Mavs In NBA Playoffs: They Got What They Came For

Dallas Mavs In NBA Playoffs: Luka Doncic And Company Got What They Came For

DALLAS - Yes, certainly an NBA championship is the aim. Always. For everybody.

“My goal at the start of every season is to win a championship," said young superstar Luka Doncic after the Dallas Mavericks were eliminated from these NBA Playoffs. "There is no other goal so that is going to be mine."

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But the obstacles and challenges for the 2019-20 Dallas Mavericks - and no, not the obstacles and challenges of the fight for social justice, COVID-19 and Orlando Bubble life, but rather basketball challenges - leave the Mavs with a fairly satisfying reality:

They got what they sought in their bubble trip.

"The way that our guys fought through all the ups and downs of the game was something that can make all Mavs fans proud,'' said coach Rick Carlisle after Sunday's 111-97 Game 6 loss to the Clippers in the first round. "It makes our organization proud, and we got a lot of great experience from being down here and being in the playoffs.”

"We got a lot great experience.''

That, at this early embryonic stage of the Luka Doncic Era was the most important realistic goal. "Scar tissue,'' I call it. The environment must be experienced. A young player must be immersed in it. He must survive it.

And then, someday, if he and his team are good enough? They not only overcome the experience - they thrive on it.

In a dramatic franchise turnaround - the Mavs left Lottery Land and qualified for postseason play for the first time since 2016 - Dallas will enter the rapidly-approaching (yes, already) 2020-21 NBA season as a chic pick to accomplish even more than win two first-round games against the powerful Clippers.

Their consistent failures in the clutch in close games will fade; with Doncic and Carlisle at the wheel, that's a guarantee.

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Their injury issues should fade as well, as there is every reason to assume that Kristaps Porzingis' knee will allow that. (And the injury return of Dwight Powell and Jalen Brunson will be nice, too.)

”It’s a tough series for a lot of reasons,” Carlisle said. “We were down some of our guys, which those kinds of things are going to happen.''

But they won't happen forever, not with the "opportunistic'' front office recognizing just how close Luka is to "being Dirk'' - that is, to being the centerpiece of a perennial contender and eventual champion. They won't happen forever also because more than ever, Dallas has a player who figures to be a magnet for talented guys from around the NBA who want to skip a step toward contention.

Luka can do it for them as he's done it for an entire franchise. (Which is one reason a prominent NBA analysis is bringing up a pipe-dreamy Giannis connection ... and one reason we are crafting Buddy Hield trade stories ...)

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Doncic's numbers didn't need much improvement; in Game 6, the 21-year-old posted a taken-for-granted line of 38 points, nine rebounds and nine assists on Sunday. But Luka - who Carlisle says "improves day-by-day, game-by-game'' - also matured, I think, before our eyes ... In just the last two weeks.

“It was a great season,” Doncic said. “I’m proud of our team and how we fought. I think we fought until the end.”

Doncic over the course of his brief-but-brilliant career here is building an MVP resume by learning to funnel all his efforts in the right direction. That includes getting the referees to see him as something other than "confrontational.'' 

What we know him to be, though, is actually "competitive.'' And "confidence.'' He didn't back down from the talents of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, and he didn't back down from the miscreant behaviors of Montrezl Harrell and Marcus Morris.

“He’s one of the toughest players that I’ve ever seen in this league, and that goes back 35 or 36 years,” Carlisle said. “He is a great young player that is getting better each year.

“He was Rookie of the Year last year and this year he’s up for Most Improved (Player). I expect he’ll come back next year even better with something new in his game the same way that (Larry) Bird and Magic (Johnson) and (Michael) Jordan and all those great players did every summer.”

Talk about "taken for granted'' ... We now all talk very openly about Luka Doncic in the same breath that we talk about "Larry and Magic and Michael.''

It took Bird and Jordan a little while to become championships. Johnson did it as a rookie, but it helps to have Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and a loaded lineup around him.

The Mavs will eventually get what they want in terms of a roster that can compete with the best. But a fair summation of the 2019-20 season for Luka Doncic and company's trip to the NBA Playoffs Bubble says it provided them most everything they realistically sought ... for now.