, Nembhard scored 21 points on 8-14 from the field with five assists to go along with it. Nembhard appeared to handle pressure well and have impressive basketball IQ. Nembhard played so good in fact that he was shut down for the final two games of Summer League after another impressive performance against the Hornets, where he recorded 11 points on 50% shooting along with 8 assists. Miles Kelly is a remarkable shooter from beyond the arc with unshakeable confidence. Kelly averaged 12.6 points a game in Summer League, which was the second-highest on the roster outside of Cooper Flagg.
On August 29, Dallas waived and stretched Olivier Maxence Prosper’s contract to create room so they could resign Dante Exum, which they later did. Prosper was a former first-round pick who was really raw but showed good potential. Unfortunately, he lost minutes as Dallas gained more forward depth. Prosper showed flashes but wasn’t able to put it together as the front office hoped.
With Kyrie Irving out for at least the first 4-5 months of the season, I’m interested to see the battle for point guard minutes between D’Angelo Russell, Brandon Williams, Ryan Nembhard, and Jaden Hardy. I expect Russell to get the starting spot while Kyrie is out, but it’ll be interesting to see who closes games. I loved what I saw out of Brandon Williams late last season. He looked very confident, and I saw shades of Kyrie in his game. Ryan Nembhard is intriguing to me because he reminds me of a mix of his brother Andrew Nembhard and Jalen Brunson. I’m not saying that he’s going to reach those same heights as Andrew was a top 5, maybe top 3 player on a finals team last year, and is expecting to make a scoring leap this season, and Jalen Brunson, in my opinion, is a top 10 player right now. Jaden Hardy is harder to evaluate. He’s only 23 years old and can shoot the three well, but he has serious defensive and playmaking limitations. I like him in the role of a two guard where he can provide a spark of offense off the bench, but I’m not a fan when he’s handling point guard duties and trying to run the show.
The forward minutes are also going to be interesting. We have are stacked at that position with players like Anthony Davis, Cooper Flagg, PJ Washington, Naji Marshall, and Caleb Martin. I expect Cooper Flagg to start at the three and AD to start at the four. I think there’s a possibility that AD closes games at the five and PJ Washington slides into the starting lineup. I also heard murmurs that PJ, Flagg, and AD could all start together. This would be an insane defensive lineup because we’d likely have Lively at the five too. I like Caleb Martin’s defense, but his three-point shooting has been rocky as of late. In his 14 games with the Mavericks, he shot an abysmal 25% from behind the arc. That is unplayable in most lineups, but I do think he can put it together because in his time with the 76ers last season, he shot 38% and on the Heat, he was a threat from behind the arc in the 2023 playoffs.
Players that Dallas wasn’t able to retain this offseason are Spencer Dinwiddie, Olivier Maxence Prosper, and Kessler Edwards, but for the most part, they’ve retained their roster from last season. Kai Jones remains unsigned, and I LOVED what I saw out of him last year. Outside of blocked shots, he’s not a top defensive center, but he’s extremely efficient. In 12 games, he averaged 11.4 points per game and showed a lot of confidence and outlandish athleticism. Dallas still has a 2-way roster spot open, but sadly, Kai is no longer eligible for a 2-way spot because of the four-year service limit. He’s only 24 years old, and I would love for him to be our third-string center, but I understand keeping Dwight Powell around because of who he is and what he means for this franchise.
Spencer Dinwiddie is one of my favorite Mavericks of all time. I loved him in his first stint with the team, and I loved him in his second. He was the most available Maverick, playing in 79 of the 82 games. He had questionable shot selection and wasn’t always who you’d probably want closing games, but he also hit some big shots for us last season, and at least for me, he will be missed.
Kessler Edwards signed with the Denver Nuggets on an Exhibit 10 contract. It serves as a training camp invite that could become a standard NBA contract if the team likes what they see. Now, this doesn’t guarantee he’ll sign a standard contract with Denver, but Kessler Edwards, similar to Kai Jones, won’t be able to sign a two-way with Dallas anyway. Kessler plays some tenacious defense, and although his shot volume wasn’t high, he still shot the ball at a 40% clip. Over the last two years, Dallas seems to have struck gold with their two-way players, and Kessler’s presence will also be missed.
Besides health and availability, another genuine concern for Dallas this upcoming season is the three-point shooting. Klay Thompson is still one of the best shooters in the league, but he can’t be the only floor spacer. Klay Thompson’s value is higher than just hitting shots, because, although he’s not the same on-ball defender that he once was, he has a lot of sneaky good moments on that end of the floor. His gravity is maybe his most valuable asset to the team. It goes hand and hand with the shooting, but because he’s able to shoot the way he does, competent teams will never leave him open. This draws a lot of the defensive attention to him and leaves other shooters on our roster open, like Max Christie, PJ Washington, and, fingers crossed, Dereck Lively. We need Dereck Lively to at least be willing to shoot the ball if we want to continue running AD minutes at the four. If we continue with the lineups we’ve been running, it’s easy to guard us. I love Daniel Gafford, but he’s not a stretch five either. We just need our guys to improve their shooting if we want to be serious and contend.
Although one has a history of injuries, and another might not even play this season, I can’t really preview this upcoming season without talking about Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving. Some Mavericks fans have a sour taste in their mouth surrounding Davis because anybody you trade Luka Doncic for isn’t going to mean as much to the city as a homegrown star who meant the world. The sour taste didn’t particularly get better after Anthony Davis, a player known for his injury history, got hurt before he could even play a full game. Anthony Davis has only played eleven total games with Dallas and only nine regular-season outings. I LOVED what I saw from him in those games. In the last regular season game he played, he was three blocks away from a QUADRUPLE DOUBLE. That’s insane production in 30 minutes, and the crazy thing is he was still injured in these eleven games, and he was playing under his standard. I’m extremely excited to see how he plays this upcoming season. Now, for Kyrie Irving, the situation is different. Mavericks fans know who Kyrie is, but there’s a lot of uncertainty, too, with him coming off an ACL tear at either already 34 or close to it. There aren’t many comparisons throughout history to look at since sports medicine has evolved so much over the years. On a positive note, it’s been reported that Kyrie’s healing up well and has been in the gym.
I have a lot of feelings going into this season. I want to believe that the Mavericks are going to be contenders, but there are just too many questions surrounding them this season. How is Cooper Flagg going to adjust to the NBA as the youngest player in the league? How is Kyrie going to look once he comes back? Can AD, Lively, and Exum stay healthy? Can DLO and Caleb Martin have a bounce-back year? These are all valid questions to have. A lot of these questions need a good outcome for Dallas to be successful, but I myself am staying optimistic.
